Week 5: Week 5 — Narration as Strategy
Week of Mon, Oct 5 · week closes Sun, Oct 11
This week's items
Exact due times are in Canvas. Late work accepted at 10% per day; assessed work not accepted late. Vocabulary quizzes are unannounced and cannot be made up.
Know these cold
- Narration tells a sequence of events arranged to achieve a purpose. In AP Language, narration is a rhetorical strategy — it serves an argument, not entertainment alone.
- Sequence is the order in which events are presented in a narrative. Chronological order follows clock time. A deliberate departure from chronological order is a rhetorical choice.
- A flashback interrupts the forward timeline to present an earlier event, giving the reader context that reframes what they are watching in the present moment.
- Point of view: first person (I/we) creates intimacy and immediacy; second person (you) involves the reader directly; third person (he/she/they) creates distance or breadth.
- A narrator whose account is distorted, incomplete, or self-deceived — deliberately or not — is unreliable. Recognizing an unreliable narrator is a central analytical skill.
- Irony occurs when what is stated differs from what is meant, or when events unfold contrary to expectations. Dramatic irony occurs when the reader knows something the narrator does not.
- Tension is the quality that makes a reader want to know what comes next — it depends on unresolved conflict, high stakes, or sustained uncertainty.
- Pacing is the speed at which a narrative moves. More detail and shorter sentences slow a scene. Summary and longer sentences accelerate through time.
- A resolution addresses the central tension — it changes the state of affairs established at the opening. A resolution does not have to be a happy ending.
Meerk's quiz — open the Week 5 gate
10 questions, no time limit. 85% on your first attempt in a 24-hour window opens the gate. Retakes inside the window are practice — they help you learn, they don't count. Work alone; the point is to know it, not to have seen it.
Dinner Table Question
Ask at home: Why do storytellers often begin in the middle of the action rather than at the beginning?
En español: ¿Por qué los narradores suelen comenzar en medio de la acción en lugar de al principio?