AP Lang&Comp



¤ Opening & Closing Strategies for Essays ¤Most readers give a text maybe three sentences to prove itself worthy of reading. In that brief span of time, your reader’s brain probably answers most or all these questions:Does the writing interest me?Enough to keep reading?Is the writing easy to follow, or will I have to work here?Is the style fresh or just so-so, or even worse…dry and generic and boring?The same is true when YOU are the writer. You will be given only a few opening sentences to prove yourself. If your opening paragraph proves tiresome, you’ve lost your reader and imprinted a bad first impression that will be hard to shake. Teachers know from experience that the quality of an opener tends to forecast what follows in the essay. TIPS FOR STELLAR INTRO PARAGRAPHS.TIP 1. Use a direct approach. Don’t meander around in “fluff” or generalizations, or heaven forbid-plot summary…march into your subject with strong assurance, clearly eager to introduce your topic, make your claim and share your observations and arguments. Good Intro Example from a student paper on Prince Hal in Shakespeare’s I King Henry IV:Prince Hal is as hard to crack as a walnut. He brazenly says, “I know you all,” in reference to Falstaff & Co. in his soliloquy ending in Act 1, scene ii. However, what friend—what reader even—can speak with equal confidence about Hal himself? His true nature seems finally to be as riddling as Hamlet’s or Cleopatra’s; indeed, he seems at time to be a hybrid of those two characters: infinitely various, theatrical, cunning past man’s thought, loving, brutal, equivocal—the list goes on. It’s little wonder that the character of Hotspur, so childishly open and simple, often surpasses Hal as the reader’s favorite. It’s also little wonder that we are hard pressed to decide whether Hal is actually likable or merely admirable. TIP 2. Avoid the “Art of Saying Nothing Profoundly.” Another way of stating this pitfall is from Shakespeare himself…your writing should not be “Much Ado About Nothing.” Bad Intro Example from a student paper on characterizing Hamlet:Shakespeare’s Hamlet, admired for its poetic style and intriguing characters, has remained a classic for over three centuries. The character of Hamlet is probably one of Shakespeare’s most perplexing and most pleasing. He is easily identified with because of his multi-faceted personality and his realistic problems. Sure, this intro boasts “big” vocabulary words and grammatically correct sentences, but it is lackluster, generic, and uninspiring. Try to never begin the intro with the author and title…everybody does this, and it gets super monotonous to readers. The same student who wrote the mediocre Hamlet intro started over with a new character from the play and a new resolve to improve her introduction. Here is the result:Good Intro Example on characterizing King Claudius:He killed his brother. He married his brother’s wife. He stole his brother’s crown. A cold-hearted murderer, he is described by his brother’s ghost as “that incestuous, that adulterate beast” (I. v. 42). The bare facts appear to stamp him an utter moral outlaw. Nonetheless, as his soliloquies and anguished asides reveal, no person in Shakespeare’s Hamlet demonstrates so mixed a true nature as Claudius, the newly made King of Denmark.Notice the intriguing lead sentences, the embedded quote for spice, and the clear claim that Claudius is a complex character. Notice the title of the play and the author are mentioned…but they are mixed in smoothly rather than put first in a stilted, predictable way. Another good example:The occult element leavens Shakespeare’s works with a pinch of the unknown and an implication that it should remain so. Is artful but often annoying ambiguity seldom allows more than a fleeting glimpse at a forbidden terrain before it is bulldozed out of sight by convenient rationales. Several examples of Shakespeare’s significant use of the occult immediately come to mind: the witches in Macbeth, the antics of Titania and Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Ghost in Hamlet, and the figure of Owen Glendower in I Henry IV.TIP 3. Use an opening strategy. OPENING STRATEGIES JAZZ UP INTROS.Quote: “Fair is foul and foul is fair, hover through the fog and filthy air…” Indeed, into the air, Shakespeare’s Macbeth suspends the possibility that Macbeth’s vision of himself as king—while being a prophetic and juicy idea—may, in reality, be a self-destructive delusion. Opposite opinion: Many Americans believe that going to war with Iraq in 2003 was a moral obligation to free the Iraqis from oppression; however, this essay will explore how oil, money, and power, more than altruistic duty, incentivized the declaration of war. Analogy/Anecdotal: Like moonlight filtering through ocean waves— like brooding prisms, Golding’s Lord of the Flies gives transparency to the frightening, organic evil swimming in the human psyche. Specific example: As sweet as it may seem when Angel Clare calls Tess his “Artemis,” these flatteries forecast what Hardy later reveals as the terrible consequences of Romantic Idealism. Personal experience: Stumbling towards me in the darkness, the homeless man begged through twisted, toothless lips for money. Uncomfortably, I reached for my wallet, realizing that more unnerving than his artless, groveling petition, would be for me to think I am better than he and that I somehow deserve the possessions I own. Startling statement: I hate puppies. I shrug off sunshine. I loathe symmetry. To me, beautiful things, while pleasing to the senses, do not emotionally move me the way broken, ugly, heart-breaking things do. Interesting fact: In Latin, the word “Philosophy” actually denotes the Love of Wisdom, which leads one to believe that philosophers are more than just know-it-alls, but passionate learners. Rhetorical Question: Did Angel truly Love Tess, or does Hardy’s text reveal the tragic tendency of people to pursue an illusion of perfection rather than embrace the imperfect but sweet realities.CLOSING STRATEGIES LEAVE YOUR READER WITH A STRONG FINAL IMPRESSION.Repeating your original thesis is required, but you should not just leave it at that (unless you are literally out of time!) Find ways to end your essays as impressively as you started them by incorporating one of the following suggestions:Quote: “Fair is foul and foul is fair, hover through the filthy air…” Indeed, into the air, Shakespeare’s Macbeth suspends the possibility that Macbeth’s vision of himself as king—while being a prophetic and juicy idea—may, in reality, be a self-destructive delusion.? Opposite opinion: Many American’s believe that going to war with Iraq in 2003 was a moral obligation to free the Iraqis from oppression; however, this essay will explore how oil, money, and power, more than altruistic duty, incentivized the declaration of war.? Analogy/Anecdotal: Like moon light filtering through ocean waves— like brooding prisms, Golding’s Lord of the Flies gives transparency to the frightening, organic evil swimming in the human psyche.? Specific example: As sweet as it may seem when Angel Clare calls Tess his “Artemis,” these flatteries forecast what Hardy later reveals as the terrible consequences of Romantic Idealism.? Personal experience: Stumbling towards me in the darkness, the homeless man begged through twisted, toothless lips for money. Uncomfortably, I reached for my wallet, realizing that more unnerving than his artless, groveling petition, would be for me to think I am better than him and that I somehow deserve the things I own.? Startling statement: I hate puppies. I shrug off sunshine. I hate symmetry. To me, beautiful things, while pleasing to the senses, do not emotionally move me the way broken, ugly, heart-breaking things do.? Interesting fact: In Latin, the word “Philosophy” actually denotes the Love of Wisdom, which leads me to believe that philosophers are more than just know-it-alls, but passionate learners.?? Rhetorical Question: Did Angel truly Love Tess, or does Hardy’s text reveal the tragic tendency of people to pursue an illusion of perfection rather than embrace the imperfect but sweet realities?? Confirm main point: So, based on the nauseating evidence of how oil, money, and power were the true motives behind the Iraqi war, in spite of individuals’ honest patriotism, Americans cannot afford to not be more discriminating in the future when politicians, liberal or conservative, “cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.”Summarize: So, whereas politicians’ perceptions of spreading freedom in Iraq are tarred and feathered with oil and money, and while they starve for power, hopefully Americans begin to fear, rather than worship, war. Emphasize importance of implications: Thus, Romantic idealism, manifested in Angel’s seemingly harmless idealization of Tess as “Artemis,” can ironically and monstrously smother the subtler, more down-to-earth, but nonetheless breathtaking beauties and wonders of the real life, or, in this case, the real girl. A proposal: So, I gave some money to the beggar, realizing that my conscience is all I own; material possessions will dissolve in time and space. And I urge conscientious people everywhere to not, by withholding their money, compromise their sole possession. End with quotation that encapsulates claim: So while, “amid the grey half-tones of the morning,” Angel mistakes Tess Durbeyfield for Artemis, flattering as that may be, his idealization of her blinds him to the complex, “gray,” layered depths of Tess’ womanhood. The beautifully tangible. Different Scenario/same implications: Therefore, while inky, innate darkness, according to Golding, blackens humanity’s every cell—to acknowledge and confront it face to face may redeem both the human condition and the human soul. Circle back to opening strategy you used: So, while I don’t actually hate puppies, sunshine, and symmetry—ugly, broken things/people have a shine and a symmetry that perhaps more strongly evokes our deeper emotional responses. Envision the future: War is not inherently bad. But I envision a future where the reasons for waging war will be presented objectively, and with illuminating clarity, to the general populous—before, not after, the war.Conclusion Applied to larger audience: Oedipus is mauled by bear-like Fate—eyeless. Songless. But the fear of fate’s arbitrary will is relevant today and still affects peoples’ choices. Humanity, as a whole, broods on like one, big self-fulfilling prophecy. Answer the rhetorical question you posed in the introduction: Therefore, Angel did not truly love Tess, at least at the time of their marriage. Yet, with time and profound reflection, he felt his loss of Love in the end. ................
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