essay to prose

How to Write the AP Lit Prose Essay with Examples

March 30, 2024

AP Lit Prose Essay Examples – The College Board’s Advanced Placement Literature and Composition Course is one of the most enriching experiences that high school students can have. It exposes you to literature that most people don’t encounter until college , and it helps you develop analytical and critical thinking skills that will enhance the quality of your life, both inside and outside of school. The AP Lit Exam reflects the rigor of the course. The exam uses consistent question types, weighting, and scoring parameters each year . This means that, as you prepare for the exam, you can look at previous questions, responses, score criteria, and scorer commentary to help you practice until your essays are perfect.

What is the AP Lit Free Response testing? 

In AP Literature, you read books, short stories, and poetry, and you learn how to commit the complex act of literary analysis . But what does that mean? Well, “to analyze” literally means breaking a larger idea into smaller and smaller pieces until the pieces are small enough that they can help us to understand the larger idea. When we’re performing literary analysis, we’re breaking down a piece of literature into smaller and smaller pieces until we can use those pieces to better understand the piece of literature itself.

So, for example, let’s say you’re presented with a passage from a short story to analyze. The AP Lit Exam will ask you to write an essay with an essay with a clear, defensible thesis statement that makes an argument about the story, based on some literary elements in the short story. After reading the passage, you might talk about how foreshadowing, allusion, and dialogue work together to demonstrate something essential in the text. Then, you’ll use examples of each of those three literary elements (that you pull directly from the passage) to build your argument. You’ll finish the essay with a conclusion that uses clear reasoning to tell your reader why your argument makes sense.

AP Lit Prose Essay Examples (Continued)

But what’s the point of all of this? Why do they ask you to write these essays?

Well, the essay is, once again, testing your ability to conduct literary analysis. However, the thing that you’re also doing behind that literary analysis is a complex process of both inductive and deductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning takes a series of points of evidence and draws a larger conclusion. Deductive reasoning departs from the point of a broader premise and draws a singular conclusion. In an analytical essay like this one, you’re using small pieces of evidence to draw a larger conclusion (your thesis statement) and then you’re taking your thesis statement as a larger premise from which you derive your ultimate conclusion.

So, the exam scorers are looking at your ability to craft a strong thesis statement (a singular sentence that makes an argument), use evidence and reasoning to support that argument, and then to write the essay well. This is something they call “sophistication,” but they’re looking for well-organized thoughts carried through clear, complete sentences.

This entire process is something you can and will use throughout your life. Law, engineering, medicine—whatever pursuit, you name it—utilizes these forms of reasoning to run experiments, build cases, and persuade audiences. The process of this kind of clear, analytical thinking can be honed, developed, and made easier through repetition.

Practice Makes Perfect

Because the AP Literature Exam maintains continuity across the years, you can pull old exam copies, read the passages, and write responses. A good AP Lit teacher is going to have you do this time and time again in class until you have the formula down. But, it’s also something you can do on your own, if you’re interested in further developing your skills.

AP Lit Prose Essay Examples 

Let’s take a look at some examples of questions, answers and scorer responses that will help you to get a better idea of how to craft your own AP Literature exam essays.

In the exam in 2023, students were asked to read a poem by Alice Cary titled “Autumn,” which was published in 1874. In it, the speaker contemplates the start of autumn. Then, students are asked to craft a well-written essay which uses literary techniques to convey the speaker’s complex response to the changing seasons.

The following is an essay that received a perfect 6 on the exam. There are grammar and usage errors throughout the essay, which is important to note: even though the writer makes some mistakes, the structure and form of their argument was strong enough to merit a 6. This is what your scorers will be looking for when they read your essay.

Example Essay 

Romantic and hyperbolic imagery is used to illustrate the speaker’s unenthusiastic opinion of the coming of autumn, which conveys Cary’s idea that change is difficult to accept but necessary for growth.

Romantic imagery is utilized to demonstrate the speaker’s warm regard for the season of summer and emphasize her regretfulness for autumn’s coming, conveying the uncomfortable change away from idyllic familiarity. Summer, is portrayed in the image of a woman who “from her golden collar slips/and strays through stubble fields/and moans aloud.” Associated with sensuality and wealth, the speaker implies the interconnection between a season and bounty, comfort, and pleasure. Yet, this romantic view is dismantled by autumn, causing Summer to “slip” and “stray through stubble fields.” Thus, the coming of real change dethrones a constructed, romantic personification of summer,  conveying the speaker’s reluctance for her ideal season to be dethroned by something much less decorated and adored.

Summer, “she lies on pillows of the yellow leaves,/ And tries the old tunes for over an hour”, is contrasted with bright imagery of fallen leaves/ The juxtaposition between Summer’s character and the setting provides insight into the positivity of change—the yellow leaves—by its contrast with the failures of attempting to sustain old habits or practices, “old tunes”. “She lies on pillows” creates a sympathetic, passive image of summer in reaction to the coming of Autumn, contrasting her failures to sustain “old tunes.” According to this, it is understood that the speaker recognizes the foolishness of attempting to prevent what is to come, but her wishfulness to counter the natural progression of time.

Hyperbolic imagery displays the discrepancies between unrealistic, exaggerated perceptions of change and the reality of progress, continuing the perpetuation of Cary’s idea that change must be embraced rather than rejected. “Shorter and shorter now the twilight clips/The days, as though the sunset gates they crowd”, syntax and diction are used to literally separate different aspects of the progression of time. In an ironic parallel to the literal language, the action of twilight’s “clip” and the subject, “the days,” are cut off from each other into two different lines, emphasizing a sense of jarring and discomfort. Sunset, and Twilight are named, made into distinct entities from the day, dramatizing the shortening of night-time into fall. The dramatic, sudden implications for the change bring to mind the switch between summer and winter, rather than a transitional season like fall—emphasizing the Speaker’s perspective rather than a factual narration of the experience.

She says “the proud meadow-pink hangs down her head/Against the earth’s chilly bosom, witched with frost”. Implying pride and defeat, and the word “witched,” the speaker brings a sense of conflict, morality, and even good versus evil into the transition between seasons. Rather than a smooth, welcome change, the speaker is practically against the coming of fall. The hyperbole present in the poem serves to illustrate the Speaker’s perspective and ideas on the coming of fall, which are characterized by reluctance and hostility to change from comfort.

The topic of this poem, Fall–a season characterized by change and the deconstruction of the spring and summer landscape—is juxtaposed with the final line which evokes the season of Spring. From this, it is clear that the speaker appreciates beautiful and blossoming change. However, they resent that which destroys familiar paradigms and norms. Fall, seen as the death of summer, is characterized as a regression, though the turning of seasons is a product of the literal passage of time. Utilizing romantic imagery and hyperbole to shape the Speaker’s perspective, Cary emphasizes the need to embrace change though it is difficult, because growth is not possible without hardship or discomfort.

Scoring Criteria: Why did this essay do so well? 

When it comes to scoring well, there are some rather formulaic things that the judges are searching for. You might think that it’s important to “stand out” or “be creative” in your writing. However, aside from concerns about “sophistication,” which essentially means you know how to organize thoughts into sentences and you can use language that isn’t entirely elementary, you should really focus on sticking to a form. This will show the scorers that you know how to follow that inductive/deductive reasoning process that we mentioned earlier, and it will help to present your ideas in the most clear, coherent way possible to someone who is reading and scoring hundreds of essays.

So, how did this essay succeed? And how can you do the same thing?

First: The Thesis 

On the exam, you can either get one point or zero points for your thesis statement. The scorers said, “The essay responds to the prompt with a defensible thesis located in the introductory paragraph,” which you can read as the first sentence in the essay. This is important to note: you don’t need a flowery hook to seduce your reader; you can just start this brief essay with some strong, simple, declarative sentences—or go right into your thesis.

What makes a good thesis? A good thesis statement does the following things:

• Makes a claim that will be supported by evidence
• Is specific and precise in its use of language
• Argues for an original thought that goes beyond a simple restating of the facts

If you’re sitting here scratching your head wondering how you come up with a thesis statement off the top of your head, let me give you one piece of advice: don’t.

The AP Lit scoring criteria gives you only one point for the thesis for a reason: they’re just looking for the presence of a defensible claim that can be proven by evidence in the rest of the essay.

Second: Write your essay from the inside out 

While the thesis is given one point, the form and content of the essay can receive anywhere from zero to four points. This is where you should place the bulk of your focus.

My best advice goes like this:

• Choose your evidence first
• Develop your commentary about the evidence
• Then draft your thesis statement based on the evidence that you find and the commentary you can create.

It will seem a little counterintuitive: like you’re writing your essay from the inside out. But this is a fundamental skill that will help you in college and beyond. Don’t come up with an argument out of thin air and then try to find evidence to support your claim. Look for the evidence that exists and then ask yourself what it all means. This will also keep you from feeling stuck or blocked at the beginning of the essay. If you prepare for the exam by reviewing the literary devices that you learned in the course and practice locating them in a text, you can quickly and efficiently read a literary passage and choose two or three literary devices that you can analyze.

Third: Use scratch paper to quickly outline your evidence and commentary 

Once you’ve located two or three literary devices at work in the given passage, use scratch paper to draw up a quick outline. Give each literary device a major bullet point. Then, briefly point to the quotes/evidence you’ll use in the essay. Finally, start to think about what the literary device and evidence are doing together. Try to answer the question: what meaning does this bring to the passage?

A sample outline for one paragraph of the above essay might look like this:

Romantic imagery

Portrayal of summer

• Woman who “from her golden collar… moans aloud”
• Summer as bounty

Contrast with Autumn

• Autumn dismantles Summer
• “Stray through stubble fields”
• Autumn is change; it has the power to dethrone the romance of Summer/make summer a bit meaningless

Recognition of change in a positive light

• Summer “lies on pillows / yellow leaves / tries old tunes”
• Bright imagery/fallen leaves
• Attempt to maintain old practices fails: “old tunes”
• But! There is sympathy: “lies on pillows”

Speaker recognizes: she can’t prevent what is to come; wishes to embrace natural passage of time

By the time the writer gets to the end of the outline for their paragraph, they can easily start to draw conclusions about the paragraph based on the evidence they have pulled out. You can see how that thinking might develop over the course of the outline.

Then, the speaker would take the conclusions they’ve drawn and write a “mini claim” that will start each paragraph. The final bullet point of this outline isn’t the same as the mini claim that comes at the top of the second paragraph of the essay, however, it is the conclusion of the paragraph. You would do well to use the concluding thoughts from your outline as the mini claim to start your body paragraph. This will make your paragraphs clear, concise, and help you to construct a coherent argument.

Repeat this process for the other one or two literary devices that you’ve chosen to analyze, and then: take a step back.

Fourth: Draft your thesis 

Once you quickly sketch out your outline, take a moment to “stand back” and see what you’ve drafted. You’ll be able to see that, among your two or three literary devices, you can draw some commonality. You might be able to say, as the writer did here, that romantic and hyperbolic imagery “illustrate the speaker’s unenthusiastic opinion of the coming of autumn,” ultimately illuminating the poet’s idea “that change is difficult to accept but necessary for growth.”

This is an original argument built on the evidence accumulated by the student. It directly answers the prompt by discussing literary techniques that “convey the speaker’s complex response to the changing seasons.” Remember to go back to the prompt and see what direction they want you to head with your thesis, and craft an argument that directly speaks to that prompt.

Then, move ahead to finish your body paragraphs and conclusion.

Fifth: Give each literary device its own body paragraph 

In this essay, the writer examines the use of two literary devices that are supported by multiple pieces of evidence. The first is “romantic imagery” and the second is “hyperbolic imagery.” The writer dedicates one paragraph to each idea. You should do this, too.

This is why it’s important to choose just two or three literary devices. You really don’t have time to dig into more. Plus, more ideas will simply cloud the essay and confuse your reader.

Using your outline, start each body paragraph with a “mini claim” that makes an argument about what it is you’ll be saying in your paragraph. Lay out your pieces of evidence, then provide commentary for why your evidence proves your point about that literary device.

Move onto the next literary device, rinse, and repeat.

Sixth: Commentary and Conclusion 

Finally, you’ll want to end this brief essay with a concluding paragraph that restates your thesis, briefly touches on your most important points from each body paragraph, and includes a development of the argument that you laid out in the essay.

In this particular example essay, the writer concludes by saying, “Utilizing romantic imagery and hyperbole to shape the Speaker’s perspective, Cary emphasizes the need to embrace change though it is difficult, because growth is not possible without hardship or discomfort.” This is a direct restatement of the thesis. At this point, you’ll have reached the end of your essay. Great work!

Seventh: Sophistication 

A final note on scoring criteria: there is one point awarded to what the scoring criteria calls “sophistication.” This is evidenced by the sophistication of thought and providing a nuanced literary analysis, which we’ve already covered in the steps above.

There are some things to avoid, however:

• Sweeping generalizations, such as, “From the beginning of human history, people have always searched for love,” or “Everyone goes through periods of darkness in their lives, much like the writer of this poem.”
• Only hinting at possible interpretations instead of developing your argument
• Oversimplifying your interpretation
• Or, by contrast, using overly flowery or complex language that does not meet your level of preparation or the context of the essay.

Remember to develop your argument with nuance and complexity and to write in a style that is academic but appropriate for the task at hand.

If you want more practice or to check out other exams from the past, go to the College Board’s website .

Brittany Borghi

After earning a BA in Journalism and an MFA in Nonfiction Writing from the University of Iowa, Brittany spent five years as a full-time lecturer in the Rhetoric Department at the University of Iowa. Additionally, she’s held previous roles as a researcher, full-time daily journalist, and book editor. Brittany’s work has been featured in The Iowa Review, The Hopkins Review, and the Pittsburgh City Paper, among others, and she was also a 2021 Pushcart Prize nominee.

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How to Write the AP Lit Prose Essay + Example

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What is the ap lit prose essay, how will ap scores affect my college chances.

AP Literature and Composition (AP Lit), not to be confused with AP English Language and Composition (AP Lang), teaches students how to develop the ability to critically read and analyze literary texts. These texts include poetry, prose, and drama. Analysis is an essential component of this course and critical for the educational development of all students when it comes to college preparation. In this course, you can expect to see an added difficulty of texts and concepts, similar to the material one would see in a college literature course.

While not as popular as AP Lang, over 380,136 students took the class in 2019. However, the course is significantly more challenging, with only 49.7% of students receiving a score of three or higher on the exam. A staggeringly low 6.2% of students received a five on the exam. 

The AP Lit exam is similar to the AP Lang exam in format, but covers different subject areas. The first section is multiple-choice questions based on five short passages. There are 55 questions to be answered in 1 hour. The passages will include at least two prose fiction passages and two poetry passages and will account for 45% of your total score. All possible answer choices can be found within the text, so you don’t need to come into the exam with prior knowledge of the passages to understand the work. 

The second section contains three free-response essays to be finished in under two hours. This section accounts for 55% of the final score and includes three essay questions: the poetry analysis essay, the prose analysis essay, and the thematic analysis essay. Typically, a five-paragraph format will suffice for this type of writing. These essays are scored holistically from one to six points.

Today we will take a look at the AP Lit prose essay and discuss tips and tricks to master this section of the exam. We will also provide an example of a well-written essay for review.  

The AP Lit prose essay is the second of the three essays included in the free-response section of the AP Lit exam, lasting around 40 minutes in total. A prose passage of approximately 500 to 700 words and a prompt will be given to guide your analytical essay. Worth about 18% of your total grade, the essay will be graded out of six points depending on the quality of your thesis (0-1 points), evidence and commentary (0-4 points), and sophistication (0-1 points). 

While this exam seems extremely overwhelming, considering there are a total of three free-response essays to complete, with proper time management and practiced skills, this essay is manageable and straightforward. In order to enhance the time management aspect of the test to the best of your ability, it is essential to understand the following six key concepts.

1. Have a Clear Understanding of the Prompt and the Passage

Since the prose essay is testing your ability to analyze literature and construct an evidence-based argument, the most important thing you can do is make sure you understand the passage. That being said, you only have about 40 minutes for the whole essay so you can’t spend too much time reading the passage. Allot yourself 5-7 minutes to read the prompt and the passage and then another 3-5 minutes to plan your response.

As you read through the prompt and text, highlight, circle, and markup anything that stands out to you. Specifically, try to find lines in the passage that could bolster your argument since you will need to include in-text citations from the passage in your essay. Even if you don’t know exactly what your argument might be, it’s still helpful to have a variety of quotes to use depending on what direction you take your essay, so take note of whatever strikes you as important. Taking the time to annotate as you read will save you a lot of time later on because you won’t need to reread the passage to find examples when you are in the middle of writing. 

Once you have a good grasp on the passage and a solid array of quotes to choose from, you should develop a rough outline of your essay. The prompt will provide 4-5 bullets that remind you of what to include in your essay, so you can use these to structure your outline. Start with a thesis, come up with 2-3 concrete claims to support your thesis, back up each claim with 1-2 pieces of evidence from the text, and write a brief explanation of how the evidence supports the claim.

2. Start with a Brief Introduction that Includes a Clear Thesis Statement

Having a strong thesis can help you stay focused and avoid tangents while writing. By deciding the relevant information you want to hit upon in your essay up front, you can prevent wasting precious time later on. Clear theses are also important for the reader because they direct their focus to your essential arguments. 

In other words, it’s important to make the introduction brief and compact so your thesis statement shines through. The introduction should include details from the passage, like the author and title, but don’t waste too much time with extraneous details. Get to the heart of your essay as quick as possible. 

3. Use Clear Examples to Support Your Argument 

One of the requirements AP Lit readers are looking for is your use of evidence. In order to satisfy this aspect of the rubric, you should make sure each body paragraph has at least 1-2 pieces of evidence, directly from the text, that relate to the claim that paragraph is making. Since the prose essay tests your ability to recognize and analyze literary elements and techniques, it’s often better to include smaller quotes. For example, when writing about the author’s use of imagery or diction you might pick out specific words and quote each word separately rather than quoting a large block of text. Smaller quotes clarify exactly what stood out to you so your reader can better understand what are you saying.

Including smaller quotes also allows you to include more evidence in your essay. Be careful though—having more quotes is not necessarily better! You will showcase your strength as a writer not by the number of quotes you manage to jam into a paragraph, but by the relevance of the quotes to your argument and explanation you provide.  If the details don’t connect, they are merely just strings of details.

4. Discussion is Crucial to Connect Your Evidence to Your Argument 

As the previous tip explained, citing phrases and words from the passage won’t get you anywhere if you don’t provide an explanation as to how your examples support the claim you are making. After each new piece of evidence is introduced, you should have a sentence or two that explains the significance of this quote to the piece as a whole.

This part of the paragraph is the “So what?” You’ve already stated the point you are trying to get across in the topic sentence and shared the examples from the text, so now show the reader why or how this quote demonstrates an effective use of a literary technique by the author. Sometimes students can get bogged down by the discussion and lose sight of the point they are trying to make. If this happens to you while writing, take a step back and ask yourself “Why did I include this quote? What does it contribute to the piece as a whole?” Write down your answer and you will be good to go. 

5. Write a Brief Conclusion

While the critical part of the essay is to provide a substantive, organized, and clear argument throughout the body paragraphs, a conclusion provides a satisfying ending to the essay and the last opportunity to drive home your argument. If you run out of time for a conclusion because of extra time spent in the preceding paragraphs, do not worry, as that is not fatal to your score. 

Without repeating your thesis statement word for word, find a way to return to the thesis statement by summing up your main points. This recap reinforces the arguments stated in the previous paragraphs, while all of the preceding paragraphs successfully proved the thesis statement.

6. Don’t Forget About Your Grammar

Though you will undoubtedly be pressed for time, it’s still important your essay is well-written with correct punctuating and spelling. Many students are able to write a strong thesis and include good evidence and commentary, but the final point on the rubric is for sophistication. This criteria is more holistic than the former ones which means you should have elevated thoughts and writing—no grammatical errors. While a lack of grammatical mistakes alone won’t earn you the sophistication point, it will leave the reader with a more favorable impression of you. 

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Here are Nine Must-have Tips and Tricks to Get a Good Score on the Prose Essay:

• Carefully read, review, and underline key instruction s in the prompt.
• Briefly outlin e what you want to cover in your essay.
• Be sure to have a clear thesis that includes the terms mentioned in the instructions, literary devices, tone, and meaning.
• Include the author’s name and title  in your introduction. Refer to characters by name.
• Quality over quantity when it comes to picking quotes! Better to have a smaller number of more detailed quotes than a large amount of vague ones.
• Fully explain how each piece of evidence supports your thesis .  
• Focus on the literary techniques in the passage and avoid summarizing the plot. 
• Use transitions to connect sentences and paragraphs.
• Keep your introduction and conclusion short, and don’t repeat your thesis verbatim in your conclusion.

Here is an example essay from 2020 that received a perfect 6:

[1] In this passage from a 1912 novel, the narrator wistfully details his childhood crush on a girl violinist. Through a motif of the allure of musical instruments, and abundant sensory details that summon a vivid image of the event of their meeting, the reader can infer that the narrator was utterly enraptured by his obsession in the moment, and upon later reflection cannot help but feel a combination of amusement and a resummoning of the moment’s passion. 

[2] The overwhelming abundance of hyper-specific sensory details reveals to the reader that meeting his crush must have been an intensely powerful experience to create such a vivid memory. The narrator can picture the “half-dim church”, can hear the “clear wail” of the girl’s violin, can see “her eyes almost closing”, can smell a “faint but distinct fragrance.” Clearly, this moment of discovery was very impactful on the boy, because even later he can remember the experience in minute detail. However, these details may also not be entirely faithful to the original experience; they all possess a somewhat mysterious quality that shows how the narrator may be employing hyperbole to accentuate the girl’s allure. The church is “half-dim”, the eyes “almost closing” – all the details are held within an ethereal state of halfway, which also serves to emphasize that this is all told through memory. The first paragraph also introduces the central conciet of music. The narrator was drawn to the “tones she called forth” from her violin and wanted desperately to play her “accompaniment.” This serves the double role of sensory imagery (with the added effect of music being a powerful aural image) and metaphor, as the accompaniment stands in for the narrator’s true desire to be coupled with his newfound crush. The musical juxtaposition between the “heaving tremor of the organ” and the “clear wail” of her violin serves to further accentuate how the narrator percieved the girl as above all other things, as high as an angel. Clearly, the memory of his meeting his crush is a powerful one that left an indelible impact on the narrator. 

[3] Upon reflecting on this memory and the period of obsession that followed, the narrator cannot help but feel amused at the lengths to which his younger self would go; this is communicated to the reader with some playful irony and bemused yet earnest tone. The narrator claims to have made his “first and last attempts at poetry” in devotion to his crush, and jokes that he did not know to be “ashamed” at the quality of his poetry. This playful tone pokes fun at his childhood self for being an inexperienced poet, yet also acknowledges the very real passion that the poetry stemmed from. The narrator goes on to mention his “successful” endeavor to conceal his crush from his friends and the girl; this holds an ironic tone because the narrator immediately admits that his attempts to hide it were ill-fated and all parties were very aware of his feelings. The narrator also recalls his younger self jumping to hyperbolic extremes when imagining what he would do if betrayed by his love, calling her a “heartless jade” to ironically play along with the memory. Despite all this irony, the narrator does also truly comprehend the depths of his past self’s infatuation and finds it moving. The narrator begins the second paragraph with a sentence that moves urgently, emphasizing the myriad ways the boy was obsessed. He also remarks, somewhat wistfully, that the experience of having this crush “moved [him] to a degree which now [he] can hardly think of as possible.” Clearly, upon reflection the narrator feels a combination of amusement at the silliness of his former self and wistful respect for the emotion that the crush stirred within him. 

[4] In this passage, the narrator has a multifaceted emotional response while remembering an experience that was very impactful on him. The meaning of the work is that when we look back on our memories (especially those of intense passion), added perspective can modify or augment how those experiences make us feel

More essay examples, score sheets, and commentaries can be found at College Board .

While AP Scores help to boost your weighted GPA, or give you the option to get college credit, AP Scores don’t have a strong effect on your admissions chances . However, colleges can still see your self-reported scores, so you might not want to automatically send scores to colleges if they are lower than a 3. That being said, admissions officers care far more about your grade in an AP class than your score on the exam.

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, writing a prose essay.

I've got an assignment to write a prose essay, but I'm not exactly sure what that means. Can any of you help me understand the definition of a prose essay and maybe some tips on how to write one?

A prose essay is a type of essay written in prose, which is a natural, flowing form of language, as opposed to verse or poetry. Essentially, when you're asked to write a prose essay, you're being asked to write an essay in complete sentences, organized into paragraphs, that clearly communicates your thoughts and ideas.

To write a prose essay, follow these steps:

1. Understand the prompt: Read the essay prompt or question carefully and make sure you fully comprehend what is being asked of you. Ask your teacher if you're unclear about what the point of the question is.

2. Brainstorm and outline: Jot down your thoughts and ideas related to the prompt and begin organizing them into a logical structure. Create an outline to serve as the framework for your essay, with a clear introduction, body, and conclusion.

3. Introduction: Start with an engaging opening line that grabs the reader's attention and introduces the topic. Provide some background information and outline the main points you plan to cover in the essay.

4. Body paragraphs: Each paragraph should focus on a single main point that supports your overall argument. Use evidence, examples, and analysis to back up your claims and explain how they connect to the essay's central theme.

5. Transitions: Smoothly transition between paragraphs and ideas with appropriate phrases and sentences. This will help improve the readability and flow of your essay.

6. Conclusion: Summarize the most important points made in the body paragraphs and restate the thesis or main argument. Offer some insight or thoughts about the implications of your analysis.

7. Edit and revise: Carefully review your essay for clarity, coherence, grammar, and spelling errors—even small typos may give your reader the impression that you don't care all that much about what you're writing about. Make necessary changes to improve readability and ensure that your essay effectively addresses the prompt. Reading your essay out loud can sometimes be a good way of identifying snag points.

Finally, remember to keep your language clear and concise, while still using a variety of sentence structures and vocabulary to make your essay more engaging. Good luck with your prose essay assignment!

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What Is Prose? Definition, Usage, and Literary Examples

Prose definition.

Prose  (PROHzuh) is written language that appears in its ordinary form, without metrical structure or line breaks. This definition is an example of prose writing, as are most textbooks and instruction manuals, emails and letters, fiction writing, newspaper and magazine articles, research papers, conversations, and essays.

The word  prose  first entered English circa 1300 and meant “story, narration.” It came from the Old French  prose  (13th century), via the Latin  prosa oratio , meaning “straightforward or direct speech.” Its meaning of “prose-writing; not poetry” arrived in the mid-14th century.

Types of Prose Writing

Prose writing can appear in many forms. These are some of the most common:

• Heroic prose:  Literary works of heroic prose, which may be written down or recited, employ many of the same tropes found in the oral tradition. Examples of this would include the  Norse Prose Edda  or other legends and tales.
• Nonfictional prose:  This is prose based on facts, real events, and real people, such as  biography ,  autobiography , history, or journalism.
• Prose fiction:  Literary works in this style are imagined. Parts may be based on or inspired by real-life events or people, but the work itself is the product of an author’s imagination. Examples of this would include novels and short stories.
• Purple Prose:  The term  purple prose  carries a negative connotation. It refers to prose that is too elaborate, ornate, or flowery. It’s categorized by excessive use of adverbs, adjectives, and bad  metaphors .

Prose and Verse

While both are styles of writing, there are certain key differences between prose, which is used in standard writing, and verse, which is typically used for  poetry .

As stated, prose follows the natural patterns of speech. It’s formed through common grammatical structures, such as  sentences  that are built into paragraphs. For example, in the opening paragraph of Diana Spechler’s  New York Times  article “ Among the Healers ,” she writes:

We arrive at noon and take our numbers. The more motivated, having traveled from all over Mexico, began showing up at 3 a.m. About half of the 80 people ahead of us sit in the long waiting room on benches that line the walls, while others stand clustered outside or kill the long hours wandering around Tonalá, a suburb of Guadalajara known for its artisans, its streets edged with handmade furniture, vases as tall as men, mushrooms constructed of shiny tiles. Rafael, the healer, has been receiving one visitor after another since 5. That’s what he does every day except Sunday, every week of his life.

Although Spechler utilizes some of the literary devices often associated with verse, such as strong  imagery  and  simile , she doesn’t follow any poetic conventions. This piece of writing is comprised of sentences, which means it is written in prose.

Unlike prose, verse is formed through patterns of  meter ,  rhyme , line breaks, and  stanzaic  structure—all aspects that relate to writing  poems . For example, the  free verse  poem “ I am Trying to Break Your Heart ” by Kevin Young begins:

I am hoping

to hang your head

While this poem doesn’t utilize meter or rhyme, it’s categorized as verse because it’s composed in short two-line stanzaic units called  couplets . The remainder of the poem is comprised of couplets and the occasional monostich (one-line stanza).

• Prose Poetry

Although verse and prose are different, there is a form that combines the two: prose poetry. Poems in this vein contains poetic devices, such as imagery, white space,  figurative language ,  sound devices ,  alliteration ,  rhyme ,  rhythm , repetition, and heightened emotions. However, it’s written in prose form—sentences and paragraphs—instead of stanzas.

Examples of Prose in Literature

1. José Olivarez “ Ars Poetica ”

In this prose poem, Olivarez writes:

Migration is derived from the word “migrate,” which is a verb defined by Merriam-Webster as “to move from one country, place, or locality to another.” Plot twist: migration never ends. My parents moved from Jalisco, México to Chicago in 1987. They were dislocated from México by capitalism, and they arrived in Chicago just in time to be dislocated by capitalism. Question: is migration possible if there is no “other” land to arrive in. My work: to imagine. My family started migrating in 1987 and they never stopped. I was born mid-migration. I’ve made my home in that motion. Let me try again: I tried to become American, but America is toxic. I tried to become Mexican, but México is toxic. My work: to do more than reproduce the toxic stories I inherited and learned. In other words: just because it is art doesn’t mean it is inherently nonviolent. My work: to write poems that make my people feel safe, seen, or otherwise loved. My work: to make my enemies feel afraid, angry, or otherwise ignored. My people: my people. My enemies: capitalism. Susan Sontag: “victims are interested in the representation of their own sufferings.” Remix: survivors are interested in the representation of their own survival. My work: survival. Question: Why poems? Answer:

Olivarez crafted this poem in prose form rather than verse. He uses literary techniques such as surprising syntax, white space, heightened emotion, and unexpected turns to heighten the poetic elements of his work, but he doesn’t utilize verse tools, such as meter, rhyme, line breaks, or stanzaic structure.

2. Herman Melville,  Moby Dick

Melville’s novel is a classic work of prose fiction, often referenced as The Great American Novel. It opens with the following lines:

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.

3. Toni Morrison,  Playing in the Dark

Playing in the Dark , which examines American literature through the lens of race, freedom, and individualism, was originally delivered while Morrison was a guest speaker at Harvard University. She begins:

These chapters put forth an argument for extending the study of American literature into what I hope will be a wider landscape. I want to draw a map, so to speak, of a critical geography and use that map to open as much space for discovery, intellectual adventure, and close exploration as did the original charting of the New World—without the mandate for conquest.

Further Resources on Prose

David Lehman edited a wonderful anthology of prose poetry called  Great American Prose Poems: From Poe to the Present .

For fans of prose in fiction, the editors of Modern Library put together a list of the  100 greatest novels .

Nonfiction prose fans may enjoy  Longform , which curates and links to new and classic nonfiction from around the web.

Related Terms

• Blank Verse

• Literary Terms
• When & How to Write a Prose
• Definition & Examples

How to Write Prose

There’s just one rule for writing prose: don’t write verse by mistake. If you grew up in the modern world, chances are you’ve been writing prose since the day you started stringing sentences together on a page. So all you have to do now is keep it up!

• In general, prose does not have line breaks; rather, it has complete sentences with periods or other punctuation marks.
• There’s another very important kind of line break that makes your prose easier to understand: paragraph breaks. Paragraphs break up your writing into manageable chunks that the reader can digest one at a time as they read. This is especially important in essays , where each paragraph contains a single “step” in the argument. Without paragraph breaks, prose becomes pretty ugly: just a huge block of words without any breaks or structure at all!

When to Use Prose

Unless you’re writing poetry, you’re writing prose. (Remember that prose has a negative definition.) As we saw in §2, essays use prose. This is mainly just a convention – it’s what readers are used to, so it’s what writers use. In the modern world, we generally find prose easier to read, so readers prefer to have essays written that way. The same thing is true for stories – we have an easier time following the story when it’s written in prose simply because it’s what we’re accustomed to.

So you can use prose pretty much anywhere – poetry is the only kind of writing that frequently uses verse, meaning prose covers everything else . And even poetry, as we’ve seen, can be written in prose. So when should you use prose? The answer is: all over the place.

List of Terms

• Alliteration
• Amplification
• Anachronism
• Anthropomorphism
• Antonomasia
• APA Citation
• Aposiopesis
• Autobiography
• Bildungsroman
• Characterization
• Circumlocution
• Cliffhanger
• Comic Relief
• Connotation
• Deus ex machina
• Deuteragonist
• Doppelganger
• Double Entendre
• Dramatic irony
• Equivocation
• Extended Metaphor
• Figures of Speech
• Flash-forward
• Foreshadowing
• Intertextuality
• Juxtaposition
• Literary Device
• Malapropism
• Onomatopoeia
• Parallelism
• Pathetic Fallacy
• Personification
• Point of View
• Polysyndeton
• Protagonist
• Red Herring
• Rhetorical Device
• Rhetorical Question
• Science Fiction
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• Synesthesia
• Turning Point
• Understatement
• Urban Legend
• Verisimilitude
• Essay Guide
• Cite This Website

• Scriptwriting

What is Prose — Definition and Examples in Literature

• What is a Poem
• What is a Stanza in a Poem
• What is Dissonance
• What is a Sonnet
• What is a Haiku
• What is Prose
• What is an Ode
• What is Repetition in Poetry
• How to Write a Poem
• Types of Poems Guide
• What is an Acrostic Poem
• What is an Epic Poem
• What is Lyric Poetry

P rose can be a rather general literary term that many use to describe all types of writing. However, prose by definition pertains to specific qualities of writing that we will dive into in this article. What is the difference between prose and poetry and what is prose used for? Let’s define this essential literary concept and look at some examples to find out.

What is Prose in Literature?

First, let’s define prose.

Prose is used in various ways for various purposes. It's a concept you need to understand if your goal to master the literary form. Before we dive in, it’s important to understand the prose definition and how it is distinguished from other styles of writing. 

PROSE DEFINITION

What is prose.

In writing, prose is a style used that does not follow a structure of rhyming or meter. Rather, prose follows a grammatical structure using words to compose phrases that are arranged into sentences and paragraphs. It is used to directly communicate concepts, ideas, and stories to a reader. Prose follows an almost naturally verbal flow of writing that is most common among fictional and non-fictional literature such as novels, magazines, and journals.

Four types of prose:

Nonfictional prose, fictional prose, prose poetry, heroic prose, prose meaning , prose vs poetry.

To better understand prose, it’s important to understand what structures it does not follow which would be the structure of poetry. Let’s analyze the difference between prose vs poetry.

Poetry follows a specific rhyme and metric structure. These are often lines and stanzas within a poem. Poetry also utilizes more figurative and often ambiguous language that purposefully leaves room for the readers’ analysis and interpretation.

Finally, poetry plays with space on a page. Intentional line breaks, negative space, and varying line lengths make poetry a more aesthetic form of writing than prose. 

Take, for example, the structure of this [Why] by E.E. Cummings. Observe his use of space and aesthetics as well as metric structure in the poem. 

E.E. Cummings Poem

E.E. Cummings may be one of the more stylish poets when it comes to use of page space. But poetry is difference in structure and practice than prose. 

Prose follows a structure that makes use of sentences, phrases, and paragraphs. This type of writing follows a flow more similar to verbal speech and communication. This makes it the best style of writing to clearly articulate and communicate concepts, events, stories, and ideas as opposed to the figurative style of poetry.

What is Prose in Literature? 

Take, for example, the opening paragraph of JD Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye . We can tell immediately the prose is written in a direct, literal way that also gives voice to our protagonist . 

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.

From this example, you can see how the words flow more conversationally than poetry and is more direct with what information or meaning is being communicated. Now that you understand the difference between poetry, let’s look at the four types of prose.

Related Posts

• What is Litotes — Definition and Examples →
• Different Types of Poems and Poem Structures →
• What is Iambic Pentameter? Definition and Examples →

Prose Examples

Types of prose.

While all four types of prose adhere to the definition we established, writers use the writing style for different purposes. These varying purposes can be categorized into four different types.

Nonfictional prose is a body of writing that is based on factual and true events. The information is not created from a writer’s imagination, but rather true accounts of real events. 

This type can be found in newspapers, magazines, journals, biographies, and textbooks. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl , for example, is a work written in nonfictional style.

Unlike nonfictional, fictional prose is partly or wholly created from a writer’s imagination. The events, characters, and story are imagined such as Romeo and Juliet , The Adventures of Tom Sawyer , or Brave New World . This type is found as novels, short stories, or novellas .

Heroic prose is a work of writing that is meant to be recited and passed on through oral or written tradition. Legends, mythology, fables, and parables are examples of heroic prose that have been passed on over time in preservation. 

Finally, prose poetry is poetry that is expressed and written in prose form. This can be thought of almost as a hybrid of the two that can sometimes utilize rhythmic measures. This type of poetry often utilizes more figurative language but is usually written in paragraph form. 

An example of prose poetry is “Spring Day” by Amy Lowell. Lowell, an American poet, published this in 1916 and can be read almost as hyper short stories written in a prose poetry style. 

The first section can be read below: 

The day is fresh-washed and fair, and there is a smell of tulips and narcissus in the air.

The sunshine pours in at the bath-room window and bores through the water in the bath-tub in lathes and planes of greenish-white. It cleaves the water into flaws like a jewel, and cracks it to bright light.

Little spots of sunshine lie on the surface of the water and dance, dance, and their reflections wobble deliciously over the ceiling; a stir of my finger sets them whirring, reeling. I move a foot, and the planes of light in the water jar. I lie back and laugh, and let the green-white water, the sun-flawed beryl water, flow over me. The day is almost too bright to bear, the green water covers me from the too bright day. I will lie here awhile and play with the water and the sun spots.

The sky is blue and high. A crow flaps by the window, and there is a whiff of tulips and narcissus in the air."

While these four types of prose are varying ways writers choose to use it, let’s look at the functions of them to identify the strengths of the writing style. 

What Does Prose Mean in Writing

Function of prose in literature.

What is prose used for and when? Let’s say you want to tell a story, but you’re unsure if using prose or poetry would best tell your story.

To determine if the correct choice is prose, it’s important to understand the strengths of the writing style. 

Direct communication

Prose, unlike poetry, is often less figurative and ambiguous. This means that a writer can be more direct with the information they are trying to communicate. This can be especially useful in storytelling, both fiction and nonfiction, to efficiently fulfill the points of a plot.

Curate a voice

Because prose is written in the flow of verbal conversation, it’s incredibly effective at curating a specific voice for a character. Dialogue within novels and short stories benefit from this style.

Think about someone you know and how they talk. Odds are, much of their character and personality can be found in their voice.

When creating characters, prose enables a writer to curate the voice of that character. For example, one of the most iconic opening lines in literature informs us of what type of character we will be following.

Albert Camus’ The Stranger utilizes prose in first person to establish the voice of the story’s protagonist. 

“Mother died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can’t be sure. The telegram from the Home says: YOUR MOTHER PASSED AWAY. FUNERAL TOMORROW. DEEP SYMPATHY. Which leaves the matter doubtful; it could have been yesterday.”

Build rapport with the reader

Lastly, in addition to giving character’s a curated voice, prose builds rapport with the reader. The conversational tone allows readers to become familiar with a type of writing that connects them with the writer. 

A great example of this is Hunter S. Thompson’s Hell’s Angels . As a nonfiction work written in prose, Thompson’s voice and style in the writing is distinct and demands a relationship with the reader.

Whether it is one of contradiction or agreement, the connection exists through the prose. It is a connection that makes a reader want to meet or talk with the writer once they finish their work. 

Prose is one of the most common writing styles for modern writers. But truly mastering it means understanding both its strengths and its shortcomings. 

Different Types of Poems

Curious about learning about the counterpart to prose? In our next article we dive in different types of poems as well as different types of poem structures. Check out the complete writer’s guide to poetry types up next. 

Up Next: Types of Poems →

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What Is Prose?

Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

Prose is ordinary writing (both fiction and nonfiction ) as distinguished from verse. Most essays , compositions , reports , articles , research papers , short stories, and journal entries are types of prose writings.

In his book The Establishment of Modern English Prose (1998), Ian Robinson observed that the term prose is "surprisingly hard to define. . . . We shall return to the sense there may be in the old joke that prose is not verse."

In 1906, English philologist Henry Cecil Wyld suggested that the "best prose is never entirely remote in form from the best corresponding conversational style of the period" ( The Historical Study of the Mother Tongue ).

From the Latin, "forward" + "turn"

Observations

"I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry: that is, prose = words in their best order; poetry = the best words in the best order." (Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Table Talk , July 12, 1827)

Philosophy Teacher: All that is not prose is verse; and all that is not verse is prose. M. Jourdain: What? When I say: "Nicole, bring me my slippers, and give me my night-cap," is that prose? Philosophy Teacher: Yes, sir. M. Jourdain: Good heavens! For more than 40 years I have been speaking prose without knowing it. (Molière, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme , 1671)

"For me, a page of good prose is where one hears the rain and the noise of battle. It has the power to give grief or universality that lends it a youthful beauty." (John Cheever, on accepting the National Medal for Literature, 1982)

" Prose is when all the lines except the last go on to the end. Poetry is when some of them fall short of it." (Jeremy Bentham, quoted by M. St. J. Packe in The Life of John Stuart Mill , 1954)

"You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose ." (Governor Mario Cuomo, New Republic , April 8, 1985)

Transparency in Prose

"[O]ne can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one's own personality. Good prose is like a window pane." (George Orwell, "Why I Write," 1946) "Our ideal prose , like our ideal typography, is transparent: if a reader doesn't notice it, if it provides a transparent window to the meaning, then the prose stylist has succeeded. But if your ideal prose is purely transparent, such transparency will be, by definition, hard to describe. You can't hit what you can't see. And what is transparent to you is often opaque to someone else. Such an ideal makes for a difficult pedagogy." (Richard Lanham, Analyzing Prose , 2nd ed. Continuum, 2003)

" Prose is the ordinary form of spoken or written language: it fulfills innumerable functions, and it can attain many different kinds of excellence. A well-argued legal judgment, a lucid scientific paper, a readily grasped set of technical instructions all represent triumphs of prose after their fashion. And quantity tells. Inspired prose may be as rare as great poetry--though I am inclined to doubt even that; but good prose is unquestionably far more common than good poetry. It is something you can come across every day: in a letter, in a newspaper, almost anywhere." (John Gross, Introduction to The New Oxford Book of English Prose . Oxford Univ. Press, 1998)

A Method of Prose Study

"Here is a method of prose study which I myself found the best critical practice I have ever had. A brilliant and courageous teacher whose lessons I enjoyed when I was a sixth-former trained me to study prose and verse critically not by setting down my comments but almost entirely by writing imitations of the style . Mere feeble imitation of the exact arrangement of words was not accepted; I had to produce passages that could be mistaken for the work of the author, that copied all the characteristics of the style but treated of some different subject. In order to do this at all it is necessary to make a very minute study of the style; I still think it was the best teaching I ever had. It has the added merit of giving an improved command of the English language and a greater variation in our own style." (Marjorie Boulton, The Anatomy of Prose . Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1954)

Pronunciation: PROZ

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Understanding Prose in Literature: A Comprehensive Guide

Defining prose, types of prose, prose vs. verse, prose styles, narrative style, descriptive style, expository style, argumentative style, literary devices in prose, foreshadowing, analyzing prose, close reading, theme and message, notable authors and their prose, jane austen, ernest hemingway, toni morrison, prose in different cultures, greek prose, indian prose, japanese prose.

Prose in literature is a fascinating topic that has captured the attention of readers and writers for centuries. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore the different aspects of prose and how it shapes the world of literature. By understanding prose, you will be able to appreciate the beauty of written language and enhance your own writing skills. So, let's dive into the captivating world of prose in literature!

Prose is a form of written language that follows a natural, everyday speech pattern. It is the way we communicate in writing without adhering to the strict rules of poetry or verse. In literature, prose encompasses a wide range of written works, from novels and short stories to essays and articles. To better understand prose in literature, let's look at the different types of prose and how it compares to verse.

There are several types of prose in literature, each serving a unique purpose and offering a different reading experience:

• Fiction: Imaginative works, such as novels and short stories, that tell a story.
• Non-fiction: Informative works, such as essays, articles, and biographies, that present facts and real-life experiences.
• Drama: Plays and scripts written in prose form, often featuring dialogue and stage directions.
• Prose poetry: A hybrid form that combines elements of prose and poetry, creating a more fluid and expressive style.

By exploring these types of prose, you can better appreciate the versatility and depth of prose in literature.

Prose and verse are two distinct forms of written language, each with its own characteristics and purposes. Here's a quick comparison:

• Prose: Written in a natural, conversational style, prose uses sentences and paragraphs to convey meaning. It is the most common form of writing and can be found in novels, essays, articles, and other forms of literature.
• Verse: Written in a structured, rhythmic pattern, verse often uses stanzas, rhyme, and meter to create a more musical quality. It is most commonly found in poetry and song lyrics.

Understanding the differences between prose and verse can help you appreciate the unique qualities of each form and how they contribute to the richness of literature.

Just as there are different types of prose, there are also various prose styles that authors use to convey their ideas and stories. These styles can be categorized into four main groups:

The narrative style tells a story by presenting events in a sequence, typically involving characters and a plot. This style is commonly used in novels, short stories, and biographies. Some key features of the narrative style include:

• Chronological or non-chronological structure
• Use of dialogue and description
• Focus on characters, their actions, and motivations
• Development of a plot, consisting of a beginning, middle, and end

By using the narrative style, authors can create engaging stories that draw readers in and make them feel a part of the experience.

The descriptive style focuses on painting a vivid picture of a person, place, or thing. This style is used to provide detailed information and create a strong sensory experience for the reader. Some key features of the descriptive style include:

• Use of sensory language, such as sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch
• Adjectives and adverbs to enhance descriptions
• Figurative language, such as similes and metaphors, to create vivid imagery
• Attention to detail and setting

By mastering the descriptive style, authors can transport readers to new worlds and enrich their understanding of the subject matter.

The expository style is used to explain, inform, or describe a topic. This style is commonly found in textbooks, essays, and articles. Some key features of the expository style include:

• Clear, concise language
• Logical organization of information
• Use of examples, facts, and statistics to support the main idea
• An objective, unbiased tone

By employing the expository style, authors can effectively convey information and help readers gain a deeper understanding of a subject.

The argumentative style is used to persuade or convince the reader of a certain viewpoint. This style is often found in opinion pieces, essays, and debates. Some key features of the argumentative style include:

• A clear, well-defined thesis statement
• Logical organization of arguments and evidence
• Use of facts, statistics, and examples to support the thesis
• Addressing and refuting opposing viewpoints
• A persuasive, confident tone

By mastering the argumentative style, authors can effectively present their opinions and persuade readers to consider their perspective.

Understanding these different prose styles can help you appreciate the diverse ways authors use language to convey their ideas and enhance your own writing abilities.

Authors use various literary devices to enrich their prose and make it more engaging for the reader. These devices help create an emotional connection, build suspense, or bring out deeper meanings in the text. Let's explore some of the most commonly used literary devices in prose:

Imagery is the use of vivid and descriptive language to create a picture in the reader's mind. This technique appeals to the five senses and can make a piece of writing more immersive and memorable. Some examples of imagery include:

• Visual imagery: describing the appearance of a character or setting
• Auditory imagery: describing sounds, such as the rustling of leaves or the roar of a crowd
• Olfactory imagery: describing smells, such as the scent of fresh-baked cookies or the aroma of a garden
• Gustatory imagery: describing tastes, such as the sweetness of a ripe fruit or the bitterness of a cup of coffee
• Tactile imagery: describing textures and physical sensations, such as the softness of a blanket or the warmth of the sun

By using imagery, authors can create a richer, more engaging experience for the reader.

Foreshadowing is a technique used to hint at events that will occur later in the story. This can create suspense, build anticipation, and keep the reader engaged. Foreshadowing can be subtle or more direct and can take various forms, such as:

• Character dialogue or thoughts
• Symbolism or motifs
• Setting or atmosphere
• Actions or events that mirror or prefigure future events

By incorporating foreshadowing, authors can create a sense of mystery and intrigue that keeps readers turning the pages.

Allusion is a reference to a well-known person, event, or work of art, literature, or music. This technique allows authors to make connections and add depth to their writing without explicitly stating the reference. Allusions can serve various purposes, such as:

• Creating a shared understanding between the author and the reader
• Establishing a cultural, historical, or literary context
• Adding layers of meaning or symbolism
• Providing a subtle commentary or critique

By using allusion, authors can enhance their prose and engage readers with shared knowledge and cultural references.

These are just a few examples of the many literary devices that authors use to enrich their prose in literature. By understanding and recognizing these techniques, you can deepen your appreciation of the written word and perhaps even add some of these tools to your own writing repertoire.

Analyzing prose in literature involves closely examining the text to gain a deeper understanding of the author's intentions, themes, and techniques. This process can help you appreciate the nuances of the writing and uncover new insights. Let's explore some approaches to analyzing prose:

Close reading is a method of carefully examining the text to identify its structure, themes, and literary devices. This approach involves paying attention to details such as:

• Word choice and diction
• Sentence structure and syntax
• Imagery and figurative language
• Characterization and dialogue
• Setting and atmosphere

By closely examining these elements, you can gain a deeper understanding of the author's intentions and the text's overall meaning.

Identifying the theme or central message of a piece of prose is another important aspect of analysis. A theme is a recurring idea, topic, or subject that runs through the text. Some common themes in literature include:

• Love and relationships
• Identity and self-discovery
• Power and authority
• Conflict and resolution
• Nature and the environment

To identify the theme of a piece of prose, consider the overall message or lesson that the author is trying to convey. Look for patterns, motifs, and symbols that support this message. Understanding the theme can help you better appreciate the author's intentions and the text's significance.

By employing these approaches to analyzing prose in literature, you can deepen your understanding of the text and enhance your appreciation of the author's craft. Whether you're studying a classic novel or a contemporary short story, these skills will help you unlock the richness and complexity of the written word.

Throughout history, numerous authors have made significant contributions to the world of prose in literature. Their unique writing styles and innovative approaches to storytelling have left an indelible mark on the literary landscape. Let's take a closer look at some notable authors and their distinctive prose:

Jane Austen, an English author from the early 19th century, is well-known for her witty and satirical prose. Her novels often center on themes of love, marriage, and social class in the Georgian era. Examples of her work include Pride and Prejudice , Sense and Sensibility , and Emma . Austen's prose is characterized by:

• Sharp wit and humor
• Observant descriptions of characters and their social interactions
• Realistic dialogue that reveals the personalities and motivations of her characters
• Insightful commentary on societal norms and expectations of her time

Ernest Hemingway, an American author from the 20th century, is celebrated for his distinctive writing style that has had a lasting impact on prose in literature. His works often explore themes of war, love, and the human condition, such as in A Farewell to Arms , The Old Man and the Sea , and For Whom the Bell Tolls . Hemingway's prose is characterized by:

• Simple, direct language and short sentences
• An emphasis on action and external events
• Understated emotions and a focus on the physical world
• A "less is more" approach that leaves room for reader interpretation

Toni Morrison, an American author and Nobel laureate, is renowned for her powerful, evocative prose that delves into the complexities of human relationships and the African American experience. Notable works include Beloved , Song of Solomon , and The Bluest Eye . Morrison's prose is characterized by:

• Rich, lyrical language and vivid imagery
• Complex characters and multi-layered narratives
• Explorations of race, gender, and identity
• A strong sense of voice and emotional intensity

These authors, among many others, have each left their unique imprint on the realm of prose in literature. By studying their works and understanding their techniques, we can better appreciate the diverse ways in which writers can use prose to convey their stories and ideas.

Prose in literature is a global phenomenon, with each culture bringing its own distinctive style, themes, and literary traditions to the table. Let's explore how prose has developed and evolved in some cultures around the world:

Ancient Greek prose has had a profound influence on Western literature. Spanning various genres such as philosophy, history, and drama, Greek prose is known for its intellectual depth and stylistic sophistication. Key features of Greek prose include:

• Rhetorical devices like repetition, parallelism, and antithesis
• Emphasis on logic, reason, and argumentation
• Rich vocabulary and complex sentence structures
• Notable authors like Plato, Aristotle, and Herodotus

Indian prose in literature spans thousands of years and numerous languages, with each region and time period contributing its own flavor to the mix. Indian prose is often characterized by:

• Epic tales and religious texts, such as the Mahabharata and the Ramayana
• Folk tales, fables, and parables that convey moral lessons
• Ornate and poetic language, with a focus on imagery and symbolism
• Notable authors like Rabindranath Tagore, R. K. Narayan, and Arundhati Roy

Japanese prose in literature is known for its elegance, subtlety, and attention to detail. Spanning various genres such as poetry, drama, and fiction, Japanese prose often explores themes of nature, human emotion, and the passage of time. Key features of Japanese prose include:

• Haiku and other poetic forms that emphasize simplicity and precision
• Descriptions of the natural world and the changing seasons
• Understated emotions and a focus on the inner lives of characters
• Notable authors like Yasunari Kawabata, Yukio Mishima, and Haruki Murakami

By examining the diverse range of prose in literature from various cultures, we can gain a deeper appreciation for the many ways in which authors use language to tell stories, express ideas, and convey the human experience.

If you found this blog post intriguing and want to delve deeper into writing from your memories, be sure to check out Charlie Brogan's workshop, ' Writing From Memory - Part 1 .' This workshop will guide you through the process of tapping into your memories and transforming them into captivating stories. Don't miss this opportunity to enhance your writing skills and unleash your creativity!

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AP Lit Prose Analysis: Practice Prompt Samples & Feedback

9 min read • january 2, 2021

Candace Moore

Practicing Prose Analysis is a great way to prep for the AP exam! Review practice writing samples and corresponding feedback from Fiveable teacher Candace Moore.

The Practice Prompt

Notes from the teacher.

While reading, consider the following questions:

• What is the author’s language  doing ?
• What  choices  has the author made in her language?
• What is the  meaning/impact  of those choices?

As if you were writing a whole essay,  write a thesis  that establishes

1) the relationship Petry establishes between Lutie Johnson and the setting,

2) which figurative language devices Petry employed to establish the relationship, and

3) any complexity you identified in that relationship. Start a new paragraph  that analyzes  one pattern  of figurative language and its role in the relationship. You should have  at least two pieces of evidence  and  at least three sentences of commentary  making the connection between the language and the claim from your thesis.

Replay: Prose Analysis Thesis and Introduction

Read the selection carefully and then write an essay analyzing how Petry establishes Lutie Johnson’s relationship to the urban setting through the use of literary devices.

Passage and Prompt

Writing Samples and Feedback

Student sample 1.

In  The Street , by Ann Petry, the author establishes a victim and attacker relationship between Johnson and the urban setting. She uses personification, metaphor, and imagery of the wind to convey their relationship. Although the setting is portrayed as very violent, Petry also showcases its annoying characteristics to further add to their relationship.

The passage starts off with introducing the wind as it " rattled the tops of garbage cans  and “ sucked window shades out ”. Immediately, it’s described as a violent figure that gives off an aggressive and depressing atmosphere. It purposely bothers people, going as far as driving them out the streets. It meticulously bothers Lutie Johnson as she shivers when “ the cold fingers of the wind touched the back of her neck, and explored the sides of her head. ”: making her feel uncomfortable and powerless.

Teacher feedback:

You have a thesis that establishes a line of reasoning, and names the relationship between Lutie and the setting, which is great! So that earns the point. My push for you would be to get all of that into one sentence, because that would cut down on the repetition, and strengthen your writing style. 1/1: Thesis

Your paragraph uses well-selected evidence, but as a reader, I’m not convinced that you know what part of your argument you’re proving in this paragraph, or how your line of reasoning is supported. The first three sentences are connected by the violence/aggression, but then you shift to a different aspect of the relationship in the second half without a clear link between. Ev&Comm: 2/4

Student Sample 2

In  The   Street,  by Ann Petry, she establishes a negative relationship between Lutie Johnson and the urban setting. She uses the literary devices, personification and metaphor to show how the wind is impacting the people in the city. Petry also displays how the people in the urban area felt with the wind to express the negative relationship they have with the wind.

The way that the wind is expressed in the passage is as it were a human and has human features. An example of the wind having a human feature would be when the wind “did everything it could to discourage the people walking along the street.” One can notice that the wind ruined a person’s spirit while they are strolling through the streets. "And then the wind grabbed their hats, pried their scarves from around their necks, stuck its fingers inside their coat collars, blew their coats away from their bodies. " Petry used personification in that sentence to make it seem as though the wind has hands by saying that it grabbed hats and stuck its fingers in their coat collars to portray that the wind felt very eerie.

Your thesis establishes a relationship (negative), and names the devices that you will use in your analysis. However, your thesis does not establish a strong line of reasoning because you don’t make a whole argument when you say “how the people … felt” and “how the wind is impacting” instead of giving your interpretation (e.g. the people felt like victims, or the wind assaults them). 1/1

Your paragraph does clearly interpret the personification in the passage, and uses evidence that shows how Petry gives human qualities to the wind. However, you did not go the next step to analyze the relationship through the personification thoroughly. Try to spend more of your paragraph connecting the device to your argument, as well as clarifying the connection between the evidence points in your paragraph. 2/4

Student Sample 3

In  The Street  by Ann Petry, a negative relationship was established between the character Lutie Johnson and the urban setting in the story. The author uses diction, personification, and imagery to portray how the wind and Lutie have a negative relationship.

The word choice of Petry clearly establishes a negative relationship between Lutie and the wind by using words like “discourage,” “entangling,” “cold,” and “shivered.” All of these words hold negative connotation and create a feeling of invasiveness and being attacked. When the wind lifted Lutie’s hair and she “shivered as the cold fingers of the wind touched the back of her neck,” the audience can clearly see that the wind is not creating a pleasant sensation for Lutie. If the author were to use plain diction like “Lutie felt cold when the wind toughed her neck,” there would be no emotion and nor establishment of a strong relationship. The audience would have just known that the wind was cold.

Your thesis establishes your argument about a negative relationship and names the devices you will use. 1/1

The first two sentences of your paragraph are very strong – you have a device supported by the evidence, and your commentary connects to the argument. However, the rest of the paragraph does not analyze the relationship; it only interprets the diction. If you explained the connotation of that line as clearly, you would have a strong commentary. 2/4

Student Sample 4

In  The Street , Ann Petry portrays the abusive relationship between Johnson and the urban setting, through the usage of diction, personification, and imagery. The main culprit of this abuse is the natural wind, how it is violent and stops at nothing to bother the characters.

The passage begins with introducing the wind as it “rattled the tops of garbage cans” and “sucked window shades out”. Right off the bat, the characteristics of the wind is violent, a force that cannot be stopped. The wind is aggressive, purposely bothering the people, completely emptying the streets. The wind then begins abuses Johnson, making her shiver with “[its] cold fingers touch[ing] the back of her neck, and explor[ing] the sides of her head.” This removes any power that Johnson could of had, ending with the wind dominating over her.

You have a strong thesis in regards to its argument establishment – you have clearly interpreted the relationship. 1/1

Your evidence is well-selected, and your commentary tightly connected to the line of reasoning you established in your thesis. The last sentence is very strong. Organizationally, I would move the second sentence to the beginning of the paragraph as your assertion, creating a thread for the paragraph from the start that you can follow through the rest of the sentences. This makes your line of reasoning clearer and stronger, and more “sophisticated”. 3/4

Student Sample 5

In  The Street , by Ann Petry, a tug of war dynamic relationship is established between Lutie Johnson and the urban setting and portrayed in a negative light. Through the use of personification, imagery, and diction the fight Johnson faces against the brutal wind is shown.

Petry uses personification throughout the passage to describe the wind as if it is a person. Things such as, “Each time she thought she had the sign in focus, the wind pushed it away from her” By doing this the audience sees the wind directly affecting Johnson and creating a fighting relationship between the two of them. As Johnson tries to read a sign the wind pushes it away as if it doesn’t want her to go. By making it seem like the wind is trying to directly fight Johnson it makes the fight more personal The wind even chills Johnson by touching the back of her neck with its “cold fingers”. The wind now seems even more human like, as if the wind is grabbing Johnson in an aggressive manner. The act of the wind touching her neck is meant to scare Johnson and hold her back even more for where she needs to go. Each time Johnson tugs away from the wind, the wind pulls even more to fight Johnson.

Your thesis is strong, and establishes the relationship as one with a “tug of war dynamic”. 1/1

Your first sentence of your body paragraph establishes personification as the device, but only defines personification instead of beginning your interpretation that will lead to analysis (e.g. … personification to show the wind as creating barriers for Lutie). Your analysis is clear and effective, however, in showing the relationship and how the personification creates it. 3/4

Student Sample 6

In  The Street , by Ann Petry, the author establishes an obstructive relationship between Luti Johnson and the urban setting, particularly the wind. Petry employs the use of personification, imagery, and metaphor to express how Luti struggles against the wind.

The author used personification to describe the wind throughout this passage. This makes the effects of the wind seem deliberate and personal. When Luti is first introduces in the passage, the wind “lifted” her hair, exposing her neck. This action caused Luti to feel vulnerable and cold. Then, “the cold fingers of the wind touched the back of her neck, explored the sides of her head.” This statement makes it seem as if the wind is purposely violating Luti’s privacy and exposing her to the cold. By using personification to describe the wind, the author takes a natural element and turns it into a cruel, aggressive character. By giving the wind this “personality,” Petry is able to convey how destructive its actions are towards Luti.

Good thesis! You’ve given a very specific name to the relationship that establishes a line of reasoning. Having two sentences to establish these parts isn’t necessary, though. 1/1

I appreciate that you have an assertion that shows where the sentence is going. Again those first two sentences could be one: Throughout the passage, the author personifies the wind’s actions as deliberate and personal. The rest of the paragraph is strong, however, and connects clearly and effectively to your argument. Make sure that it connects clearly to the thesis, as well.

Student Sample 7

In  The Street , by Ann Petry, the author uses personification in order to show the wind as a powerful figure. Through these literary devices, the audience can see the influence of the winds on the people of the town, creating the wind to seem like a relentless bully.

At the beginning of the story, the personification of the wind is established. The wind comes off as aggressive and ruthless by driving people into their homes. The wind’s motive is then revealed, creating a sense of motivation that drives the wind  “It did everything it could to discourage the people walking along the street”  By blinding people with dust and wrapping the newspaper around their feet, the wind is portraying doing what a human would do when they are being malicious and ruthless. When Lutie Johnson is introduced, the audience gains a sense of innocence in her character. So, when the wind  “… blew her eyelashes away from her eyes so that her eyeballs were bathed in a rush of coldness…” , the wind is conceived as a bully. The audience can help to feel bad for what she has to endure. The wind continues to have this bully mentality when she tries to read the sign. However, the wind eventually lets her read the sign, allowing her to see it for an instant.

Strong thesis! “Relentless bully” shows you are clear on the relationship, as well as how you plan to analyze it through the personification. 1/1

You have very effective word choice in your analysis, which makes your writing and analysis fluid. The line of reasoning from your thesis is supported by your interpretation of the wind as malicious, ruthless, etc. However, your introduction of Lutie as a character with innocence is not as clearly connected or supported, and your last sentence seems to contradict the rest of the paragraph. 3/4

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1.10: Literature (including fiction, drama, poetry, and prose)

• Last updated
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• Page ID 205491

• Lori-Beth Larsen
• Central Lakes College

Essential Questions for Literature

• How is literature like life?
• What is literature supposed to do?
• What influences a writer to create?
• How does literature reveal the values of a given culture or time period?
• How does the study of fiction and nonfiction texts help individuals construct their understanding of reality?
• In what ways are all narratives influenced by bias and perspective?
• Where does the meaning of a text reside? Within the text, within the reader, or in the transaction that occurs between them?
• What can a reader know about an author’s intentions based only on a reading of the text?
• What are enduring questions and conflicts that writers (and their cultures) grappled with hundreds of years ago and are still relevant today?
• How do we gauge the optimism or pessimism of a particular time period or particular group of writers?
• Why are there universal themes in literature–that is, themes that are of interest or concern to all cultures and societies?
• What are the characteristics or elements that cause a piece of literature to endure?
• What is the purpose of: science fiction? satire? historical novels, etc.?
• How do novels, short stories, poetry, etc. relate to the larger questions of philosophy and humanity?
• How we can use literature to explain or clarify our own ideas about the world?
• How does what we know about the world shape the stories we tell?
• How do the stories we tell about the world shape the way we view ourselves?
• How do our personal experiences shape our view of others?
• What does it mean to be an insider or an outsider?
• Are there universal themes in literature that are of interest or concern to all cultures and societies?
• What is creativity and what is its importance for the individual / the culture?
• What are the limits, if any, of freedom of speech?

Defining Literature

Literature, in its broadest sense, is any written work. Etymologically, the term derives from Latin litaritura / litteratura “writing formed with letters,” although some definitions include spoken or sung texts. More restrictively, it is writing that possesses literary merit. Literature can be classified according to whether it is fiction or non-fiction and whether it is poetry or prose. It can be further distinguished according to major forms such as the novel, short story or drama, and works are often categorized according to historical periods or their adherence to certain aesthetic features or expectations (genre).

Taken to mean only written works, literature was first produced by some of the world’s earliest civilizations—those of Ancient Egypt and Sumeria—as early as the 4th millennium BC; taken to include spoken or sung texts, it originated even earlier, and some of the first written works may have been based on a pre-existing oral tradition. As urban cultures and societies developed, there was a proliferation in the forms of literature. Developments in print technology allowed for literature to be distributed and experienced on an unprecedented scale, which has culminated in the twenty-first century in electronic literature.

Definitions of literature have varied over time. In Western Europe prior to the eighteenth century, literature as a term indicated all books and writing. [1] A more restricted sense of the term emerged during the Romantic period, in which it began to demarcate “imaginative” literature. [2]

Contemporary debates over what constitutes literature can be seen as returning to the older, more inclusive notion of what constitutes literature. Cultural studies, for instance, takes as its subject of analysis both popular and minority genres, in addition to canonical works. [3]

Major Forms

A calligram by Guillaume Apollinaire. These are a type of poem in which the written words are arranged in such a way to produce a visual image.

Poetry is a form of literary art that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, prosaic ostensible meaning (ordinary intended meaning). Poetry has traditionally been distinguished from prose by its being set in verse; [4] prose is cast in sentences, poetry in lines; the syntax of prose is dictated by meaning, whereas that of poetry is held across metre or the visual aspects of the poem. [5]

Prior to the nineteenth century, poetry was commonly understood to be something set in metrical lines; accordingly, in 1658 a definition of poetry is “any kind of subject consisting of Rythm or Verses”. [6] Possibly as a result of Aristotle’s influence (his Poetics ), “poetry” before the nineteenth century was usually less a technical designation for verse than a normative category of fictive or rhetorical art. [7] As a form it may pre-date literacy, with the earliest works being composed within and sustained by an oral tradition; [8] hence it constitutes the earliest example of literature.

Prose is a form of language that possesses ordinary syntax and natural speech rather than rhythmic structure; in which regard, along with its measurement in sentences rather than lines, it differs from poetry. [9] On the historical development of prose, Richard Graff notes that ”

Novel : a long fictional prose narrative.

Novella :The novella exists between the novel and short story; the publisher Melville House classifies it as “too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story.” [10]

Short story : a dilemma in defining the “short story” as a literary form is how to, or whether one should, distinguish it from any short narrative. Apart from its distinct size, various theorists have suggested that the short story has a characteristic subject matter or structure; [11] these discussions often position the form in some relation to the novel. [12]

Drama is literature intended for performance. [13]

Listen to this Discussion of the poetry of Harris Khalique . You might want to take a look at the transcript as you listen.

The first half of a 2008 reading featuring four Latino poets, as part of the American Perspectives series at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Listen to poetry reading of Francisco Aragón and Brenda Cárdenas

Listen to this conversation with Allison Hedge Coke, Linda Hogan and Sherwin Bitsui . You might want to look at the transcript as you listen. In this program, we hear a conversation among three Native American poets: Allison Hedge Coke, Linda Hogan and Sherwin Bitsui. Allison Hedge Coke grew up listening to her Father’s traditional stories as she moved from Texas to North Carolina to Canada and the Great Plains. She is the author of several collections of poetry and the memoir, Rock, Ghost, Willow, Deer. She has worked as a mentor with Native Americans and at-risk youth, and is currently a Professor of Poetry and Writing at the University of Nebraska, Kearney. Linda Hogan is a prolific poet, novelist and essayist. Her work is imbued with an indigenous sense of history and place, while it explores environmental, feminist and spiritual themes. A former professor at the University of Colorado, she is currently the Chickasaw Nation’s Writer in Residence. She lives in Oklahoma, where she researches and writes about Chickasaw history, mythology and ways of life. Sherwin Bitsui grew up on the Navajo reservation in Arizona. He speaks Dine, the Navajo language and participates in ceremonial activities. His poetry has a sense of the surreal, combining images of the contemporary urban culture, with Native ritual and myth.

Chris Abani : Stories from Africa

In this deeply personal talk, Nigerian writer Chris Abani says that “what we know about how to be who we are” comes from stories. He searches for the heart of Africa through its poems and narrative, including his own.

One or more interactive elements has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view them online here: https://minnstate.pressbooks.pub/introductiontohumanitiesv2/?p=77#oembed-1

Listen to Isabel Allende’s Ted Talk

As a novelist and memoirist, Isabel Allende writes of passionate lives, including her own. Born into a Chilean family with political ties, she went into exile in the United States in the 1970s—an event that, she believes, created her as a writer. Her voice blends sweeping narrative with touches of magical realism; her stories are romantic, in the very best sense of the word. Her novels include The House of the Spirits, Eva Luna and The Stories of Eva Luna, and her latest, Maya’s Notebook and Ripper. And don’t forget her adventure trilogy for young readers— City of the Beasts, Kingdom of the Golden Dragon and Forest of the Pygmies.

As a memoirist, she has written about her vision of her lost Chile, in My Invented Country, and movingly tells the story of her life to her own daughter, in Paula. Her book Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses memorably linked two sections of the bookstore that don’t see much crossover: Erotica and Cookbooks. Just as vital is her community work: The Isabel Allende Foundation works with nonprofits in the San Francisco Bay Area and Chile to empower and protect women and girls—understanding that empowering women is the only true route to social and economic justice.

You can read excerpts of her books online here: https://www.isabelallende.com/en/books

Read her musings. Why does she write? https://www.isabelallende.com/en/musings

You might choose to read one of her novels.

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Listen to Novelist Chimamanda Adichie . She speaks about how our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. She tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

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One Hundred Years of Solitu de

Gabriel García Márquez’s novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” brought Latin American literature to the forefront of the global imagination and earned García Márquez the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature. What makes the novel so remarkable? Francisco Díez-Buzo investigates.

Gabriel García Márquez was a writer and journalist who recorded the haphazard political history of Latin American life through his fiction. He was a part of a literary movement called the Latin American “boom ,” which included writers like Peru’s Mario Vargas Llosa, Argentina’s Julio Cortázar, and Mexico’s Carlos Fuentes. Almost all of these writers incorporated aspects of magical realism in their work . Later authors, such as Isabel Allende and Salman Rushdie, would carry on and adapt the genre to the cultural and historical experiences of other countries and continents. García Máruqez hadn’t always planned on being a writer, but a pivotal moment in Colombia’s—and Latin America’s—history changed all that. In 1948, when García Márquez was a law student in Bogotá, Jorge Eliécer Gaítan , a prominent radical populist leader of Colombia’s Liberal Party, was assassinated. This happened while the U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall brought together leaders from across the Americas to create the Organization of American States (OAS) and to build a hemisphere-wide effort against communism. In the days after the assassination, massive riots, now called the bogotazo , occurred. The worst Colombian civil war to date, known as La Violencia , also broke out. Another law student, visiting from Cuba, was deeply affected by Eliécer Gaítan’s death. This student’s name was Fidel Castro. Interestingly, García Márquez and Castro—both socialists—would become close friends later on in life , despite not meeting during these tumultuous events. One Hundred Years of Solitude ’s success almost didn’t happen, but this article from Vanity Fair helps explain how a long-simmering idea became an international sensation. When Gabriel García Márquez won the Nobel Prize in 1982, he gave a lecture that helped illuminate the plights that many Latin Americans faced on a daily basis. Since then, that lecture has also helped explain the political and social critiques deeply embedded in his novels. It was famous for being an indigenous overview of how political violence became entrenched in Latin America during the Cold War.In an interview with the New Left Review , he discussed a lot of the inspirations for his work, as well as his political beliefs.

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://minnstate.pressbooks.pub/introductiontohumanitiesv2/?p=77#h5p-12

Don Quixote

Mounting his skinny steed, Don Quixote charges an army of giants. It is his duty to vanquish these behemoths in the name of his beloved lady, Dulcinea. There’s only one problem: the giants are merely windmills. What is it about this tale of the clumsy yet valiant knight that makes it so beloved? Ilan Stavans investigates.

Interested in exploring the world of Don Quixote ? Check out this translation of the thrill-seeking classic. To learn more about Don Quixote ’s rich cultural history, click here . In this interview , the educator shares his inspiration behind his book Quixote: The Novel and the World . The travails of Don Quixote ’s protagonist were heavily shaped by real-world events in 17th-century Spain. This article provides detailed research on what, exactly, happened during that time.

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://minnstate.pressbooks.pub/introductiontohumanitiesv2/?p=77#h5p-13

Midnight’s Children

It begins with a countdown. A woman goes into labor as the clock ticks towards midnight. Across India, people wait for the declaration of independence after nearly 200 years of British rule. At the stroke of midnight, an infant and two new nations are born in perfect synchronicity. These events form the foundation of “Midnight’s Children.” Iseult Gillespie explores Salman Rushdie’s dazzling novel.

At the stroke of midnight, the first gasp of a newborn syncs with the birth of two new nations. These simultaneous events are at the center of Midnight’s Children, a dazzling novel about the state of modern India by the British-Indian author Salman Rushdie . You can listen to an interview with Rushdie discussing the novel here . The chosen baby is Saleem Sinai, who narrates the novel from a pickle factory in 1977. As this article argues, much of the beauty of the narrative lies in Rushdie’s ability to weave the personal into the political in surprising ways. Saleem’s narrative leaps back in time, to trace his family history from 1915 on. The family tree is blossoming with bizarre scenes, including clandestine courtships, babies swapped at birth, and cryptic prophecies. For a detailed interactive timeline of the historical and personal events threaded through the novel, click here . However, there’s one trait that can’t be explained by genes alone – Saleem has magic powers, and they’re somehow related to the time of his birth. For an overview of the use of magical realism and astonishing powers in Mignight’s Children, click here. Saleem recounts a new nation, flourishing and founding after almost a century of British rule. For more information on the dark history of British occupation of India, visit this page. The vast historical frame is one reason why Midnight’s Children is considered one of the most illuminating works of postcolonial literature ever written. This genre typically addresses life in formerly colonized countries, and explores the fallout through themes like revolution, migration, and identity. Postcolonial literature also deals with the search for agency and authenticity in the wake of imposed foreign rule. Midnight’s Children reflects these concerns with its explosive combination of Eastern and Western references. On the one hand, it’s been compared to the sprawling novels of Charles Dickens or George Elliot, which also offer a panoramic vision of society paired with tales of personal development. But Rushdie radically disrupts this formula by adding Indian cultural references, magic and myth. Saleem writes the story by night, and narrates it back to his love interest, Padma. This echoes the frame for 1001 Nights , a collection of Middle Eastern folktales told by Scheherazade every night to her lover – and as Saleem reminds us, 1001 is “the number of night, of magic, of alternative realities.” Saleem spends a lot of the novel attempting to account for the unexpected. But he often gets thoroughly distracted and goes on astonishing tangents, telling dirty jokes or mocking his enemies. With his own powers of telepathy, Saleem forges connections between other children of midnight; including a boy who can step through time and mirrors, and a child who changes their gender when immersed in water. There’s other flashes of magic throughout, from a mother who can see into dreams to witchdoctors, shapeshifters, and many more. For an overview of the dazzling reference points of the novel, visit this page . Sometimes, all this is like reading a rollercoaster: Saleem sometimes narrates separate events all at once, refers to himself in the first and third person in the space of a single sentence, or uses different names for one person. And Padma is always interrupting, urging him to get to the point or exclaiming at his story’s twists and turns. This mind-bending approach has garnered continuing fascination and praise. Not only did Midnight’s Children win the prestigious Man Booker prize in its year of publication, but it was named the best of all the winners in 2008 . For an interview about Rushdie’s outlook and processed, click here. All this gives the narrative a breathless quality, and brings to life an entire society surging through political upheaval without losing sight of the marvels of individual lives. But even as he depicts the cosmological consequences of a single life, Rushdie questions the idea that we can ever condense history into a single narrative.

Tom Elemas : The Inspiring Truth in Fiction

What do we lose by choosing non-fiction over fiction? For Tomas Elemans, there’s an important side effect of reading fiction: empathy — a possible antidote to a desensitized world filled with tragic news and headlines.

What is empathy? How does story-telling create empathy? What stories trigger empathy in you? What is narrative immersion? Are we experiencing an age of narcissism? What might be some examples of narcissism? What connection does Tom Elemans make to individualism?

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Ann Morgan: My year reading a book from every country in the world

Ann Morgan considered herself well read — until she discovered the “massive blindspot” on her bookshelf. Amid a multitude of English and American authors, there were very few books from beyond the English-speaking world. So she set an ambitious goal: to read one book from every country in the world over the course of a year. Now she’s urging other Anglophiles to read translated works so that publishers will work harder to bring foreign literary gems back to their shores. Explore interactive maps of her reading journey here: go.ted.com/readtheworld

Check out her blog: A year of reading the world where you can find a complete list of the books I read, and what I learned along the way.

One or more interactive elements has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view them online here: https://minnstate.pressbooks.pub/introductiontohumanitiesv2/?p=77#oembed-5

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://minnstate.pressbooks.pub/introductiontohumanitiesv2/?p=77#h5p-15

The Ultimate Guide to Writing Good Prose

• May 25, 2020

This week, we're digging deep into wordcraft with an ultimate guide to writing good prose. As ever, our thanks to the Alliance of Independent Authors members who contribute to the creation of these guides. In particular this week, ALLi blog and conference manager Sacha Black , who has literally written the book on this topic. And particular thanks to  Julie-Ann Corrigan, Julie Day, Richard Deakin, Chrissy Harrison, Dan Holloway, LK Hunsaker, H.B Lyne, Karen Myers, Patricia M Osborne, Kristina Proffitt, Jane Steen and Debbie Young ,

The Ultimate Guide to Writing Good Prose: How to Improve

ALLi conference and blog manager, Sacha Black

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut.” Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

King is famed for the above quote but I think it's misleading. While reading a lot is important, it's an entirely passive form of learning. In my humble opinion, there's only so much you can learn passively. Of course, reading in whatever format it occurs in is essential as a writer, but there are two types of reading. Reading for escapism, and reading for knowledge.

I'm more of a fan of Malcom Gladwell's ethos: you need 10,000 hours of  intentional  practice to become world-class in a particular field. I think we learn a lot faster when we read with the intention to pick up new tools and techniques for our writer's tool belt.

When I read, I underline anything that stands out, for good reasons or bad. Next, “How” and “why” are my friends. As I gather sentences from the stories I read, I save them up for later analysis. When it comes to deconstructing the good stuff, I like to ask myself questions like:

• How did the author create this effect? (and what literary devices did they use to make it?)
• How did that juxtaposition create a secondary meaning?
• Why did the author choose this point of view? Why didn’t they choose another?
• Why did they use that exact word and not another?
• How does that repetitive use of alliteration impact the flow of the sentence?

And on and on the questions go.

This type of detailed deconstruction isn't for everyone but I'm a word nerd and I love going deep into analysis.

Of course, you may prefer to dive straight into professional feedback and learn from the things an editor picks up. If you're interested in learning more about the types of professional editing, there's a fab post on the ALLi blog here .

The Anatomy of Prose Textbook and Workbook

Writing Good Prose: Three Mistakes to Avoid

There are no rules in prose, you can get away with virtually anything. Including not using a full stop — you only have to look at Mike McCormack's 272 page Solar Bones to know that, the whole thing is one sentence! But there are some tactics that sharpen your descriptions and sentence level craft. So here are 3 things to avoid in your prose.

Mistake 1 – Repetition

Okay, sure, everyone knows their first draft will be riddled with repetition. But usually, writer's think of repetition as crutch words or phrases they unintentionally repeat multiple times. For example, just, but, so, that, look, hand, eye, glance, walk.

But what about the other, more subtle forms of repetition?

Different Words, Same Meaning — writers often unintentionally use different words to describe the same thing. For example, describing cold temperatures multiple times with words like chill, icy, cool.

Same Words, Different Meaning — the flip side of that repetition is using the same word in a different context. For example, the hum of a bee and the hum of a car's engine.

Duplicated Archetypes — duplicated character types. For example, do you have two mentors? Are there an unnecessary number of allies? Of course, sometimes these duplications are needed. But more often than not, you can condense the duplicated characters into one more effective and efficient character that readers can get to know better.

Duplicated Personality Traits — likewise, look for repetition in personality type. Have you got two sarcastic divas? Or two brooding gentlemen? Do you really need two? Or would it be more effective to have one?

Name, Name, Name — we all have biases. Which is why you should always check your character names. More often than not you'll have named characters with similar-sounding names or names all beginning with the same letter. If you have Natalie and Nancy or Tony and Tom, your readers are probably going to get confused.

Opening and Closing of Scenes — check the opening (and closing) lines of your scenes. If you have four scenes back to back all opening with a location description, or all starting with dialogue, or all starting with inner monologue, you need to edit out the repetition.

Mistake 2 – Filtering

Filtering is an easy one to add into your narration by accident. Essentially, filtering is when you, the author, add in unnecessary narration, causing the reader to be removed one step from the character. Your reader should ideally see the story though the eyes of your protagonist or narrator. But when you add in narration, the reader steps out from the hero's eyes and watches them from the side.

Filter words include things like:

Let's show this in practice.

With Filtering:

I heard an owl hooting in the trees and a moment later I saw the canopy leaves rustle as if replying.

Your readers don’t need to read the word “heard” or “saw” because the action of hearing and seeing is implied in the description of the sound. Okay, so what does it look like when you remove the filtering?

Without Filtering:

An owl hooted in the trees and a moment later the canopy leaves rustled as if replying.

Of course, there are no rules with prose, and you don’t have to remove every instance of filtering, especially if removing it will impact the meaning of your sentence.

Mistake 3 – No Scene Anchoring

A lack of scene anchoring is one of the fastest ways to disengage a reader.  But what is it?  Scene anchoring is the process of grounding a reader in your story.  Every time you open a new scene or chapter, your reader needs to know three things in order to stay grounded in your story.

• W ho is telling the story? If you write stories from multiple points of view (POV) it's even more important to be clear who is narrating this scene. If you write in first person, then this is a little more obvious.
• W here are the characters? Are they in space? Are they in a castle on another world? Are they in the local cafe? The reader needs to know.  This is even more important if your characters have moved location between scenes. Your reader may have put your book down at the end of the last scene break, so they'll need a refresher.
• W hen are they? Whether  time has passed or not since the last scene, don’t expect your readers to know. They aren’t mind-readers. Be clear. Let them know how much time has passed.

Writing Good Prose: Sentence Level Characterization

I often get asked how you create characterization at the sentence level, be it through description, dialogue or otherwise. The biggest factor in showing the differences in your character's personalities, is to show  their personalities and let it influence your word choices.

On Description

For example, let's say we have two characters viewing a town parade as I do in my book 10 Steps to Hero: How to Craft a Kickass Protagonist.

Character 1 sees the parade like this:

“They move like a current, each person flowing past the next. Supposedly united in their cause, but as they chant and sing for solidarity, it sounds like the melody of mourners. I see the tiny fractures, the gaps they leave between each other, the scattered looks, the fear of isolation. Each of them is drowning in a swelling crowd, and yet, despite the mass of bodies, they’re all fighting alone.”

Character 2 sees the parade like this:

“The villagers weave through the street brandishing placards like rifles. They’re soldiers marching into their last battle. The war-drum beat of their feet grinds into my ears, rattling my teeth and making my blood boil.”

Character 1 is clearly melancholy. They use longer words and longer sentences with more punctuation than character 2. Character 1 chooses to use descriptive words like: fractures, isolation, scattered, mourners, drowning. All words that someone who was happy-go-lucky wouldn't choose to use.

Character 2 on the other hand, is completely different. They use words like: blood, boil, marching, drum, grind. These words are far shorter than character 1's choices. They're also more onomatopoeic, creating louder, more violent sounds. The sentences are shorter and choppier, all things that combine together to give you the impression of a much angrier character.

It's the same parade, just viewed through the eyes of two different characters. If you want to bring your characters alive at the sentence level, dig deep into their personalities and allow those traits to influence your sentence-level choices.

On Dialogue

The same is very much true of dialogue.

If, for example, you have a pompous government official, or an equally pompous academic professor. They're likely to have a vocabulary that's drowning in superfluous words. They might use words in day to day conversation like: In addition, however, furthermore, therefore, I'll conditionally agree and on and on.

But if you have a character in a gang, the chances are they'd never use those words, but may have some gang-specific words, or even made up words that only have meaning to gang members.

Likewise, if you have a sarcastic character, they're likely to be witty and throwing verbal take downs at every available opportunity. So when you approach dialogue, in order to make sure your characters are differentiated, consider how their personality could impact the things they say and the words they choose to speak.

If you enjoyed these tips, then you can find stacks more in my latest book, The Anatomy of Prose: 12 Steps to Sensational Sentences.

Writing Good Prose: Member Tips

We asked the ALLi membership what their top tips were for improving their prose. Here's what they said:

“Practice by writing flash fiction. It forces you to be economical with your words and pick the words with the most punch!”  H.B Lyne  “Try to cut at least 10% from your word count, whatever it is. Even just doing this with a sample chapter will help you home in on superfluous words and retrain yourself to write more succinctly. It's amazing how many words you can cut without losing sense or clarity, while actually improving the power of the prose overall. Keep speech tags to a minimum. Try taking them all out and only put them back in if it's not clear who is saying what. It's amazing how many are completely unnecessary.” Debbie Young  “Read out aloud. Always.” Julie-Ann Corrigan   “Recognize words you know you use too much, especially verbs. E.g., I know that my characters often smile or raise their eyebrows.” Julie Day  “Replicating natural speech in your prose is the fastest way to connect with your reader, so listen to how other people speak. Not just those you know, but those you come across on public transport, in shops, or in restaurants. Different classes and cultures use language differently. The best way to emulate that is to listen.” Kristina Proffitt  “Find and highlight weak words and crutch words so you can work through and target them, or see how many you have on a page, for instance.” Chrissey Harrison  “Vary sentence structure and length. Stop making all sentences short for “easy reading.” Readers are quite capable of processing more than ten words at a time.” LK Hunsaker  “It's not just prose; it's rhetoric. It should have rhythm and movement. Look to vary your sentence length and structures accordingly. Then think of the simple rhetorical rules of folk tales — repetition for emphasis, letting the reader/auditor do some of the work (objective prose generating subjective emotions), restraint.” Karen Myers  “Look for “throat-clearing” phrases at the beginning of sentences–you probably don't need them. See how often you can cut “that” out of your sentences. If there's an “and” in the middle of your sentence, can you chop it into two shorter sentences?” Jane Steen  “Write in the immediate so it shows and not tells. Don’t be afraid to get feedback from other writers – it’s the editing and layering that brings the prose to life.” Patricia M Osborne  “Use assonance and alliteration and rhythm as in poetry. See Hemingway's story opening: “In the fall the war was always there.” /or the opening of ULYSSES: “Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.” Richard Deakin “For me, writing better prose is often about rhythm and cadence. The way we construct our sentences can convey as much and enliven our writing as much as the words we use. I use music analogies a lot, but this is somewhere it really applies. Think of the basic rhythm of prose like the classic Pixies song. Quiet-loud-quiet. Time to think, to anticipate – explosion – time to reflect. Not at the level of story (though that too) but sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph.”  Dan Holloway 

Thank you for your innovative articles . I wish l could keep in touch with you for more update!

Practice flash fiction? Lol

I’ve never had a problem.wjth writers block and I’ve been writing all different kinds of things upto 5000-8000 words a day for years before deciding, I’m gonna be a writer.

I cannot be succinct for the life of me.

I just know starting anything as flash fiction that it will expand and expand and there is no way to stop myself other than stab myself in both eyes with my pen, lol.

Even then I start recording audio notes, lmao.

I will try flash fiction again or stab myself in both eyes trying.

I really Enjoy this , I wish I could keep in touch with you always

I hope this email finds you well.

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‘Boy Erased’ Author Returns With a Historical Novel About Forbidden Love

Garrard Conley makes his fiction debut with a story about a queer affair between a reverend and a doctor in Puritan New England.

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By Tom Crewe

Tom Crewe is a contributing editor at The London Review of Books. His first novel, “The New Life,” has won four literary prizes and was chosen as The Sunday Times’s novel of the year.

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ALL THE WORLD BESIDE , by Garrard Conley

Like Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter,” on which it is modeled, Garrard Conley’s “All the World Beside” begins after the fact. When the novel opens, it is 1730, in the recently established Puritan town of Cana, Mass., and the Rev. Nathaniel Whitfield (who founded the town after leading a religious revival) and Arthur Lyman (a doctor who followed him there) have already committed their crime against the moral order, just as Hawthorne’s classic takes place after Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne’s illicit tryst. Somewhat unexpectedly, there is a baby here too, who is both the relationship’s proof and symbol.

Alas, Conley — whose first book was a memoir, “Boy Erased,” about his time in gay conversion therapy — has neither Hawthorne’s clarity of intention, nor his skill. Hawthorne chose his setup because it allowed him maximum space for psychological exploration. An absence of action was the precondition of success; it allowed him to emphasize the dramatic, hidden changes taking place on the level of conscience and personality.

Conley’s book is equally short on action, but without a compensating depth of character analysis. “All the World Beside” is ostensibly about two Puritan men’s adulterous relationship, and its repercussions for them, their families and their town. But over a 15-year period, Nathaniel and Arthur contrive neither to have a full affair, having sex only twice, nor to ever truly break with each other. Nor do they, until the very last moment, face any real danger because of their relationship.

Instead they have some dialogues about how to reconcile their love with faith and family, but these read as dutiful airings of the issues rather than convincing products of an anguished human relationship. Neither man gleams with individuality. The tiny amount of sex that does occur is blurred with generalities and lacks intensity: “The word, ‘abomination,’ redefines itself with each second that passes, so it seems to lose all meaning, for what they are doing now is more than a word.”

The weakness of the central situation affects other aspects of the book. Much of the novel is given over to Nathaniel’s wife, Catherine; his daughter, Sarah; and his son, Ezekiel. But because Nathaniel and Arthur’s relationship is discovered early on — and hardly develops — these characters have little to react to. Catherine’s sadness manifests as an overwhelming lethargy, and she sleeps through many pages. Sarah hardens against her father and finally challenges him by attempting to lead a second revival in Cana (this is an awkwardly joined and underwritten plot point). Ezekiel is attracted to women’s clothing and turns mute. The perspectives of Arthur’s wife, Anne, and his daughter, Martha, which might offer complicating contrasts, do not fully engage Conley’s attention.

I can see what Conley was aiming for. There is promise in the idea of two families growing and warping around the secret of queerness, in such a time and place. Yet its development here is circular and shallow. This is how Conley conveys Catherine’s realization of her husband’s sexuality: “She will not even think to herself what she now suspects to be true, for it is unthinkable; it is unknowable, impossible. She has never heard of such a thing, not really, only rumors of court cases with that horrible word, ‘sodomy.’” Later, when she confronts Nathaniel, Conley writes: “Shock. She has shocked him.”

This trite flatness is typical. When Conley does try for an effect, his figurative language is often confused: “Behind every facade, I imagine I can see the secret life beneath it, just waiting for someone to open its doors.” Other times, it’s silly: “Sarah feels as though her head has been stabbed with a spear.” And sometimes it’s both: “Within the relentless rags of time, they will require diversions.”

These are symptoms of a larger problem with the prose. Sensibly, Conley doesn’t attempt to recreate the speech of 18th-century Puritans; anachronism has to be forgiven because authenticity is intrinsically beyond reach. The issue with his dialogue is that it’s undifferentiated, every character sounding the same. And what can’t be forgiven is his profligacy with verbal cliché: “You should have thought of that earlier”; “Arthur can hardly believe his luck”; “the logical next step.” Crawling across this prose desert, the reader pants, thirst unslaked, for a pleasurable sentence, a fresh image, a dynamic scene, a single sign of genuine life.

In an afterword, Conley criticizes, with belated zest, those historians who have hesitated to name gay desire when they have encountered it, often claiming “romantic friendship.” He is right that heterosexuality has not been relativized with anything like the same insistence. And he is right that the challenge of writing queer history lies in “expanding the way we think about the past, the way we make assumptions, in opening up possibilities.” Certainly, “All the World Beside” does not represent a failure of sympathy. It represents a failure of art.

ALL THE WORLD BESIDE | By Garrard Conley | Riverhead Books | 336 pp. | $28

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