Redundant Language and Concise Resources

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/572/03/

Check out Purdue OWL for some specific help with different elements of your writing. Do not hesitate to ask for help or for a peer to read it over!

Narrowing Topic for Research

Ways to Narrow Down a Topic

How do I Know If My Topic Needs to be Narrowed?

Most students will have to narrow down their topic at least a little. The first clue is that your paper needs to be narrowed is simply the length required of you (a 10 minute presentation). You can't properly discuss "war" in 1,000 words, nor talk about orange rinds for 12 pages. Preliminary research also helps you determine whether or not you'll even need to refine your topic.
The amount of resources is often a good guide. For example, if you knew that you didn't need more than six to eight references for your paper and there are over 50 books, that's a good sign to narrow your subject area to a more specific topic. Or, if you are writing a fifteen page paper and you can't find more than three sources, you will have to broaden your topic. ¹
The other great guide, which is somewhat subjective, is the popularity of the subject area or topic itself. Consider how popular your topic is with the general public? In a college setting? With your fellow classmates? If your subject wouldn't be interesting to any of those audiences, you may want to reconsider your topic.
Narrowing a Topic

1. First start out with a general topic. Take the topic and break it down into categories by asking the five W’s and H.
   1. Who? 
   2. What? 
   3. Where? 
   4. When? 
   5. Why? 
   6. How? 
2. Now consider the following question areas to generate specific ideas to narrow down your topic.
   1. Problems faced? 
   2. Problems overcome? 
   3. Motives 
   4. Effects on a group? 
   5. Member group? 
   6. Group affected? 
   7. Group benefited? 
   8. Group responsible for/paid for _____ 
3. Finally, refine your ideas by by considering the S.O.C.R.A.P.R . model.
   1. S = Similarities 
   2. O = Opposites
   3. C = Contrasts
   4. R = Relationships 
   5. A = Anthropomorphisms [interpreting reality in terms of human values] 
   6. P = Personifications [giving objects or descriptions human qualities] 
   7. R = Repetition (has it been repeated or is it still continuously relevant? how so?

Mind Mapping

Go to this website:

https://www.mindmeister.com/

Create a login using your everyday email account, and a password you will easily remember.

Confirm your account, by going back to your email and clicking the link in your email. If you do not see the email, check your spam folder.

Then we can get started!

1. Choose a template that fits what you want your mind map to look like.
2. Label the Mind map as "AP Lit Thesis Theme or Topic"
3. Follow the tutorial to figure out the different functions.
4. Start Mapping!

AP Student Review Resources

Below are links to different resources to help you study for the exam outside of class.

Vocab:
https://quizlet.com/390627/ap-literature-terms-flash-cards/

Essays (sample prompts and responses from all the past exams):

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/exam/exam_information/2002.html

Use the multiple choice I provided to you, and we can check answers together on Monday, May 1st.

Happy studying!

Othello Act 3 Questions

1. At the beginning of 3.3 Othello is completely in love with Desdemona. By the end of that scene, 480 lines later, Othello is ready to murder her for having an affair with Cassio. How have we gone from the first position to the second position so quickly? How does Iago plant the idea of Desdemona's infidelity in Othello's mind, and how does he make it grow?

2. What sort of person is Emilia, and what seems to be the nature of her relationship with her husband Iago? How does Desdemona's handkerchief come into play within that relationship between Emilia and Iago?

Othello Questions Act 1 & 2

Act 1: 

1. How does Shakespeare present the world of Venice in the first act, and how does he  construct the interactions of his central characters (Iago, Othello, and Desdemona) with that Venetian world and with each other? How are these interactions complicated by the fact that Othello is a Moor (and we'll have to puzzle out what exactly that means) and that Desdemona is a young women?

2.What sort of person is Iago, as he appears in act 1? Are you satisfied by the reasons he gives for hating Othello? What is Iago’s relationship with Rodrigo?

3.What sort of language does Iago use/ What sort of language does Othello use? What might be the significance of this difference?

4.What themes are starting to emerge? What examples/evidence do you have of these themes?

Act 2:

1. What sort of person is Cassio? What happens to him, an dhow does Iago plan to use the situation in his plan against Othello?

2.What more do we learn about the nature of Iago in act 2? What is the effect of having him share his thoughts and plans with us through his soliloquies? Pay attention to the language used in Iago's soliloquies. What sorts of descriptive language does he use? How does it contribute to the picture of Iago that Shakespeare is drawing?

Spring Break Assignment

Link to play:

http://abs.kafkas.edu.tr/upload/225/Oedipus_the_King_Full_Text.pdf

Questions (use ACE):

1. The oracles had prophesied that Oedipus would kill his father and beget children by his mother. Is Oedipus therefore made to do these things? Is the play premised on the notion that Oedipus is bound or free--the puppet of fate or the creator of his own fate? or some of each?

2. Outline the actions presented on the stage: begin where the play begins, with the people turning to their king for relief from the plague, and disregard for the moment the revelation of incidents that preceded the play. Then summarize the antecedent actions as they are gradually revealed. In what ways are Oedipus's stage actions consistent with his prior actions? in what ways are they different?

3. What is Oedipus's primary motivation throughout the action of the play? What were his motives in actions prior to the play/ What character try to dissuade him from pursuing his purpose, and why do they do so? How do his subjects regard him?

4. Is any common pattern of behavior exhibited in Oedipus's encounters with Laios, with Teiresias, and with Kreon? Is there any justification for his anger with teiresias? for his suspicion of Kreon? why?

5. Oedipus's original question "Who killed Laios?" soon turns into the question "Who am I?" On the level of plot, the answer is "Son of Laios and lokaste, father's murderer. mother's husband." What is the answer at the level of character--that is, in psychological or philosophical sense who is Oedipus?

6. What philosophical issues are raised by kaste's judgement on the oracles (scene 2)? How does the chorus respond to her judgement? How does the play resolve these issues?

7. Why does he ask Kreon to drive him from Thebes? Does he feel that his fate has been just or unjust? Is his suffering, in fact, deserved? Partially deserved? undeserved?

8. There is a good deal in the play about seeing and blindness? What purpose does this serve? How is Oedipus contrasted with Theiresias? How does Oedipus at the beginning of the play contrast with Oedipus at the end? why is he blinding himself dramatically appropriate?

9. In what sense may Oedipus be regarded as a better man, though a less fortunate one, at the end of the play than at the beginning? What has he gained from his experience?

10. Some critics have suggested that Oedipus's answer to the Sphinx's riddle was incomplete-that the answer should been jot just man but Oedipus himself--and that Oedipus was as ignorant of the whole truth here as he is when he lays his curse in Scene 1 on the murder of Laios. Does this suggestion make sense? On how many legs does Oedipus walk at the end of the play?

11. If the answer to the Sphinx's riddle is not just man but Oedipus himself, may the answer to Oedipus's question "Who am I?" pertain not only to Oedipus but also to man, or at least to civilized Western man? What characteristics of Oedipus as an individual are also characteristics of man in the Western world? Is Sophocles writing only about Oedipus the king, or is he saying something about man's presumed place and his real place in  the universe?

12. What purposes are served by the appearance of Antigone and Ismene in the Exodos?

13. What purposes does the chorus serve int he play? Whom does it speak for? Comment on the function of each of the four Odes.

14. What does the final speech of the Choragos tell us about human life?

15. A central formal feature of the play is its use of dramatic irony. Point out the speeches by Oedipus, especially int he Prologue and Scene 1, that have a different or a larger meaning for the audience than for Oedipus himself. Sophocles's title literally translates "Oedipus the tyrant," but the word tyrant denoted a ruler who had earned his position through his own intelligence and strength rather than by inheritance--it was not a negative term. Given that, what ironies are suggested by Oedipus's title?

16. The plot of Oedipus Rex has been called done of the most perfect dramatic plots ever devised. Why is it admired? what are its outstanding characteristics?