ANALYSIS OF PROSE PASSAGE PROMPTS
The information that follows comes from an analysis of approximately 25 prose prompts from released
exams.
Content Task Key Elements
Analyze the style and tone of the passage, explaining how
they help to express the author’s attitudes.
style/tone
author’s attitude
Discuss the ways the author differentiates between the
writing of (author one) and that of (author two). compare two texts
Analyze the narrative techniques and other resources of
language the author uses to characterize a mother and the
mother’s attitudes toward her daughter.
characterization
characters’ attitudes
Define the author’s view and analyze how he conveys it. characterization
Show how the author dramatizes a young heroine’s
adventure.
characterization
Analyze how the author uses literary techniques to
characterize _____ characterization
Analyze how the narrator reveals the character of _____. characterization
Analyze how changes in perspective and style reflect the
narrator’s complex attitude toward the past.
narrator’s attitude
Write an essay in which you characterize the narrator’s
attitude toward _____ and analyze the literary techniques
used to convey this attitude.
narrator’s attitude characterization
Show how the author’s techniques convey the impact of
the experience on the main character.
characterization
Analyze how the language of the passage characterizes
the diarist and his society and how the characterization
serves _____ satiric purpose.
characterization
compare/contrast
analysis of satire
Analyze the techniques that the author uses to characterize
_____ and _____.
characterization
compare/contrast