what have i learned so far???

what i have learned so far!!!             

     When I first came into AP Lit, I thought that we’d start reading right away. I couldn’t wait to analyze our exciting reading list, and because most of us students have taken three English courses already, I figured we could surpass learning about sentence structure and literary technique and get reading. However, the first few days into school, I realized that there was so much more to learn about the fundamentals of the English language. Instead of simply finding and identifying terms like “metaphor” or “symbol”, we delved deeper and examined what impact it had on a reader. Instead of simply stating how we felt after we read a passage, we analyzed how the author made us feel this way. To do this, we learned not only about the different types of figurative language, but also about the syntactical techniques that an author uses to provide emphasis and create tone, voice, and style. Learning these things has shed a whole new light on how I read and interpret writing; I feel like I’m peeling off an outer layer from text and unearthing deeper meanings.

We also learned about essay structure. I already had a basic understanding of how to format an essay, but we learned about the thesis, claims, evidence, and warrants that were necessary to an argumentative essay. We also learned the “nuts and bolts of college writing”- this proved very helpful while writing my college applications!

In addition to learning more about the English language, we also learned about the English language AP test. The practice Multiple Choice questions we’ve done so far are very difficult! Here’s hoping they get easier as the year goes on, and I’m sure they will as we keep on learning!