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DIFFERENTIATION Developing Sophistication
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Scaffolding in an AP Prose Fiction Analysis Essay
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AP Teaching Tip. Ask students to review Section 3 Throughout this chapter, we have emphasized that rarely, if ever, is there only one
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the “Sophistication” row on the AP Prose
Fiction Analysis rubric. Ask students defensible interpretation of a literary work. To interpret fiction and craft literary
to provide examples of activities they arguments, we examine the text carefully to uncover its meaning and cite concrete
have used up to this point to articulate details from the text to support our interpretation of that meaning. As you have likely
sophistication. noticed, some interpretations arise from a deep and creative reading of the text,
while others are more straightforward. A straightforward reading that reveals a basic
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understanding of the text is an important component of analysis — without this level
of engagement with the text, you don’t have solid ground underneath you to build
on. The strongest literary arguments, however, show a more sophisticated
understanding of the text at hand. What makes a literary argument sophisticated?
The answer to this question can be both frustrating and freeing. There’s no single
“right” way to develop a sophisticated and nuanced interpretation of a work of
literature — but there are several approaches you can apply to your own reading
and writing that will help you do so. In this section we’ll take
AP TIP a look at one way to develop sophistication in a prose fiction
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Developing sophistication analysis essay: by recognizing the complexities and tensions
in your writing is not a skill within a work.
you’re expected to master
immediately. It requires Keep in mind that developing sophistication in literary
practice and even some analysis takes practice in reading literature, reading writing
risk-taking, especially about that literature, and writing about that literature yourself.
because “sophistication” Like any skill, it is one you can work on and eventually master.
is an abstract concept.
Throughout the school Another important building block of sophisticated analysis is
year, experiment with the rereading, perhaps multiple times, to keep working at an
suggestions provided in this understanding of the ideas the writer is exploring in a passage
textbook as you work on or short story. Above all, sophistication involves approaching
incorporating sophistication literature less as a place to find “answers” and more as a
into your essays.
source of questions and possibilities.
Analyzing Complexities and Tensions within a Text
A solid interpretation of a passage or short story may analyze how the author’s choices
of literary elements and techniques reveal one aspect of, or one way of seeing, a
character’s motivations, for instance. This approach still requires you to read closely
and think critically to arrive at a unique interpretation of a character in a narrative. A
more sophisticated approach looks for how literary elements reveal multiple, often
conflicting or even contradictory, aspects of characters’ motivations and relationship
dynamics. A more sophisticated interpretation could identify and explore stresses
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DIFFERENTIATION
Inquiry
You may wish to return to the excerpt In the excerpt, how might the woods be seen
from The House of Mirth. Ask students through a variety of lenses? Ask students to
to research multiple interpretations about share their findings with their small groups,
the significance of the woods, or the then individually write a defensible claim
significance of the woods in various pieces about the complexity of the environment.
of literature. For example, in The Crucible Ask them to provide at least two pieces
by Arthur Miller, the woods are viewed as of evidence from the text to support their
dangerous place. However, the Romantics position.
and transcendentalists viewed the woods as
a place of freedom, creativity, and inspiration.

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