How To Write an AP Literature Composition Thesis

How To Write an AP Literature & Composition Thesis Statement for Q 3 January 2016

Step 1: TAG • TAG- You MUST label the work • Do it as the initial part of your thesis statement • Include the title of the piece of lit, the author, literary movement, the genre and a descriptive adjective • In his/her adjective (type of genre: novel, novella, short story) title, written in the (lit. movement) period, author… • In his seminal dystopian novel, 1984, written in the Post. Modern period, George Orwell…

Step 2: Theme/MOWAW • Why did the author write the book? • What is his purpose? • What message is he trying to convey? • Include a tone word (adverb), a power verb, and an explanation of the author’s purpose • End with a period. • …tone word power verb theme/MOWAW • In his seminal dystopian novel, 1984, written in the Post-Modern period, George Orwell… firmly denounces the communist system as a system that stifles individual freedom and intellectual thought.

Sentence #1 Checkpoint • TAG + Theme/MOWAW • Your theme is the most important part of your thesis • It sets you up for the perfect connection to literary analysis • In his seminal dystopian novel, 1984, written in the Post. Modern period, George Orwell firmly denounces the communist system as a system that stifles individual freedom and intellectual thought.

Step 3: Identify Literary Topics • Re- read the prompt! • The lit. topic will indicate what you will • The prompt may discuss in your body include: pps. • literary “topics” • How you must connect • Move through the novel from beginning to theme to end as your organization and how the literary topic ties to theme throughout the novel

Step 3: Identify Literary Devices* (cont. ) • Here is a sample Q 3 AP prompt from 2015: • “In literary works, cruelty often functions as a crucial motivation or a major social or political factor. Select a novel, play, or epic poem in which acts of cruelty are important to theme. Then write a well-developed essay analyzing how cruelty functions in the work as a whole and what the cruelty reveals about the perpetrator and/or victim. ” • What does the prompt tell us? • Cruelty is our one literary topic • We must connect cruelty to our theme/MOWAW • We must write about what the cruelty reveals • Context for 1984: • Cruelty is one of the major tools of the government to keep order • The cruelty reveals that the government is evil • Connection to MOWAW is that Orwell uses the cruelty to convince us that the communist system is wrong.

Step 4: Implement Literary Devices* • Now that you know which devices to use, you must write them into a sentence that connects to the MOWAW • For EACH device: • Identify the device • Write its purpose • Author uses device to power verb purpose (theme statement). • In this section of your thesis, you must adapt the structure to fit the prompt

Step 4: Implement Literary Topics (cont. ) • “In literary works, cruelty often functions as a crucial motivation or a major social or political factor. Select a novel, play, or epic poem in which acts of cruelty are important to theme. Then write a well-developed essay analyzing how cruelty functions in the work as a whole and what the cruelty reveals about the perpetrator and/or victim. ” • Context for 1984: • Cruelty is one of the major tools of the government to keep order • The cruelty reveals that the government is evil • Connection to MOWAW is that Orwell uses the cruelty to convince us that the communist system is wrong. • Orwell uses the motif of cruelty as one of the major tools of the government to keep order, which assigns an evil persona to the government, proving his point that communism is an awful form of government. • Three purposes, connected by commas • A connection to the MOWAW • Answers the prompt

Summary • • Notice that thesis is not only one sentence It is the entire first paragraph It is the most important paragraph of the essay A well thought out and constructed thesis will set you up for success • Our completed thesis paragraph: • In his seminal dystopian novel, 1984, written in the Post. Modern period, George Orwell firmly denounces the communist system as a system that stifles individual freedom and intellectual thought. Orwell uses cruelty as one of the major tools of the government to keep order, which assigns an evil persona to the government, proving his point that communism is an awful form of government.