Strategies for Organizing in a Limited Amount of Time

Did you know?

AP scorers might read over 1,000 essays a week!

• Most of the time a scorer will read from only one of the questions on the test, thus gaining an incredible knowledge of the response possibilities that exist.

• While an essay must display:– a thorough understanding of the

question, – an accurate thesis,

– and a sufficient quantity of supporting details,

The most direct way to impress the scorer is to produce an essay that is clear and direct in its organization.

• After the question has been broken down into understandable parts, conscientious writers make a plan of their essay response.

• Because of the limited amount of time, AP writers must explore modified approaches to organization such as modified outlines or simple webs.

• Take a look at the sample outline and web.

Activity

Read the following passage and identify the main idea. Create an outline or web that addresses the question, “How does the author’s organization develop the main idea of this selection?”

In this age of congested courtrooms and overworked judges, the late Harvey Hale left a docket remarkably well organized and free of backlog. There are a few good reasons. First, he was lazy and preferred to play golf. Second, he was quick to dismiss a plaintiff’s suit if it offended his notions of protecting insurance companies and large corporations. And because of this, most plaintiff’s lawyers avoided him.

John, Grisham. The Rainmaker. NdwYork: Double day, 1995.

Assignment

• You will have 40 minutes to complete an essay of question #3 of the 2008 AP exam.

• Your essay needs to be written on notebook paper using blue or black ink.

• Before we begin, let’s take a look at the results of the test.