Five Steps to a Five: AP English Language Essay

The three types of essays mentioned in â€Å"Five Steps to a Five: AP English Language† are analysis, argumentative, and synthesis. An analysis essay is complied of different parts, it explains how the many parts can come together to produce a complete result. To have an argumentative essay you must acknowledge what you are defending and have sufficient and accurate information to support your claim. A synthesis essay should contain the main points of compared and contrast, cause and effect, and analysis of the writer’s topic. An analysis essay must analyze the author’s point of view, rhetorical devices used to achieve his or her purpose, stylistic elements, tone, real or imagined experience, and a discussion. To ensure that these points are made, simple tasks are recommended; for example spending one to three minutes reading and working the prompt, five minutes reading and making marginal notes regarding the passage, ten minutes preparing to write, twenty minutes writing the essay, and three minutes proofreading. To write an argumentative essay you must understand the nature of the position taken in the prompt, taking a specific stand with the assertion, and clearly and logically supporting the writer’s claim. When given an excerpt or statement you must understand what the passage is stating, then ask yourself if you agree or disagree. When you have successfully decided, the next step is to find information to support your opinion. Helpful tasks that can be taken to ensure that your essay is a success are to spend one to three minutes reading and working on the prompt, three minutes deciding on a position, ten to twelve minutes writing your essay, and three minutes proofreading. To have a presentable synthesis essay the writer must be able to read critically, understand the text, analyze the texts, develop a position on a given topic and support the position it, incorporate outside sources into texts of the essay, and always cite sources used in the essay. Before writing the author must read all prompts, deconstruct the synthesis, read and annotate each of the given texts, and decide how you will address the synthesis prompt. The tasks recommended for a excellent essay is to spend five to six minutes going back to the texts and deciding which you will use in your essay, eight to ten minutes planning the support of your position, twenty minutes writing the essay, three to four minutes checking to make certain that you have included the minimum number of sources and correctly cited them all, and three minutes proofreading. Analysis, argumentative, and synthesis are all excellent forms of essays in which you can state your opinion and support it in different ways. Analysis will allow the writer to read through and discover the main points that is needed, argumentative is a more aggressive statement in which the writer may defend his or her position. Whereas the synthesis essay is a way for the writer to compare and contrast different positions.