Response to course material 1

So far AP literature has been an interesting class, not only the people but the subject is too. I think some important things we have learned so far is DIDLS. DIDLS stands for Diction, Imagery, Details, Language and Syntax. Now I already knew about imagery and details coulee be used to analyze works. I also knew from reading Huckleberry Finn about the importance of language. But the two newest to me were Diction and Syntax.



I never really thought of connotations and their importance in novels, I always thought if you want to tell someone something, be obvious. But diction allows you to add little details to the big picture, giving it glitter and sparkle. Diction reminds me of modern political speech, where words have secondary meaning, so you want to get public approval by being picky with your vocabulary.



The other new one was Syntax. Syntax is about sentence structuring. I have always been familiar with syntax through poetry. Whenever I wrote a poem, I had structure my sentences so they flowed well or followed a specific rhythm. This is similar to how a writer uses syntax. They structure their sentence to further address their issue. It can be repetition of a phrase, or using a rhetorical question to put emphasis.



Another thing we talk about in class is prompts. I think it is interesting because I have taken about 9 AP tests at this point so I have seen my fair share of formulas. But I think the prompt is more fluid than all the other essays. This prompt doesn't ask you to spit out information, it asks you to understand and dissect the topic more; breaking it down into three sentences give or take.



I think it is starting to click in my head, hopefully I'll understand future topics as well as this one.