AP English Quick Study Guide

People only see what they are prepared to see. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Multiple Choice Test Questions

Comprehension Questions:
Main Idea Questions: ask you to determine the subject of an entire passage. A main idea question
may require you to identify the subject or to select the choice that best describes what the passage
is about. Skimming the first and last paragraphs of a passage is a helpful technique for answering
these questions because writers often state their topic at the beginning or end of a selection.

Detail Questions: are ones that you can usually get right because they almost always tell you
where to look in the passage to interpret an aspect of the passage.

Inference Questions: are the most difficult to answer because the answers are not stated directly.
You must piece together facts and make a generalization based on those facts. Most inference
questions include key words such as think, predict, indicate, feel, probably, seem, imply,
suggest, assume, infer, and most likely. When you come across a question that contains these
terms, return to the selection to find the specific sentences that the question refers to and make a
generalization based on the clues. Remember, in answering an inference you are making a guess,
but the best guess is based in facts.

Definition Questions: are basically vocabulary questions about difficult words in the passage or
about ordinary words that are used with special meaning. Read the sentence in which the word(s)
appear(s), and then substitute each of the choices to see which is the closest in meaning. You
may want to read the sentences that surround the one containing the word or phrase to get the full
sense of the idea. Avoid choosing a word or phrase just because it looks or sounds like the word
or phrase to be defined, unless you have checked it in context.

Tone and Purpose Questions: ask you to determine how or why the author wrote the material.
The tone reflects the authors attitude toward the subject and audience. The purpose defines the
effect the author wants to have on the audience. Understanding the tone helps you define the
purpose. Writers convey the purpose through their choice of words and the impression those
words create. Some possibly tones are admiration, adoration, optimism, contempt, pride,
objectivity, disappointment, respect, surprise, anger, regret, irony, indignation, suspicion,
pessimism, and amusement. Often they are synonyms for: cynical, wistful, whimsical, or
didactic.

Form Questions: are based in the method of organization the writer uses. As you read, observe
the patterns of organization used. While some authors will use only one form, others may use a
combination. While analyzing poetry be cognizant of rhythm and rhyme schemes, number of
lines, and stanzas. With prose, look for juxtaposition, cause and effect, order of importance,
logical sequencing of events, and spatial order.

Factual Knowledge Questions:

English Language Questions: may test your knowledge of English grammar, punctuation, or
mechanics. Remember that often these are comprehension questions. Other questions test your
understanding of literary terminology.
Close Reading:
Close Reading plays off of three distinct aspects, juxtaposition, irony/paradox, and allusion to
metaphor/symbol.
Juxtaposition is how things look when placed side by each. What is the purpose of this
comparison? What does the author want you to see in his presentation of the opposing images?
Irony/paradox is important as it takes that which is being juxtaposed and tests your
ability to see how this is contradictory or reveals a new truth about something you thought you
knew so well.
Allusion/Symbol/Metaphor is the final piece of the puzzle. Each supports your new
found idea of what the author is presenting. Allusions are references to actual events in either the
Bible, the annuls of history, written or spoken, literary references, and references to mythology
that may help you unlock the authors intent. Symbols are abstract references to things we all
understand to have greater significance. They can be as simple as setting or as complex as the
colour of the clothes the protagonist wears to his age.

Getting Started: Treat the passage as if it were complete in itself. Read it a few times, at least
once aloud. Concentrate on all its details and assume that everything is significant. Determine
what the passage is about and try to paraphrase it. Make sure that you begin with a general sense
of the passages meaning.
Word meaning: Determine the meanings of words and references. Also, note (and verify)
interesting connotations of words. Look up any words you do not know or which are used in
unfamiliar ways. (Laziness in this step will inevitably result in diminished comprehension.)
Consider the diction of the passage. What is the source of the language, i.e., out of what kind of
discourse does the language seem to come? Did the author coin any words? Are there any slang
words, innuendoes, puns, ambiguities? Do the words have interesting etymologies?
Structure: Examine the structure of the passage. How does it develop its themes and ideas? How
is the passage organized? Are there climaxes and turning points?
Sound and Rhythm: Acquire a feel for the sound, meter, and rhythm; note any aural clues that
may affect the meaning. Even punctuation may be significant. Be alert to devices such as
alliteration, assonance, rhyme, consonance, euphony, cacophony, onomatopoeia. See a dictionary
of poetics or rhetoric for precise definitions of these and other terms. Examine the meter of the
passage in the same way. Is it regular or not? Determine whether the lines breaks compliment or
complicate the meanings of the sentences.
Syntax: Examine the syntax and the arrangement of words in the sentences. Does the syntax call
attention to itself? Are the sentences simple or complex? What is the rhythm of the sentences?
How do subordinate clauses work in the passage? Are there interesting suspensions, inversions,
parallels, oppositions, repetitions? Does the syntax allow for ambiguity or double meanings?
Textual Context: In what specific and general dramatic and/or narrative contexts does the
passage appear? How do these contexts modify the meaning of the passage? What role does the
passage play in the overall movement/moment of the text?
Irony: How does irony operate in the passage, if at all?
Tone and Narrative Voice: What is the speakers (as distinct from the narrators and authors)
attitude towards his or her subject and hearers? How is this reflected in the tone? What does the
passage reveal about the speaker? Who is the narrator? What is the relationship between the
narrator and the speaker? Is there more than one speaker?
Imagery: What sort of imagery is invoked? How do the images relate to those in the rest of the
text? How do the images work in the particular passage and throughout the text? What happens to
the imagery over the course of the passage? Does the passage noticeably lack imagery? If so,
why?
Rhetorical Devices: Note particularly interesting metaphors, similes, images, or symbols
especially ones that recur in the passage or that were important for the entire text. How do they
work with respect to the themes of the passage and the text as a whole? Are there any other
notable rhetorical devices? Are there any classical, biblical or historical allusions? How do they
work?
Themes: Relate all of these details to possible themes that are both explicitly and implicitly
evoked by the passage. Attempt to relate these themes to others appearing outside the immediate
passage. These other themes may be from the larger story from which the passage is excerpted; or
from other tales; or from knowledge about the narrator; or from the work as a whole.
Gender: How does the passage construct gender? What issues of gender identity does it
evoke? How does it represent womens issues? Does it reveal something interesting about
womens writing?
History: How does the passage narrate history? How does it present "facts" versus observations?
Construct a Thesis: Based on all of this information and observation, construct a thesis that ties
the details together. Determine how the passage illuminates the concerns, themes, and issues of
the entire text it is a part of. Ask yourself how the passage provides insight into the text (and the
context of the text). Try to determine how the passage provides us a key to understanding the
work as whole.
Note that this process moves from the smallest bits of information (words, sound, and
punctuation) to larger groupings (images, metaphors) to larger concepts (themes). Also, the
final argument is based on these smaller levels of the passage; this is why it is called a close
reading. Of course your thought processes may not follow such a rigid order (mine usually dont).
Just dont omit any of the steps.

II. Writing it
The paper should begin with a closely argued thesis, which is the result of the last step above.
Include a general orientation to the passage to be analyzed, explaining the text of origin and the
author.
The thesis depends on the analysis already done, and the point is to relate all of the relevant
details to that thesis. This means that some details may be omitted in the paper because they do
not support or concern the thesis being argued. Too much detail about unimportant features will
draw attention from your thesis. However, you must be careful that you do not ignore details that
contradict your thesis; if you find these, this means that you need to reevaluate your thesis and
make it more complex (in other words, you dont necessarily have to abandon it altogether).
Note that the order of the evidence presented should not follow the order of the passage
being discussed. Rather, the order of the evidence depends on how it relates to your central
argument. Dont let the passage walk you through your analysis; instead, re-organize the passage
to suit your discussion of it.
The body of the paper presents relevant textual evidence in a meaningful order. Avoid being
overly mechanical in the organization of your paper. That is, dont write one paragraph on
diction, one on sound, one on metaphor, etc. Instead try to bring these observations together on
the same words or phrases together. Organize the paragraphs around issues of meaning rather
than of technique.
Make sure you dont read so closely that you transform a clear though complex passage into a
bundle of nonsense.
If you relate the passage to text outside it, make sure your emphasis remains on the passage
itself; do not neglect it in favour of external textual evidence.
Symbols & Archetypes
Language can be used literally to explain an event or to describe what actually happened: "What
you see is what you get. The literal meaning of literature is the meaning on the level of the story.
What happens? To whom? When? Where? Figurative language occurs when an idea is pictured or
a comparison is suggested. A study of figurative techniques (such as similes, metaphors,
personification, archetypes, and style points {such as diction, structure, language usage}) to
arrive at underlying meaning which is merely implied or not directly stated is reading at an
interpretive level. To do this, one must understand symbols and archetypes. A symbol is an object
that takes on significance greater than its literal meaning. A flag, for example, is more than just a
flag. It can represent a country, its culture and all of its beliefs. An archetype is an original pattern
or model. Archetypal characters or objects are usually those that are recognized from culture to
culture.
1. A road or river can symbolize lifes journey the road of life.
2. Water Passage across or through a river or other body of water represents
cleansing from the faults or experiences of an old life and/or a rebirth.
3. The gardene.g. of Eden, represents a state of innocence. It may also
represent a situation of growth or renewal particularly with regard to
emotional relationships.
4. Daytime, light the place where intelligence, goodness, understanding, and
justice exist.
5. Night time and darkness the place of the unknown, of evil, mystery, and
ignorance.
6. The Seasons spring, summer, fall, winter symbolically represent stages
of life or of a relationship. Summer is the full bloom of the existence of a
person or of love; winter represents the death of a person or relationship.
7. Times of the Day morning, noon, evening (dusk), and night also
represent the stages in a persons life: birth, childhood, adulthood, old age (or
death).
8. Fire the place of cleansing or of purification. In some fairy tales, characters
must stand a trial such as placing their hands in fire, in order to be worthy to
perform a great deed. Curiously, during the war in Vietnam, Buddhist monks
set themselves on fire to protest the war, which was tearing their country
apart. What did this symbolic action mean?
9. The Mountain usually represents a great challenge in life. The fairy tale of
the Glass Mountain documents the trial, which a king set young men who
wished to marry his daughter. To win her hand, a young man had to
successfully climb a glass mountain to retrieve a ring from its peak.
10. The Sun, Moon and Stars often represent the orderly cycle of life as in
"many moons ago" or "the sun rose; the sun set [and still there was no sign].
The stars by themselves usually represent ones fortune or fate, a reference to
the ancient art of astrological forecasting. Romeo (in Shakespeares Romeo
and Juliet) said, I defy you stars," suggesting that he knew the stars
forecast worked against his love of Juliet.
11. Phases of the Moon-- new, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous,
full, waning gibbous, second quarter, waning crescent, and new. A Blue
Moon is the second full moon in a month.
Literary Terms/Poetic Devices:
Allegory: Allegory is the representation of one thing by another in a work of prose or
poetry. It differs from symbolism in that the representation usually extends throughout the
whole piece. The elements represent specific people, situations or events outside of themselves.
Alliteration: The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of a word. Consonance is
similar but must include the end of the word as well.
Allusion: In a work of literature, a brief reference, explicit or implicit to a person, place or event
or to another literary work or passage, biblical, historical, or mythological passage. It is used to
enlarge or enhance the subject.
Anaphora: Repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive
clauses, sentences, or lines.
This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
Apostrophe: Speaking to someone not present using thee, thy, or thou
Oh, Romeo, Where art thou dear Romeo
Asyndeton: A style that omits conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses (opposite of
polysyndeton).
Why, they've got ten volumes on suicide alone. Suicide by race, by color, by occupation, by sex,
by seasons of the year, by time of day.
Antagonist: The character who pushes the protagonist to resolve the conflict.
Assonance: The repetition of middle vowel sounds.
Ex: fight, hive or pane, make
Atmosphere: The mood, tone, or "feeling" created by a particular place, scene, or incident,
usually a function of setting.
Caesura: An intentional pause used for effect or to complete a metrical pattern in a line of verse:
- -.
Caricature: An exaggerated flat character in which one or two traits, features, or mannerisms
of speech are made to represent the whole person: often intended for satire or humour.
Carpe Diem: (Latin: "Seize the day") Name for a common literary motif in which the subject is
urged to make the most of present time and pleasures.
Characterization: The methods by which an author creates and reveals his characters; perhaps
the most important talent for a novelist.
Chronological technique: The technique of relating events in the order in which they happen in
time.
Conceit: A series of elaborate metaphors to develop a concept.
Connotation: The ideas, attitudes, or emotions associated with a word in the mind of speaker or
listener or the writer or reader. It is contrasted with denotation, the thing a word stands for,
the dictionary definition, an objective concept without emotional colouring.
Couplet: A couplet is composed of two successive rhyming lines.
Crisis: The episode or incident wherein the situation in which the protagonist finds himself is
sure either to improve, or to grow worse.
Denotation: This is the literal meaning of a word.
Denouement: The series of events which concludes a narrative, ties together all the loose ends,
solves all the mysteries, and settles the fate of all the characters; literally, the "unknotting".
Deus ex machine: The use of an improbable incident to bring a novel to a satisfactory
conclusion. Literally, god from a machine" derived from the Greek dramatists' habit of having a
god descend to the stage to make things turn out right.
Diction: The choice of words by a poet or novelist which helps determine the flavour or tone
of his/her style.
Ellipsis: Omission of a word or short phrase easily understood in context. "The average person
thinks he isn't." Father Larry LorenzoniThe term "average" is omitted but understood after
"isn't."
Enjambment: The running on of the thought from one line, couplet, or stanza to the next without
a syntactical break.
Epilogue: A conclusion separated in time from the main events in a novel; the final section of a
frame or flashback novel.
Epistrophe: ending a series of lines, phrases, clauses, or sentences with the same word or words:
the opposite of anaphora.
Hourly joys be still upon you! Juno sings her blessings on you. [. . .] Scarcity and want shall shun
you; Ceres' blessing so is on you.
Fable: A short allegorical story in verse or prose, frequently of animals, told to illustrate a moral.
Figurative language: The imaginative use of words to imply more than their literal meaning.
1. simile - a comparison using like or as.
2. metaphor - a comparison not using like or as.
3. personification - the suggestion that an object is comparable to a person
Flashback technique: The technique of beginning a novel in the "present" and then "flashing
back" to an earlier period of time in the lives of the characters.
Flat character: An oversimplified character that does not change, grow or develop as the novel
progresses; the two kinds of flat characters are "types" and "caricatures".
Foreshadowing: The use of incidents to suggest what may happen later in a novel; one of the
many ways to create suspense.
Frame Narrative: A narrative in which the main incidents, occurring in the past, are enclosed in
a framework of the present. The narrative begins with a prologue, flashes back to the past, and
then returns to the present in an epilogue.
Free verse: Poetry free of traditional metrical and stanzaic patterns; verse that lacks regular
metre, rhyme, and line length.
Hyperbole: A bold overstatement or extreme exaggeration.
Imagery: Pictures or representations of things accessible to the five senses; the sensory content
of a literary work.
In media res: The technique of starting a narrative "in the middle of things" with earlier events
being told later.
Irony: The perception of a clash between appearance and reality.
Verbal Irony: Saying one thing but meaning the exact opposite
Situational Irony: In a wider sense, when the actual state of affairs is tragically or
comically different from the appropriate state of affairs, or when the actual outcome of an
action differs from the intended one.
Dramatic Irony: is when the audience knows what the characters in the action do not.
Limited point of narration: The technique of telling a story from the point of view of a single
character.
Malapropism: A humorous confusion of words that sound vaguely similar, as in We have just
ended our physical year instead of We have just ended our fiscal year. Mrs. Malaprop, a
character in an eighteenth-century British comedy, The Rivals, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan,
constantly confuses words. Malapropisms are named after her.
Metonymy: The replacing of the name of one concrete object with the name of another while
changing the meaning.
Metre: A measured pulse of poetry. (Iambic, trochaic, anapestic, dactylic, spondaic)
Motif: A frequently recurring element or detail in a novel; (i.e. "echoing footsteps" in A Tale
of Two Cities).
Narrator: The person who tells the story.
First person - The narrator is a character in the story and uses the personal pronoun, I
Third person - The narrator tells the story about other people. They rather than We.
Third person omniscient - The narrator tells the story about other people but has access to the
innermost thoughts of one or more of the characters.
Shifting Point of View- A point of view that shifts back and forth among various characters and
between first and third person narrators.
The Point of Narration is the position, angle and distance from which the author and
consequently the reader views the characters and events in a novel.)
Onomatopoeia: The use of words formed or sounding like what they signify.
Ex: buzz, crack, smack, whinny
Parallelism: Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses. Perch
are inexpensive; cod are cheap; trout are abundant; but salmon are best.
Personification: Giving human qualities to abstract objects or animals
Plot: A series of incidents structured in a particular way to create an intended effect.
Plot curve: Elements of plot including:
inciting action
crises
climax
catharsis
denouement
Polysyndeton: A sentence style that employs many conjunctions (opposite of asyndeton).
"Let the whitefolks have their money and power and segregation and sarcasm and big houses and
schools and lawns like carpets, and books, and mostly--mostly--let them have their whiteness."
(Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings)
Prologue: The introductory section of a "frame" or "flashback" novel.
Protagonist: The main character who resolves the conflict in the novel.
Quatrain: A stanza of four lines rhymed or unrhymed.
Rhyme: The effect created by matching sounds at the end of words.
Rhyme scheme: The pattern created by the rhyming words of a stanza or poem.
Setting: The place or places where the events of the novel occur; setting can provide
physical background, environment or atmosphere. The primary components of setting are time
and place, occupation and circumstance.
Stanza: Any grouping of lines in a separate unit in a poem.
Structure: The overall construction of a novel, story or poem; the arrangement of all the
elements which go into the making of a literary work.
Style: The way in which an author selects and arranges words, constructs sentences, and
uses figures of speech so as to give his writing a certain flavour or personality.
Subjectivity: Either an emphasis on the novelist's own thoughts and feelings or an emphasis on
the thoughts and feelings rather than the actions of a character in a novel.
Suspense: Curiosity as to the outcome of a plot, the fate of a character, or the results of an
action; the reader's desire to know what happens next.
Symbol: Images which take on a meaning beyond their literal or metaphorical significance.
Synecdoche: The name of a part used to represent the whole object.
Technique: The sum of all the devices and methods by which an author tells a story.
Tempo: The speed at which the story moves.
Theme The unifying or central idea in a serious novel.
Tone: An author's attitude toward subject and audience.
Unity: The quality of an artistic work that allows it to stand as a complete and
independent whole, with each part related to each other part, and no part irrelevant or superfluous.
Verisimilitude: Literally, "likeness to truth". The techniques of making the reader believe that
the events of the novel could actually have happened, or that the characters could actually have
existed.
Zeugma: The use of a word to modify or govern two or more words when it is appropriate to
only one of them or is appropriate to each but in a different way, as in to wage war and peace or
On his fishing trip, he caught three trout and a cold.

Words that are often confused.

Euphemism: the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be
offensive, harsh, or blunt: the expression so substituted: To pass away is a euphemism for to
die.
Jargon: the language, esp. the vocabulary, peculiar to a particular trade, profession, or group:
medical jargon.
-unintelligible or meaningless talk or writing; gibberish.
-any talk or writing that one does not understand.
-language that is characterized by uncommon or pretentious vocabulary and convoluted syntax
and is often vague in meaning.
Vernacular: (of language) native or indigenous (opposed to LITERARY or LEARNED).
expressed or written in the native language of a place, as literary works: a vernacular poem.
Slang: very informal usage in vocabulary and idiom that is characteristically more metaphorical,
playful, elliptical, vivid, and ephemeral than ordinary language, as Hit the road.
- (in English and some other languages) speech and writing characterized by the use of vulgar and
socially taboo vocabulary and idiomatic expressions.