Ap lit analysis essay sample

4−3 These lower-half essays fail to offer an adequate analysis of the poem. The analysis may be partial, unconvincing, or irrelevant, or may ignore the relationship between music and memory or Harper’s use of elements. Evidence from the poem may be slight or misconstrued, or the essays may rely on paraphrase only.

They often rely on paraphrase, which may contain some analysis, implicit or explicit. Their analysis of the relationship between music and memory or of Harper’s use of such elements as imagery, form, and tone may be vague, formulaic, or minimally supported by references to the text. There may be minor misinterpretations of the poem.

Writing a literary analysis essay is about textual analysis, not prompt analysis. Too often, students get the impression that there is one “right answer,” and if they study the prompt long enough, they will discover what that answer is--that the key to a good essay is hidden within the prompt. Attack the Prompt. It’s creative, but wrong.

Read the poem carefully. Then, considering such elements as imagery, form, and tone, write a well -organized essay in which you analyze the relationship between music and the speaker’s complex memories of her family. Students were expected to accomplish three tasks successfully: