Synthesis of Course Material 1: DIDLS is king and Essays are his mistress

Really. I mean, i can't even pound in the point any further than DIDLS rules all.
See in the AP exams, you have these wonder essays in which you have to write lots and lots about that you're not even sure where you start. So, Ms. Holmes and all the English teachers have given us DIDLS (really, i still pronounce that diddles) which stands for Diction, Imagery, Details, Language and Syntax.
Diction is word choice, imagery is description that appeals to our five (really six) senses, details is information given, language is the use of...language and syntax is the order placement of those words. But authors use DIDLS to communicate a deeper message so you use DIDLS to decipher them, why the author chose to describe something a certain way, why he chose this word and not that. By analyzing this, we come to a deeper understanding of the work and eventually establish the meaning of the work that the author has written.
Thats how you come to write our closed prompts. You analyze the piece, first trying to figure the meaning and seeing if the meaning matches with what the DIDLS tells you. Once you have an established meaning and all the textual evidence, you begin to write your essay.
Essay writting is a bit tricky, in that if you don't start well it's not gonna end well for you. If you start with a strong thesis with a strong meaning backed with great evidence, you're great. If somewhere along the way, you evidence contradicts what you have written you're sort screwed.
In any case, you evidence should be made up of techniques (DIDLS) that create effect (tone/mood) used to reinforce the meaning of the novel. Thought you don't need effect sometimes, sometimes the technique says it all, most of the time it's a mixer.