Make the Prompts Your Friend

There’s an old joke about AP. What do the letters stand for? ANSWER THE PROMPT. The single most common mistake students make when they take the AP Lang test? They don’t pay close enough attention to the prompts!

Follow these three steps to get promptified. (Promptastic? Promptilicious?)

  1. Read the prompt (duh).

  2. Underline the key words.

  3. Read the prompt again.

Let’s look at a prompt from the 2018 test.

Eminent domain is the power governments have to acquire property from private owners for public use. The rationale behind eminent domain is that governments have greater legal authority over lands within their dominion than do private owners. Eminent domain has been instituted in one way or another throughout the world for hundreds of years.

Carefully read the following six sources, including the introductory information for each source. Then synthesize material from at least three of the sources and incorporate it into a coherent, well-developed essay that defends, challenges, or qualifies the notion that eminent domain is productive and beneficial.

Your argument should be the focus of your essay. Use the sources to develop your argument and explain the reasoning for it. Avoid merely summarizing the sources. Indicate clearly which sources you are drawing from, whether through direct quotation, paraphrase, or summary. You may cite the sources as Source A, Source B, etc., or by using the descriptions in parentheses.

[The prompt then lists sources from A too F.]

So you read the prompt. Next, find the key words. Note that the second and third paragraphs are pretty much boilerplate, meaning they contain directions you’ll find in just about every synthesis-essay prompt. So you focus on the first paragraph. If you haven’t heard of eminent domain before, you might want to underline the key words in the definition: “acquire property from private owners for public use.” It helps to rephrase that in your head. Simplify it if you can, writing a note: Government take private property. “World” and “hundreds of years” seem pretty important.

Okay, now make sure you really are prepared for the rest of the prompt: Six sources, use at least three. “Defend, challenge, or qualify” really means Pro, Con, or Something In Between.

Now: buzz through the prompt one more time to make sure you didn’t miss anything. Now you’re ready to tackle this beast!

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