The Advanced Placement (AP) English Language course aligns to an introductory college level rhetoric and writing curriculum. The AP® English Free Response Questions (FRQ’s) are aimed to evaluate students’ ability to develop evidence-based analytic and argumentative essays that go through several stages, which is especially true of the synthesis FRQ.
As a high school student, taking English course is just a fact of life. In fact, it is one of the few areas that you will have to take all four years in most school districts. While this can be frustrating for anyone who doesn’t enjoy their English classes, you do get a unique opportunity.
Practice makes perfect, which makes completing practice free response questions advantageous to the student. Figuring out how you did; however, is more difficult than it seems. As the writer, you have a certain bias that may make it more difficult to grade your own practice essay, but it can be done.
In order for the author of the passage to completely explain and develop his or her argument, rhetorical devices must be utilized. Identifying rhetorical devices may sometimes be difficult, but through this AP® English Language guide you will see the five easiest ways to identify rhetorical devices and how to apply them. We will be using the Question 2 prompt from the 2013 AP® English Language exam, which examines the relationship between people and nature.
The AP® English Language course is designed to develop critical literacy and facilitate informed citizenship in students. Throughout the course, students examine and discuss non-fiction works of various types and themes, summarizing who is being addressed, what is being said, how the idea is being presented, and why it is being said.
The AP® English Language exam contains three essays, two of which are the argument essays. The argument essays come with a prompt that contains a passage. The student must then analyze and immediately craft an appropriate argument that answers the prompt. This essay is different than the synthesis essay in that there is only one prompt that the student must analyze; however, the passage is much longer than the smaller sources found in the synthesis essay.
The AP® English Language persuasive (or argumentative) essay is one of the three long-form free-response questions that will make up 55% of your score on the AP® English Language and Composition Exam. While the multiple-choice section and the rhetorical analysis essay will test you on how well you have learned the various rhetorical techniques you have been exposed to this year, the persuasive essay and a similar task, the synthesis (also see our article “5 Tips to the AP® English Language Synthesis Essay You Must Know”), will test you on how well you can put these techniques to use yourself.
Acing the AP® English Language and Composition exam is no easy feat, but it can definitely be accomplished. Lang represents most high school students’ first foray into the world of AP® English exams, as it is traditionally taught before AP® English Literature and Composition.
You’re not the first student who has been here – panic mode, one month before the AP® English Language and Composition Exam. Whether you’re a straight-A student or the kid who sits in the back of class and hasn’t figured out what “composition” means yet, you need a PLAN. You need to know what to study, when and how to study it, and how the AP® English Language exam is structured.