<p>So I figured I would start this topic as I stare at a half-finished Light in August AP essay. I have not read the book at all. Discuss.</p>
<ul>
<li>You should know a general gist of what the book is about through half-listening in class or Sparknotes. What you know is probably what’s really important, and you should probably know the theme too (if only superficially).</li>
<li>Proceed to flip through the first and last chapter to find any quotations that seem usable to support the theme.</li>
<li>Read the first paragraph, and proceed to extrapolate the author’s use of diction and tone from that.</li>
<li>Structure the essay as a comparison between your expectations versus the author’s intentions (with emphasis on your expectations obviously).</li>
<li>Use lots of conjunctive adverbs.</li>
</ul>
<p>It won’t work.</p>
<p>It worked for me. 96 on my last essay over Hamlet.</p>
<p>I’ve done it once because the book bored me so badly after chapter one that I honestly couldn’t muster any willpower to get beyond it. I managed to pull off a 20-page report on it and got a 98%.</p>
<p>Follow caatinga’s ideas, pretty much. That’s exactly what I did.</p>
<p>Excellent idea!</p>
<p>One of the best ways to get around this problem is restating the question in a form of a statement rather than a question. The next step is to elaborate on what the question is actually asking. That should make a solid introduction paragraph and possibly a little of the first body paragraph. Your introduction should take up a significant amount of space so that your answer can be shorter. Shorter answers to a question are more likely to get full credit because longer ones allow you to show how much you really dont know what you are talking about. Finally write a conclusion that basically restates everything you already said in the introduction. </p>
<p>I used this technique on my english exam yesterday. I was forced to compare a book i didnt read to a movie I slept through. Obviously I had no idea what was going on in either, but I was still able to write a fairly decent essay on the topic.</p>
<p>Caatinga: It works 60% of the time, everytime</p>