AP English Language and Composition
Beginning with the End in Mind
Course Overview
1. Key Skills
· Critical Reading
· Analyzing a variety of non-fiction prose forms
· Synthesizing information
· Understanding subtlety, complexity, ambiguity
2. Structure of Test
· 52-55 Multiple-choice questions (45% of grade)
· Three Essays (55% of grade)
i. Analysis of non-fiction prose
ii. Analysis of an argument
iii. Construction of logical/persuasive argument with primary and secondary source material (at least one visual source)
iv. Construction of logical/persuasive argument based on reading, personal experience, or observation
3. Primary Areas of Focus
· Analysis of rhetorical choices—diction, imagery, syntax, allusion, structure
· Analysis of modes—expository, descriptive, narrative, argumentative
· Ability to persuade, compare, define, analyze
· Semantic analysis—connotation, denotation, shades of meaning
Key Reading Skills
· Able to identify purpose, tone, and audience
· Distinguishing main ideas from supporting details
· Identifying the thesis
· Distinguishing fact from opinion
· Understanding assumptions
· Discerning organizational patterns
· Inferring from implications
· Deriving meaning from context
· Finding and delighting in multiple meanings
· Understanding irony and humor
· Understanding a wide-variety of literary terms
Key Writing Skills
· Integrate source material
· Offer sentences of varied structure
· Construct coherent paragraphs
· Use effective word choice
· Show engagement and originality in prose
· Offer specific, apt examples
· Say much with few words
· Organize essays organically
Key Thinking Skills
· Comfortable with terminology
· Interested in other points of view
· Curiosity
· Enjoys nuance and complexity
· Persistence
Bottom Line: AP writers must see technique and meaning in complex writing and must respond by linking technique and meaning into a logical, reasoned, sensible answer.
