Back to course description Welcome! The AP English Language and Composition Exam is designed to allow students to demonstrate that they can write well enough to submit college-level work. Students who score 3 or higher (out of 5) on the exam are often exempted from either a semester or a year of freshman composition courses, depending on the college or university. Competitive colleges often use these scores as part of their admissions criteria. This course aims to help students better prepare for the test by acquainting them with the test format, helping them understand how answers are evaluated, and providing the necessary practice for success. Moreover, we want you grow as a writer. What you accomplish should help you enter the test and your future college courses with the confidence that comes from knowing that you can express and support your opinions clearly and solidly. This course uses the CliffsAP English Language and Composition, 3nd edition, ISBN: 0471933686 test preparation guide. If not in stock locally, compare prices here. Order it now, as future lessons will use this material. While teachers and serious literature students frown (and even glower) at the idea of substituting a reader's guide for the actual READING of a novel, the same company that prints CliffsNotes publishes a series of comprehensive AP Study Guides. Most AP teachers on the College Board's AP English email list endorse the use of a study guide. We've chosen this affordable guide because it includes a clear view of the overall test and numerous practice tests based on actual past exams. More impressively, it includes not only the answers to the multiple choice section but also explanations of the answers, and for the essays, it supplies the rubric (scoring guide) used for evaluating the essays, examples of student essays, and analyses of these essays. We will use this resource as often as possible, often using the supplied test questions. For that reason, although you can peruse the rest of the book as soon as you get it, please refrain from reading any of the five practice tests until you are instructed by your instructor. I know that request immediately makes you want to read the tests, but don't look at the test questions if you want your practice essays to mimic accurately the experience you'll have in the actual exam. Part of your preparation for the test and your growth as a writer will come from practice and the feedback you receive from your instructor, but we also hope you will become more conscious of your writing processes and more analytical about what makes your writing successful. To that end, we require that most assignments include a"process letter" from you. Though each assignment may include specific questions you should ask yourself about your composing process, this letter is generally an opportunity for you to reflect on how you accomplished the assignment, to analyze what worked or didn't work, and to ask any questions that occurred to you about the reading or your writing. Assignments may be considered incomplete if submitted without this component.
As a part of each lesson, you'll participate in a reading discussion or writer's workshop on WebCT. These may relate directly to the preceding assignment, may involve a writer's workshop, or may introduce ideas you'll draw on later. Please consider these discussions an essential aspect of the course.
For Lesson 1, you will write a carefully reasoned, persuasive essay that considers an opinion from both sides and comes to a conclusion. You are to use evidence from your observation, experience, or reading to develop your position. (This is an untimed essay, so it's okay, if you can't stand the suspense, read the actual assignment on the last page.)
On pages 67-72 of the Cliffs guide, you can read summaries of all the essay questions given on the exam since 1980! When you see these, you'll notice that in the last five years, Cliffs labels all these questions as either "Style Analysis" or "Free Response/Persuasive." We'll begin with the latter because you've already practiced this type in Level 3 and Level 4 CTY courses. The first assignment is untimed, because we want to see an example of your best persuasive writing, uninhibited by strict time restraints.
If an essay requires "style analysis," which we'll discuss in detail in another lesson, then a passage is supplied, and you are expected to analyze the writing itself (the choices the writer made when composing it). For example, if the passage were from the Declaration of Independence, you might be asked to discuss how the tone is created by the diction and syntax, and how it works to move the reader. Your essay would have a thesis to argue, but your point would be about Jefferson's writing style.
On the other hand, a "persuasive" question (all AP essay questions are technically called "prompts") would ask you to take issue with his argument. Your essay would defend, challenge, or qualify his points, frequently summarizing or quoting Jefferson's logic and evidence, but supporting your thesis with other sources. By "take issue," we mean that you might choose to defend, qualify, or challenge Jefferson's ideas with examples from your own reading and experience, or if the question allows, you might redefine his premises, move the argument to a different context, or discuss the causes or effects of his ideas. For example, you might discuss the meaning of "the pursuit of happiness" in suburban schools. Most successful essays would paraphrase or reflect the prompt, define any terms that need defining (such as "pursuit" and "happiness"), and then issue an opinion on the subject and support the opinion with other sources. Some persuasive/free-response questions are more "free" than others, so it's important to read directions carefully. You might be asked to take both sides before issuing an opinion, or you might be directed toward a particular topic in the prompt. If the essay can be categorized as "free response," then the question may use a brief passage or aphorism, such as asking you to discuss the meaning of "the pursuit of happiness." You usually paraphrase or reflect the prompt, define any terms that need defining (such as "pursuit" and "happiness"), and then issue an opinion on the subject and support the opinion with other sources.
A question that supplies a lengthy passage requires that the student demonstrate comprehension, but having less to stimulate your thoughts poses its own challenges. Successful essays don't just rant and rave with (hopefully) eloquently phrased opinions. They must provide evidence. Sources for this evidence can be roughly divided into two categories:
- what you've read
- what you've observed
and these categories can be further divided. Although you won't have outside texts with you during testing, you can impress your graders with your ability to recall examples from books you've read that support your ideas. Can you think of any characters from literature that chose to "pursue happiness" and thus can illustrate either the necessity or the danger of adhering to this "right"? Rich, complex texts that have stood the test of time often make good sources because they touch on important themes. However, though your graders are primarily English teachers who might be fond of people who know important authors, don't restrict yourself to literary material. The breadth of your reading might also include popular, historical, scientific, or philosophical material, and this is equally impressive if it supports your argument well. You aren't expected to be able to quote extensively, but you can quickly introduce the source by summarizing it and then draw out the specific actions/outcomes that illustrate the point being made. Besides your reading you can also use your own observations. These can include not only the news of the world around you, but also your own personal experience. Are you aware of a country that oppresses the "pursuit of happiness"? What consequences have you observed? In your own family, school, or other peer group, have you ever seen the right to pursue happiness abused or misused in a way that changed or strengthened your opinion? Your own experience can often be a valid way of interpreting a general truth! - Make sure you understand the prompt. Make sure you include a summary or paraphrase that shows that you fully "get" what the prompt suggests. If you agree with the author, your paraphrase may stand as your thesis.
- Make sure you understand and answer the question. "Free Response" does not entitle you to rant about whatever bothers you. In fact, graders are held to a scoring guide that looks for answers to the specific question asked. If the question contains two parts, don't neglect one part of it. If it asks you to prove that the right to pursue happiness is essential to the American way of life, don't discuss whether other rights are necessary or whether capitalism is good or bad. An understanding of these issues might enrich your essay, but don't get distracted by some issue that doesn't both support your point and answer the question!
- It is equally appropriate to make use of several kinds of evidence OR to extensively discuss just one in your essay -- as long as you provide an adequate amount of detailed support.
- Recall what you learned in Level 3 (or its equivalent CTY Summer Programs course): if you want to use a personal experience to make a point, include enough specific, evocative detail to help your reader identify with you or the character you discuss.
- Recall what you learned in Level 4 (or its equivalent CTY Summer Programs course): Your main point should be clearly articulated in an identifiable thesis. Your supporting paragraphs should progress logically, each substantiated with adequate specific evidence, the relevance of which you explain clearly.
- Note that even if your primary evidence isn't narrative, you might employ decriptive narratives to introduce a topic (remember Level4's sub-culture analysis?)
- Some literary sources, such as Romeo and Juliet, require little introduction, and the essay can jump right in to the specific illustrative act -- "When Romeo chooses to attend Capulet's party . . ." -- confident that readers know the characters and the plot. However, most require the essayist to at least say "In John Doe's novel X, in which [insert basic plot summary here] . . ." Be careful not to get lost in summary but to direct readers to sections of the text that support the essay's thesis!
- To keep from getting lost in summary, make sure to use strong topic sentences and intermittent explanations that illuminate how you are using the texts you've chosen.
- Recall what you know about good writing. Sentence length should vary; words should be well chosen. Use active voice as much as possible. Edit out distracting errors.
- Please do not waste too much time counting words. Instead, cover the subject to the length that you feel is adequate, and then we can discuss whether you need more or less. However, since this essay is un-timed but should be roughly the length of a timed essay, you can either allow just 40 minutes to draft and let that dictate your length, or you can think in terms of a 500 word essay as a general guideline.
Read the following opposing philosophical statements before answering the question that follows:
Nothing can possibly be conceived in the world, nor even out of it, which can be called good without qualification, except a Good Will. Intelligence, wit, judgment, and the other talents of the mind, however they may be named, or courage, resolution, perseverance, as qualities of temperament, are undoubtably good and desirable in many respects; but these gifts of nature may also become extremely bad and mischievous if the will which is to make use of them, and which, therefore, constitutes what is called character, is not good. --Immauel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (1781)
. . . when we say, "You are nothing else than your life," that does not imply that the artist will be judged solely on the basis of his works of art; a thousand other things will contribute toward summing him up. What we mean is that a man is nothing else than a series of undertakings, that he is the sum, the organization, the ensemble of the relationships which make up these undertakings. --Jean-Paul Sarte, Being and Nothingness (1943)
Considering both these philosophies, form a well-reasoned argument about what makes a person "good." Use evidence from your observations, experience, or reading to develop your position. After you write your essay, you will compose a note that discusses the process of accomplishing this feat. Since this is an un-timed essay, you are free to look at the question, make some "first impression" notes, pre-write, discuss the topic with friends or family (a good dinner conversation?), draft, revise, and edit. Because future assignments will condense this process, be as analytical as you can about the time spent and its productivity. ***If you get your CliffsAP before you send this assignment, you should also look over Part 1: Introduction, p 3-9, and include as part of this lesson's letter any questions that arise. Is there anything you read or any advice for the test that surprises you? If you don't get your guide before the assignment due date, post these responses and any other questions in your private topic when you do. - Your essay (pre-writing and drafts not needed)
- Your process letter
Write well :-) Back to course description |
