The Ten Commandments of AP English Lit

1. I am the Prompt; thou shalt have no other Prompt before me. Thou shalt read
the Prompt with rapt attention; the Prompt is thy friend. Thou shalt address
the Prompt. Thou shalt not just get the general idea of the Prompt, nor shalt
thou fght the Prompt or substitute thine own ideas for the Prompt.
2. Thou shalt not postpone, omit, or bury thy Thesis tatement.
!. Thou shalt not "ommit plot#summary, nor shalt thou "ohabit with $eading
%omprehension, for it is an abomination in my sight.
&. Thou shalt not "ommit free#'oating generali(ation, but shall support and
develop thy every assertion.
). Thou shalt not mista*e "omple+ity for "onfusion, or subtlety for
inde"isiveness; thou shalt not attribute thine own misapprehensions to
authorial ineptitude. The fa"t that thou gettest not the point does not mean
that the passage hath no point, thou hast missed the point. -eal with it.
.. Thou shalt read every /% 0uestion with the same e+0uisite "are that thou
devotes to the essay Prompt, thou shalt not 1get the drift.2 3y the same
to*en, thou shalt strive to read what the writer a"tually wrote, not what thou
e+pe"test him or her to have written.
4. Thou shalt not fnish early. Thou shalt spend plenty of thy time planning thine
essay responses and reading them over.
5. Thou shalt guess when thou *nowest not the answers.
6. Thou shalt not merely identify rhetori"al and stylisti" devi"es, but shalt show
how they fun"tion.
17.Thou shalt never permit thyself to be"ome dis"ouraged, I am the prompt, thy
Prompt. Thou shalt maintain thy fo"us, attention, and "onfden"e. 8ea, though
thou hast totally s"rewed up thy last essay, this ne+t essay ma*eth a fresh
start.