Must-know sheet

English Literature must-know sheet

The literary terms, poetic forms, essay checklists, rubric rows and thesis templates you should have ready for AP English Literature and Composition. The real exam gives you no reference sheet; quoted lines of literature here come from works published before 1929, and every other example was written for this sheet.

The exam at a glance

Units 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Fully digital, 3 hours: You take the whole exam in the Bluebook app and type your essays there. You can highlight and add notes to the passages, and questions often point you to specific lines or paragraphs, so mark the passages up as you read.
Section I: 55 multiple-choice questions, 60 minutes, 45% of your score: Each question has four answer choices (A–D), and there's no penalty for guessing, so never leave one blank. That's a little over a minute a question, reading time included.
5 passages, 8–13 questions each: At least two sets are on prose fiction (which can include drama) and at least two on poetry. Budget about 12 minutes a set, and don't let one hard poem eat into the next set's time.
Multiple choice by genre: Short fiction (Units 1, 4, 7) is 42–49% of the questions, poetry (Units 2, 5, 8) is 36–45%, and longer fiction or drama (Units 3, 6, 9) is 15–18%. More passages come from the 20th century and later than from earlier periods, so expect modern writing, not only older classics.
Multiple choice by skill: Narrator or speaker questions are the biggest group (21–26%), then character (16–20%) and plot and structure (16–20%). Word choice, imagery and symbols, comparisons, and interpretation are 10–13% each, and setting is only 3–6%.
Section II: 3 essays, 2 hours, 55% of your score: Question 1 is poetry analysis, Question 2 is prose fiction analysis and Question 3 is the literary argument. Each is scored out of 6, and about 40 minutes each is the suggested pace; you manage the clock yourself.
You won't have to label forms or meters: The exam won't ask you to name a rhyme scheme, a meter, a poetic form or an archetype. Knowing them helps you notice patterns, but what earns points is explaining what a pattern, or a break in it, does.
Answer from the text: Every right answer can be pointed to in the passage. If a choice sounds wise but you can't find the words that support it, or it's true of only part of the passage, it's probably wrong.
Read any introduction or source note: When a passage comes with a short introduction or source note, it can tell you the author, the date and sometimes the situation. On the essays, the prompt's first sentences name the complex idea or relationship you're supposed to analyze.
Read every question stem closely: Note exactly what's asked: which lines, whose perspective, and whether you want the best-supported reading or the one choice that does NOT fit. For a NOT question, check each choice against the passage and cross out the ones that do apply.

Character

Units 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9

Characterization: How a writer builds a character. Ask what each detail shows about who the character is and why the writer wants you to see them that way.
Direct characterization: The narrator or another character tells you plainly what someone is like: "She was proud and impatient." Check whether the person telling you can be trusted.
Indirect characterization: You infer what someone is like from what they say, do, think and look like, and from how others react to them. Most exam questions about character are really about indirect characterization.
Perspective: How a character (or narrator) sees the world, shaped by background, experiences, relationships and values. Two characters can see the same event very differently.
Motivation: What a character wants and why they act. Strong essays explain motives, especially when a character wants two things that pull against each other.
Values: What a character truly cares about, shown most clearly by choices made under pressure. Watch for gaps between the values a character claims and the ones their actions reveal.
Protagonist and antagonist: The protagonist is the main character. The antagonist is whatever opposes them: another person, a group, society, nature, or something inside the protagonist.
Foil: A character whose contrasts with another make that other character's traits stand out. Laertes, who rushes to avenge his father, is a foil to the hesitating Hamlet.
Dynamic and static characters: A dynamic character changes in an important way; a static character stays basically the same. Either can matter: refusing to change can be as meaningful as changing.
Round and flat characters: A round character is complex, with mixed traits and inner conflict. A flat character has one or two traits and often exists to serve the plot or bring out something in a major character.
Complex character: A character with contradictions: thoughts that don't match actions, or desires that conflict. The exam loves prompts about a character's "complex" attitude, so look for the "both" in them.
Minor character: A character the story spends little time on. They rarely change; their job is usually to move the plot or reveal something about the main characters.
Epiphany: A sudden moment of realization that changes how a character understands themselves or their situation. James Joyce built stories in Dubliners, such as "Araby", around them.
Character and group: A town, family or social class can act almost like a character. Whether a group welcomes or shuts out a character shows how the group sees them, and often how they see the group.
Symbolic character: A character who comes to stand for an idea, such as innocence, greed or tradition, through how the text uses them. You don't need to name archetypes; explain what the character represents in this work.
Surprising choices: When a character acts out of keeping with how they've acted before, treat it as a clue. It usually asks you to rethink the character, the people around them, or what the work values.

Setting

Units 1, 3, 4, 7

Setting: When and where a story happens. The exam asks why the writer chose the particular details of place and time they did, not just what the setting is.
Social, cultural and historical setting: The world around the characters: social class, customs, beliefs, laws and the moment in history. It puts pressure on characters and limits or shapes their choices.
Mood (atmosphere): The feeling a passage creates in the reader, such as dread, calm or confinement. Mood belongs to the reader's experience; tone is the narrator's or speaker's attitude.
Setting that mirrors or contrasts a character: Weather, light and surroundings can echo a character's feelings (a storm during inner turmoil) or clash with them (a bright party around a grieving person). Both are worth explaining.
Contrasting settings: Two places set against each other, such as city and country or home and away, often stand for competing values. Ask what each place represents and which one the character is drawn to.
Shift in setting: When the setting changes, look for a matching change in plot, character or mood. A move to a new place often marks a turning point.
Symbolic setting: A place that comes to stand for an idea or feeling through how the text uses it, like a locked room for a trapped life. A character's attitude toward a place shows their values.

Plot, structure and time

Units 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9

Plot: The arrangement of a story's events, usually linked by cause and effect. Ask what each event sets in motion, not just what happens.
Exposition: Background the writer gives you about characters, setting and situation. How much is given, and when, shapes what you know and expect.
Rising action, climax, falling action, resolution: Tension builds through complications to the climax, the point of highest tension or the decisive turn. Falling action and resolution show the results; not every story resolves neatly.
Conflict: A clash of opposing forces. Internal conflict happens inside a character; external conflict sets a character against another person, a group, society or nature. In longer works, conflicts often overlap.
Conflict of values: Under most plots is a clash between two sets of values, such as duty and desire or tradition and change. Naming that clash is often the key to a thesis.
Turning point: An event that changes a character's direction or the story's course. Significant events are the ones that change things; explain what each one changes.
Subplot: A secondary storyline. It often mirrors or contrasts the main plot, so ask what the comparison reveals.
Flashback: A jump back in time to earlier events. It can explain a character's present behavior or change how you judge them.
Foreshadowing: Hints about what will happen later. It builds anticipation and suspense, and can make an ending feel inevitable.
In medias res: Latin for "in the middle of things": the story opens in the middle of the action and fills in the background later.
Frame story: A story told inside another story, like a narrator recounting a tale someone told them. The outer frame shapes how you take the inner story.
Pacing: How fast the story moves. A scene slows time down with detail and dialogue; a summary speeds through days or years. Long, detailed passages usually mark what matters most.
Order of revelation: When the reader learns something, compared with when it happened. Withholding information creates suspense, surprise or irony.
Suspense and anticipation: Tension about what will happen next. Writers build it through foreshadowing, delays, rising pressure and what they choose not to tell you yet.
Catharsis: The emotional release a reader feels when the central tension or conflict finally resolves, especially at the end of a tragedy.
Unresolved ending: An ending that leaves conflicts open or questions unanswered. Treat it as a choice: ask what the uncertainty says about the work's ideas.
Unseen pressures: Forces the story never shows directly, like a character who never appears or events from before the story began, can still drive the plot.

Narrators, speakers and point of view

Units 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9

Narrator: The voice telling a story. The narrator is not the author, even when it says "I"; write "the narrator" unless you're talking about the author's choices.
Speaker: The voice of a poem. Keep the speaker separate from the poet: write "the speaker", and say "Dickinson uses..." only for the poet's choices.
Persona: A character or mask a poet speaks through, sometimes very different from the poet, like a murderer or a historical figure.
First-person point of view: The narrator says "I" and takes part in the story. You get their thoughts directly, but only what they know and how they see it.
Third-person limited: An outside narrator says "he" or "she" and follows one character's thoughts closely. What that character misses, you miss too.
Third-person omniscient: An outside narrator who knows many characters' thoughts and can comment on events. It can show what several people think at the same moment.
Objective narration: A narrator who reports only what could be seen and heard, with no access to thoughts. You must infer feelings from actions and dialogue.
Second-person point of view: The narration says "you", putting the reader in a character's place. It's rare, but it pulls the reader uncomfortably close.
Point of view vs. perspective: Point of view is the position the story is told from (first person, third person). Perspective is the way of seeing: the attitudes and values behind what the narrator notices.
Unreliable narrator: A narrator whose account you can't fully trust, because of bias, limited knowledge, self-deception or mental state. In Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", the narrator insists on his sanity: "why will you say that I am mad?"
Bias: A narrator's slant, shown in which details they include, leave out or color. Spotting bias changes how you judge the narrator and the other characters.
Narrative distance: How close the narrator is to the events and characters, in time, place or feeling. A narrator looking back years later (a retrospective narrator) knows things their younger self didn't.
Stream of consciousness: Narration that follows a character's thoughts as they flow, jumping between memories, impressions and feelings, often with loose grammar. Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway is a famous example.
Free indirect discourse: Third-person narration that slips into a character's own voice and thoughts without quotation marks. It can let a narrator seem to share a character's view while quietly showing its flaws.
Multiple narrators: Several characters tell the story, each knowing different things. Compare their accounts and ask what the gaps and contradictions reveal.
Intrusive narrator: A narrator who steps out of the story to comment on events or address the reader directly. Their judgments shape yours, so test them against the evidence.
Omission: What a narrator or speaker leaves out can matter as much as what they say. A narrator who avoids a subject may be hiding it, even from themselves.

Tone: words for attitude

Units 1, 2, 4, 6

Tone: A narrator's or speaker's attitude toward a subject, found in word choice, details and sentence structure. Name it precisely and point to the words that create it.
Tone vs. mood: Tone is the speaker's attitude; mood is the feeling the reader gets. A narrator can describe a frightening scene in a calm, flat tone.
Warm or approving: admiring, affectionate, celebratory, reverent, tender, nostalgic, hopeful, playful, whimsical, grateful.
Critical or hostile: bitter, contemptuous, disdainful, scornful, mocking, sardonic, cynical, indignant, resentful, accusatory.
Sad or serious: somber, melancholy, mournful, elegiac, wistful, resigned, despairing, grave, regretful, weary.
Cool or distant: detached, objective, clinical, matter-of-fact, restrained, understated, ironic, formal, impersonal.
Uneasy or uncertain: anxious, apprehensive, ominous, foreboding, uneasy, hesitant, conflicted, ambivalent, bewildered.
Name a complex tone: Pair two attitudes that pull against each other: affectionate yet critical, nostalgic but clear-eyed, admiring but wary. That's exactly what "complex attitude" prompts want.
Words that signal a shift: but, yet, still, however, though, now, then, until, once, suddenly, a stanza break, a dash or a new paragraph. When you see one, check whether the tone or attitude changes.

Lines, stanzas and poetic form

Units 2, 5, 8

Line and stanza: A line is a single row of a poem; a stanza is a group of lines set off by space. Stanza breaks can group ideas together or separate them.
Couplet, tercet, quatrain, sestet, octave: Groups of 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 lines. Useful labels for pointing to parts of a poem, such as "the final couplet".
Enjambment: A sentence or phrase runs past the end of a line without a pause. It can create momentum, surprise or a double meaning when the line's last word reads one way alone and another way with the next line.
End-stopped line: A line that ends at a natural pause, usually with punctuation. Runs of end-stopped lines feel measured or final.
Caesura: A strong pause inside a line, often marked by punctuation. In Pope's "To err is human, to forgive, divine." the pauses split the line into balanced halves.
Shift: A turn in tone, time, attitude, speaker or subject. Shifts are often marked by words like "but" or "yet", a stanza break or punctuation, and what changes across a shift often points to the poem's meaning.
Volta: The turn in a sonnet. In Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, line 9, "But thy eternal summer shall not fade," turns from summer's flaws to the beloved's lasting beauty.
Closed form: A poem with set patterns of line length, rhyme or meter, like a sonnet. Ask why the poet chose a strict form for this subject, and watch for places where the pattern breaks.
Open form (free verse): A poem without regular rhyme or meter. Line breaks, spacing and repetition do the structural work instead, so look closely at where lines end.
Broken pattern: When a poem sets up a pattern of rhyme, rhythm, line length or stanza shape and then breaks it, the break pulls attention to that spot. Explain why it happens there.
Rhyme: End rhyme falls at the ends of lines; internal rhyme falls within a line; slant (near) rhyme almost matches, like "soul" and "all". Rhyme links words and ideas together.
Rhyme scheme: The pattern of end rhymes, shown with letters: abab means lines 1 and 3 rhyme, and 2 and 4 rhyme. You won't be asked to name it, but noticing it helps you see structure.
Meter and feet: Meter is a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. The common feet are the iamb (da-DUM, "today"), trochee (DUM-da, "garden"), anapest (da-da-DUM, "understand"), dactyl (DUM-da-da, "happily") and spondee (DUM-DUM, "heartbreak").
Iambic pentameter: Five iambs per line, about ten syllables: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" It is the most common meter in English poetry and close to the rhythm of speech.
Blank verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter, the main verse of Shakespeare's plays and of Milton's Paradise Lost. It sounds formal but flexible.
Shakespearean (English) sonnet: 14 lines of iambic pentameter: three quatrains and a closing couplet, rhymed abab cdcd efef gg. The turn often comes at line 9 or in the final couplet.
Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet: 14 lines: an octave rhymed abbaabba that sets up a problem or idea, then a sestet (often cdecde or cdcdcd) that answers or turns from it, with the volta at line 9.
Villanelle: 19 lines: five tercets and a closing quatrain, built on two rhymes and two refrain lines that repeat in a set pattern. The repetition can feel obsessive, like a mind circling one thought.
Ballad, ode, elegy, dramatic monologue: A ballad tells a story in short, songlike stanzas. An ode praises or reflects on a subject in an elevated style. An elegy mourns a death or loss. A dramatic monologue is one character speaking to a silent listener and revealing more than they mean to, as in Browning's "My Last Duchess".
Refrain: A line or phrase repeated at intervals, often at the ends of stanzas. Ask whether its meaning changes as the poem goes on.

Word choice, sound and imagery

Units 2, 4, 5, 6, 8

Diction: Word choice. Notice whether words are formal or casual, concrete or abstract, plain or elaborate, and what that says about the speaker and subject.
Denotation and connotation: Denotation is a word's dictionary meaning; connotation is the feeling it carries. "Home" and "residence" denote the same thing, but only one feels warm.
Multiple meanings: A word can work literally and figuratively at once, or carry two meanings, as in a pun. Explain the extra layer the second meaning adds.
Syntax: How words and clauses are arranged into sentences. Sentence length, word order, interruptions and where a key word lands all control emphasis.
Ambiguous reference: A pronoun such as "it" or "they" that could refer to more than one thing. In poems, that can be deliberate, letting a line be read two ways.
Image and imagery: An image is language that appeals to the senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell or movement. Imagery is a group or pattern of images; trace how it builds an idea across a text.
Motif: An image, object, word or idea that keeps returning, like references to clocks or caged birds. Each return adds weight, so track how it changes.
Repetition and anaphora: Repeating words creates emphasis or rhythm. Anaphora repeats words at the start of lines or clauses: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" (Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities).
Alliteration: Repeated beginning consonant sounds in nearby words, such as "silent, salt-stained stones" (written for this sheet). It links the words and can make a line hiss, thud or sing.
Assonance and consonance: Assonance repeats vowel sounds ("low moan of the ocean"); consonance repeats consonant sounds anywhere in words ("the rattle and patter of the shutters"). Both examples were written for this sheet.
Onomatopoeia: A word that imitates a sound, like buzz, hiss or crack.
Euphony and cacophony: Euphony is smooth, pleasant sound (soft consonants, long vowels); cacophony is harsh, clashing sound (hard k, t and g sounds). Explain how the sound fits the sense.
Hyperbole: Deliberate exaggeration, such as "I've told you a million times." It can create humor, show strong feeling or reveal a speaker's lack of perspective.
Understatement and litotes: Understatement presents something as smaller than it is; litotes does it by denying the opposite ("not bad" for "very good"). Both can create irony, humor or restrained emotion.
Descriptive words: Adjectives and adverbs steer how you see a subject. Ask why the writer chose "shabby" rather than "old", or "crept" rather than "walked".

Comparisons and allusion

Units 2, 5, 7, 8

Figurative language: Language that means more than its literal words, mostly through comparison. Always ask which qualities carry over from one thing to the other, and why those.
Simile: A comparison using "like" or "as": "Her silence was like a locked door" (written for this sheet). Unpack it: the door suggests she is shutting someone out on purpose.
Metaphor: A comparison that says one thing is another, without "like" or "as": "All the world's a stage" (Shakespeare, As You Like It). Qualities of the stage (roles, performance, exits) pass to life.
Main subject and comparison subject (tenor and vehicle): The main subject (tenor) is the thing being described; the comparison subject (vehicle) is what it's compared to. In "All the world's a stage", the world is the main subject and the stage the comparison subject.
Implied metaphor: A comparison made without saying "is", through verbs or details: "Her words stung" (written for this sheet) turns words into insects without naming them.
Extended metaphor: One comparison developed over several lines or a whole poem. Dickinson's poem beginning "Hope is the thing with feathers" turns hope into a small bird that sings through storms.
Conceit: An extended metaphor that links two very unlike things in a surprising, clever way. A metaphysical conceit is the 17th-century kind, like John Donne comparing two parted lovers to the two legs of a drawing compass.
Personification: Giving human qualities to something that isn't human, such as an idea, animal or object. Ask which human quality and what it suggests about the thing.
Apostrophe: Speaking directly to someone absent or dead, or to a thing or idea. Donne's sonnet opens "Death be not proud", addressing death as a person who can be told off.
Allusion: A brief reference to a well-known text, person, place or event: the Bible, myths, Shakespeare, history. It borrows that source's associations, so explain what the reference brings with it.
Biblical and mythological allusion: Common sources: the Garden of Eden (innocence and its loss), Cain and Abel (envy, betrayal), Icarus (overreaching), Narcissus (vanity), Prometheus (defiance and punishment), Odysseus (long journeys home).
Analogy: An extended comparison used to explain or argue, showing how a relationship in one thing matches a relationship in another. In your essays, a well-chosen analogy can help with sophistication.
Metonymy and synecdoche: Metonymy names something by a thing closely linked to it ("the crown" for the king). Synecdoche uses a part for the whole ("all hands on deck" for sailors).
Layered comparisons: When a poem stacks several comparisons for the same subject, ask how they relate: do they build on each other, contradict each other, or move toward one final image?

Symbols, contrast, irony and ambiguity

Units 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Symbol: An object, place, character or action that stands for an idea beyond itself. Prove a symbol with the text: where it appears, how characters treat it, and how it changes.
Conventional vs. contextual symbol: A conventional symbol carries a meaning most readers already know, like a dove for peace. A contextual symbol gets its meaning only from how one text uses it, like the green light in The Great Gatsby.
Allegory: A story in which characters and events stand for ideas throughout, often moral or political, as in Orwell's Animal Farm.
Juxtaposition: Placing two things side by side to invite comparison: two characters, two settings, a word and a deed. The contrast usually reveals something neither shows alone.
Antithesis: Opposed ideas set in balanced, parallel phrasing: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
Paradox: A statement that seems to contradict itself but holds a truth. Donne's "death, thou shalt die" works because, for the believer, eternal life ends death's power.
Oxymoron: Two contradictory words packed together. Romeo's "O brawling love! O loving hate!" shows how confused his feelings are.
Verbal irony: Saying the opposite of, or something different from, what you mean. Austen opens Pride and Prejudice with "It is a truth universally acknowledged" and then names a "truth" that's really the neighbors' wishful thinking.
Situational irony: When what happens is the opposite of what's expected. In O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi", each spouse sells a treasure to buy a gift for the other's treasure, making both gifts useless.
Dramatic irony: When the audience knows something a character doesn't, as when we know Juliet is drugged, not dead, and Romeo doesn't. It creates tension or dread.
Sarcasm: Bitter or mocking verbal irony aimed at someone. Not all irony is sarcastic; much of it is quiet and subtle.
Ambiguity: When a word, image or event supports more than one reasonable reading. On the exam it's usually a feature, not a problem: explain why the writer leaves it open.
Tension: A pull between opposing forces, feelings or ideas in a text, like love and resentment in one relationship. Exploring tensions is the most common route to the sophistication point.
Contrasts that add nuance: When characters' words and actions don't match, or two parts of a text clash, treat the mismatch as a clue to complexity, not a mistake to explain away.

The scoring rubric in plain words

Units 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Three rows, 6 points, every essay: All three essays are scored on the same rows: Thesis (0–1), Evidence and Commentary (0–4) and Sophistication (0–1). Readers reward what you do well rather than hunting for small mistakes.
Row A, Thesis (1 point): Respond to the prompt with a defensible interpretation of the poem, passage or work you chose. It must make a claim someone could argue with, not just describe the text.
Thesis: what doesn't earn the point: Restating the prompt, a general comment about the text that doesn't answer the prompt, or a description of the poem or passage (what happens, which devices it uses) with no claim to defend.
Thesis: what's allowed: It can be more than one sentence if they're close together, and it can appear anywhere. It doesn't have to list devices or preview your reasons, and you keep the point even if the rest of the essay falls short.
Row B, Evidence and Commentary (4 points): The row that decides most scores. Points rise as your evidence gets more specific and your commentary does more explaining and less summarizing.
Row B, 0 points: Only restates the thesis, repeats what the prompt gave you, or is off topic.
Row B, 1 point: Evidence is mostly general, and the commentary summarizes it without explaining how it supports the argument. Naming devices with little or no explanation lands here.
Row B, 2 points: Some specific, relevant evidence, with some explanation, but no clear line of reasoning, or a faulty one. Typical: a mix of specifics and generalities, or one point made well but not several.
Row B, 3 points: Specific evidence supports every claim in a line of reasoning, and you explain some of it. On Questions 1 and 2, you must also explain how at least one literary element or technique contributes to meaning.
Row B, 4 points: Specific evidence for every claim, consistently explained. On Questions 1 and 2, explain how several elements or techniques create meaning (several uses of one technique can count if each adds something). On Question 3, you must address the work as a whole.
Grammar and the fourth point: Errors serious enough to get in the way of understanding keep you out of the 4 in Row B. Ordinary slips don't.
Row C, Sophistication (1 point): Shows sophisticated thinking or builds a complex literary argument. It has to run through your argument; one clever phrase or a passing reference isn't enough.
Four ways to earn sophistication: Explore complexities or tensions in the text; place your interpretation in a broader context; account for other reasonable interpretations; or write in a style that is consistently vivid and persuasive.
Sophistication: what doesn't count: Sweeping openers like "Since the beginning of time", only hinting at another reading, one thematic sentence you never develop, oversimplifying the text, and complicated language that doesn't strengthen the argument.

Poetry analysis checklist (Question 1)

Units 2, 5, 8

The task: Read a poem of about 100–400 words and analyze how the poet uses poetic elements and techniques to develop a complex idea or attitude the prompt names. About 40 minutes.
Read the prompt first: It gives the poet, the title, the date and what the speaker is doing. Underline the exact complex thing you must explain, such as "the speaker's conflicted feelings about home".
Read the poem twice: First for the literal sense: who is speaking, to whom, about what, and what happens. Then slowly with your pen: diction, images, comparisons, shifts and structure.
Paraphrase hard lines: Put difficult lines into plain words before you analyze them. Misreading the literal level is the most common reason poetry essays go wrong.
Find the shift: Mark where the tone, attitude, time or subject changes. A before-and-after across a shift is a natural line of reasoning.
Choose what matters, not everything: Pick two or three choices that best explain the prompt's idea. Two techniques explained well beat six named and dropped.
Thesis: the idea, not a device list: Answer the prompt with an interpretation, ideally one that holds both sides of the complexity: what the speaker feels and why it's mixed.
Organize by idea or by movement: Build paragraphs around claims about meaning, or follow the poem's movement from beginning to end. Avoid one paragraph per device with no connection between them.
Quote short, cite lines: Embed a word or phrase in your own sentence and give the line number, such as (line 7). Then explain how that exact word creates meaning. No formal citation style like MLA is needed on the exam.
Explain form only when it matters: Naming meter or rhyme earns nothing on its own. Mention form when you can say what it does, like a final couplet that undercuts what came before.
End with meaning: Close by explaining what the poem shows about its subject, not by repeating your thesis word for word.

Prose fiction analysis checklist (Question 2)

Units 1, 4, 7

The task: Read a fiction passage of about 600–800 words (it may be from a play) and analyze how the author uses literary elements and techniques to portray something complex, often a character's attitude or a relationship. About 40 minutes.
Read the introduction closely: It gives the author, the work, the date and the situation. The last sentence of the prompt names exactly what you must explain.
Read the passage twice: First for what happens and who's who. Then mark characterization, the narrator's point of view and tone, setting details, dialogue, shifts, and the opening and closing lines.
Ask the narrator questions: Who tells this, from how far away, and with what attitude? A gap between what a narrator says and what the details show is often the heart of the passage.
Look for the complexity: The prompt usually says "complex". Find the two things in tension, such as admiration and resentment, or freedom and loneliness, and make your thesis hold both.
Track the change: Compare the beginning and end of the passage. What a character feels or understands at the end, and how they got there, makes a strong line of reasoning.
Organize by claims: Each body paragraph makes one claim about the character or relationship and supports it with two or three specific details. Following the passage in order often works well.
Use paragraph and line references: Quote short phrases from the passage and point to where they appear, so the reader can follow your evidence.
Analyze, don't retell: If a sentence of yours could appear in a plot summary, cut it or follow it with how and why. Every piece of evidence needs commentary that connects it to your thesis.
Explain several techniques: The top score in Row B needs more than one element explained, for example how dialogue, setting and narrative distance work together.

Literary argument checklist and choosing a work (Question 3)

Units 3, 6, 9

The task: Read a short statement of a literary idea, such as a character torn between two worlds, choose a work of fiction from your own reading or the list of about 40 works, and argue how that idea contributes to an interpretation of the work as a whole. About 40 minutes.
Underline the exact task: The prompt ends by telling you what to analyze, then says "Do not merely summarize the plot." Answer that question, not a general one about the book.
Pick a novel or play you know deeply: Choose a substantial work of fiction, usually a novel or play, that you know well. The course description calls for prose fiction (plays count), so steer clear of poems, films and any book you know only from a summary or a movie.
Prepare three to five works: Before the exam, choose works with different strengths, such as family conflict, outsiders, ambition, coming of age, or society versus the individual, so one fits almost any prompt.
What to know about each work: The author and title, main characters' names, the central conflict, five or six key scenes from beginning to end, two or three symbols or motifs, the setting, and how it ends. Short memorable phrases help, but precise paraphrase works too.
Choose the work that fits, not your favorite: Spend 3–5 minutes testing two or three works against the prompt. Pick the one where you can name specific scenes and say what the idea reveals about the whole work.
Thesis: concept plus meaning: Name the work, connect the prompt's idea to a specific part of it, and say what that reveals about the work's larger meaning.
Evidence from across the work: Use specific scenes, choices, images and details from the beginning, middle and end. Specific moments ("when she burns the letter") beat general ones ("throughout the book she struggles").
Work as a whole: The fourth point in Row B requires explaining how the idea shapes the meaning of the entire work, not just one scene. Make the connection in every paragraph, and again at the end.
Don't summarize the plot: Assume your reader knows the book. Give only enough plot to set up each piece of evidence, then explain what it shows.
Classic and modern both work: Any work similar in quality to the ones you've read in your AP class is fine, from Hamlet or Jane Eyre to Toni Morrison's Beloved or Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Choose based on how well you know it.

Thesis templates and commentary toolkit

Units 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Claim, evidence, commentary, line of reasoning: A claim is a point about the text that needs proof; evidence is the quoted or specific detail that proves it; commentary explains how the evidence supports the claim. A line of reasoning is the logical chain of claims that together defend your thesis, so each paragraph should build on the one before it.
Topic sentences and coherence: Open each body paragraph with a claim that connects to the thesis, not with a plot detail. Link sentences and paragraphs with transitions, repeated key words and clear pronouns so the reader can follow the logic.
Poetry thesis template: Through [pattern of images or comparison] and [shift or structure], [poet] presents [subject] as both [X] and [Y], suggesting that [insight about the subject].
Prose thesis template: Although [character] at first seems [X], [author]'s use of [technique] and [technique] reveals [Y], exposing [the complexity the prompt asks about].
Literary argument thesis template: In [title], [author] uses [character]'s [the prompt's idea] to show that [claim about the work's meaning], a conflict that [what it reveals by the end].
Example thesis (written for this sheet): Through images of a house that grows colder with each stanza, the speaker reveals that her nostalgia for childhood is mixed with relief at having escaped it.
Stronger verbs than "uses" or "shows": emphasizes, underscores, evokes, conveys, suggests, implies, reveals, exposes, contrasts, juxtaposes, reinforces, undermines, complicates, foreshadows, mirrors, heightens, softens, mocks, idealizes.
Commentary frame: [Quoted word or detail] suggests [meaning] because [how it works]; this reveals [link to your claim], which matters because [link to the thesis].
Shift frame: Where the first half [does X], the poem turns at line [n] to [Y]; this shift shows [what changes in the speaker's attitude] and why it matters.
Ask "so what?" after every quote: After each piece of evidence, ask what it shows and why it matters to your argument. If your answer is just what the quote says, you're summarizing, not explaining.
Transitions: adding and building: also, furthermore, moreover, similarly, likewise, building on this, more importantly.
Transitions: contrasting and complicating: however, yet, but, in contrast, instead, nevertheless, at the same time, even so.
Transitions: cause and effect: because, since, therefore, thus, consequently, as a result, so.
Sophistication move: explore a tension: Name a tension in the text, such as love mixed with resentment, and keep developing it through the essay instead of mentioning it once.
Sophistication move: broader context: Connect your reading to something larger, such as the work's era, a common human experience, or a literary tradition, with specifics rather than sweeping claims.
Sophistication move: another reading: Explain a different reasonable interpretation, then show what the evidence supports and why it matters. A one-line "some may say" doesn't count.