AP Lang & Comp

The AP English Language and Composition course is designed to help students become analytical, rhetorical readers and writers. Students in this course are taught to read critically by focusing their attention on the choices that writers / speakers  make in relation to social context, audience, and purpose. Most texts used throughout the year will be nonfiction and will come from a variety of formal and informal sources and genres (e.g., academic journals, advertisements, scientific arguments, letters, political cartoons, critical essays, charts and graphs, etc.). In conjunction with reading and analyzing texts of such variety, students will also be required to produce formal and informal writings of the same sort; consequently, the course helps students become skilled, rhetorical writers who compose for a variety of purposes within a variety of contexts. Students learn to write while making their own choices that pay strict attention to social context, target audience, rhetorical mode, and overall purpose. AP English Language and Composition enables students to read complex texts with understanding, while also teaching them to write prose of sufficient richness and complexity to communicate effectively with mature readers. The ultimate goal of building the rhetorical skills the class fosters is to help mold students into individuals who will actively and intelligently engage with the world around them. The AP English Language and Composition course helps students move beyond reading for mere comprehension, and it moves them past composing programmatic responses; it encourages thinking critically and purposefully about the rhetorical choices that authors make, and it leads to consideration of the choices made when deciding to add your voice into any given discourse: civil or academic.