AP English Close Reading Test- ella

what is close reading?

a very in-depth, careful analysis of a short text (passage selected from a novel, a poem, an image, a short story, etc)

diction

speakers choice(s) of words; look at denotation (dictionary definition) of a word and connotation (what you associate with the word),

think about why the writer picks certain words

syntax

how the speaker's choices of words are arranged; word order/the sentences

when considering syntax, notice interesting constructions such as parallelism, juxtaposition and antithesis, along with sentence types such as compound, complex, periodic, cumulative, and imperative

tone

the speaker's attitude toward the subject as revealed by his or her choice of language (be able to upport your description of tone with evidence from the text)

mood

the feeling created by the work (be able to upport your description of mood with evidence from the text)

figures of speech

metaphor - describing something by saying that it is something else

simile - saying something is like (or as) something else

hyperbole - exaggeration when an unrealistic comparison is made for effect

personification - when something is described as if it is a person; given human attributes

what are the four basic sentence types?

simple, complex, compound, compound-complez

simple sentence structure

subject, verb, object

compound sentence structure

two independent clauses

complex sentence structure

independent and dependent clauses

compound complex sentence structure

at least one independent and two dependent clauses

periodic sentences

"a sentence whose main clause is withheld until the end"

cumulative sentence

sentence that completes the main idea at the beginning of the sentence and then builds and adds on

often follows loose construction (loose sentence), in which clauses flow naturally from one main cause

antithesis

oppositional logic to emphasize a point

two things next to each other or opposite from one another; blameworthy

juxtaposition

placement of two things closely together to emphasize comparisons or contrasts

the writer is calling attention to similarities in two situations we may not have noticed

imperative sentence

used to command or enjoin

dying metaphors

overused/losing its original meaning and has become stale or conventional

operators

symbols used to perform specific mathematical or logical operations on data within a language

verbal false limbs

unnecessary words and phrases added to a sentence

pretentious diction

using complex words to make something sound more important than it is

meaningless words

short and seemingly empty words or sounds used to fill pauses while speaking "um, uh, like, you know, basically," etc.

colateral damage

during a war, the unintentional deaths and injuries of people who are not soldiers and damage that is caused to their homes, hospitals, schools, etc.

parallelism

repeating similar phrases

corn pone opinion

a belief that is adopted to fit in with a group, rather than through personal thought

the hoopskirt

an example of how people conform to public opinion instead of thinking for themselves

runs its course and disappears; nobody reasons about it