Thus far, AP Literature has covered two main topics- the underpinnings of a good essay and the meaning behind standard literary techniques. The class also dabbled in a bit of closed reading although the purpose was more to understand technique than to devise strategies to tackle the closed reading segment of the AP exam.
Of these two broad topics, writing essays, has interested me more. As an inexperienced writer, I used to wonder what defined an essay as "good" by some standards and "poor" by others.To be honest, throughout my entire high school career I believe I've only had a vague sense of what comprises a good essay. Only through this course have I been able to define these underlying traits and introduce them into my own work. An introduction that is succinct yet intriguing, a thesis statement that guides the structure of body paragraphs and fully answers the prompt, and a conclusion that caps off the main points and leaves the reader satisfied have all proven to be traits which are vital to a "9" essay. I also enjoyed our analysis of prompts and how we were able to break up a complex prompt into specific goals; setting forth the main purpose of an essay. Furthermore, I found it interesting to note that addressing the ambiguity and subtle nuances of a work suggests to AP readers that the writer understands a work of literature on many different levels. In previous classes, I might have shied away from addressing such ambiguities making this point especially important for me.
Delving into the techniques of literature has proved useful for me as well. The helpful acronym, "DIDLS" is a convient mnemoic device to remember the techniques diction, imagery, details, language and syntax. I appreciated our further exploration of these techniques and the in-depth explanations for each, although we have avoided syntax as of yet. I was intrigued by the fact that technique creates effect and effect creates meaning to the work. This simple thought re-defined the way I think about literature. By breaking a work down in an analytic fashion into component parts, literature can be considered on many different levels; shaping the author's meaning with each level.
Through these two major points, AP Literature has proved to be a mentally-stimulating yet challenging course. I hope that the rest of the year proves to be just as useful and that with each day, I deepen my understanding of literature as a whole.
This is written as an essay yet the sentence that should be the thesis doesn't really fit the role of a thesis. Seeing as this is one of the informal blog posts that doesn't really matter though. I completely agree with DIDLS, I find it so much more useful going analyzing literature knowing what I should be looking for, rather than just cherrypicking interesting tidbits that jump out at me, like I have done in previous classes.
ReplyDeleteOk I had no idea we had groups.....ignore this....
ReplyDeleteJessi your ideas about what make good and bad ideas are something I've shared a vague idea of as well. From the days of APUSH and Ap World it was just but facts in the form of writing that filled up a lot of pages. Obviously this is different and for me a change of technique is required. The importance of subtle nuances is also something I would never have considered to be of vital importance but now that I come to think of it, that is what really distinguishes a person just writing from the surface of a piece and someone who has the knowledge and skill to delve into a piece. I also agree with your statement that lit is a stimulating course. It is overall a good class to understand literature as a whole much better.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the vagueness of essay writing. I mean, how could we write a great essay one week and then a bad one the next? I never really understood but this class is definitely starting to clear that up for me, especially with the idea that techniques create effects which create meaning. Breaking up the prompts has helped enormously, also. It makes them seem a lot more manageable when you can identify individual goals. I'm glad you're enjoying the class! I am, too, I love learning to better understand and enjoy literature, as well as realizing that we all have a good shot of writing a good AP essay!
ReplyDeleteJessi, I agree with your thoughts on needing to address ambiguity in a piece. It's something we as writers might really want to stay away from, just because it's so confusing and weird. I think a focus on the idea of ambiguities will be a big part of class time - especially when we read larger works - as the year progresses. I think re-reading things will help with discovering the ambiguity in a piece; as you start to get really familiar with something you also begin to find the weirder things that just don't make sense, or must have some deeper meaning. Just like you, I too was surprised at how much DIDLS was able to redefine my view of literature. I always saw it as a huge blob of confusion, but this is acronym really is a great method for keeping yourself organized and on top of the techniques within a certain work.
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