A little lesson about AP Lit

With the end of the school year right around the corner, I must admit this year went by pretty fast. I believe my writing skills have increased a whole lot since I first stepped foot into AP Literature class. I must mention a few if the skills I have gathered over the course of the past 9 or so months.  Well, for starters, I stopped limiting my thesis statements down to the basic “simile, metaphor, personification” items that I would usually mention in my thesis. Now, I mention these items in the actual essay of mine, not in the thesis statement, because this way I am not limited to just those three components when writing my essay. Next, I learned that I should not use “one” as in reference to a person when writing my essays. For the most part, that is “too cliché”. Hmm, well it is hard to not refer to someone as “one” when you are not sure of who the audience or the subject is, but hey, in order to pass the class, you gotta do what you gotta do. Moreover, I have also increased my verbal skills drastically; well at least I think I have. I seem to have a variety of words in my essays now and perhaps I am less repetitive. With that being said, I believe that my analytical skills have become much stronger overall. I seem to comprehend poetry a bit better now and I somewhat became better at reading Shakespearean stuff. I nitpick each line one by one and try to really reveal the “so what” with textual support. Oh! Almost forgot! Never say “the author uses similes”, haha. No, “the author does not simply pick them up out of the ‘magic tool box’ and sprinkle them on his or her paper”, said Mrs. Clinch. NONONONO. Is that clear enough? Instead of saying that, simply reveal how and why the author uses his or her simile in the text J Yes, simply. It is not that hard. And, do not ever evaluate the author in your essays! You are writing an essay about how you think the text does what, not about what the author could have done or should not have done. It is pointless. Of course when you begin your first paragraph on your paper, you must identify the author and the work as well. If you can buy it at Barnes and Nobles then it is underlined! If not, put those quotation marks on it :D And of course there is the simple rule of “do not merely summarize the text”! But you must and should use the text to help you out with your analysis of the work as a whole!