kak lang
Ms. Gulitti Name__________________________
AP Lang/Comp Period__________________________
English Language and Composition
Essay Prompts—1997-2002
Directions: Read each prompt carefully, marking it for key words that indicate the type of analysis required, or the gist of the assertion’s meaning. In the space following each prompt, briefly write what you need to look for when approaching an essay for this question. The first one is completed for you as a model.
1997
Question 1
Read carefully the following passage from Meena Alexander’s autobiography, Fault Lines (1993). Then, in a well-organized essay, analyze how Alexander uses language to explore and represent her fractured identity.
Question 2
The following passage comes from the 1845 autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. Read the passage carefully, noting such elements as syntax, figurative language, and selection of detail. Then write an essay in which you identify the stylistic elements in the third paragraph that distinguish it from the rest of the passage and show how this difference reinforces Douglass’ rhetorical purpose in the passage as a whole.
Question 3
In the following passage, the contemporary social critic Neil Postman contrasts George Orwell’s vision of the future, as expressed in the novel 1984 (written in 1948), with that of Aldous Huxley in the novel Brave New World (1936). Read the passage considering whether Postman’s assertion of Huxley’s vision is more relevant today than is Orwell’s. Then, using your own critical understanding of contemporary society as evidence, write a carefully argued essay that agrees or disagrees with Postman’s assertion.
1998
Question 1
Carefully read the following letter from Charles Lamb to the English romantic poet, William Wordsworth. Then, paying particular attention to the tone of Lamb’s letter, write an essay in which you analyze the techniques Lamb
AP Lang/Comp Period__________________________
English Language and Composition
Essay Prompts—1997-2002
Directions: Read each prompt carefully, marking it for key words that indicate the type of analysis required, or the gist of the assertion’s meaning. In the space following each prompt, briefly write what you need to look for when approaching an essay for this question. The first one is completed for you as a model.
1997
Question 1
Read carefully the following passage from Meena Alexander’s autobiography, Fault Lines (1993). Then, in a well-organized essay, analyze how Alexander uses language to explore and represent her fractured identity.
Question 2
The following passage comes from the 1845 autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. Read the passage carefully, noting such elements as syntax, figurative language, and selection of detail. Then write an essay in which you identify the stylistic elements in the third paragraph that distinguish it from the rest of the passage and show how this difference reinforces Douglass’ rhetorical purpose in the passage as a whole.
Question 3
In the following passage, the contemporary social critic Neil Postman contrasts George Orwell’s vision of the future, as expressed in the novel 1984 (written in 1948), with that of Aldous Huxley in the novel Brave New World (1936). Read the passage considering whether Postman’s assertion of Huxley’s vision is more relevant today than is Orwell’s. Then, using your own critical understanding of contemporary society as evidence, write a carefully argued essay that agrees or disagrees with Postman’s assertion.
1998
Question 1
Carefully read the following letter from Charles Lamb to the English romantic poet, William Wordsworth. Then, paying particular attention to the tone of Lamb’s letter, write an essay in which you analyze the techniques Lamb