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Part I

Using This Book to Improve Your AP Score

• Preview: Your Knowledge, Your Expectations

• Your Guide to Using This Book

• How to Begin

PREVIEW: YOUR KNOWLEDGE, YOUR EXPECTATIONS

Your route to a high score on the AP English Language and Composition Exam depends a lot on how you plan to use this book. Respond to the following questions.

YOUR GUIDE TO USING THIS BOOK

This book is organized to provide as much—or as little—support as you need, so you can use this book in whatever way will be most helpful to improving your score on the AP English Language and Composition Exam.

You may choose to use some parts of this book over others, or you may work through the entire book. This will depend on your needs and how much time you have. Let’s now look at how to make this determination.

HOW TO BEGIN

Part II

Practice Test 1

• Practice Test 1

• Practice Test 1: Answers and Explanations

Practice Test 1

Click here to download a PDF of Practice Test 1.

The Exam

AP^® English Language and Composition Exam

SECTION I: Multiple-Choice Questions

DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOKLET UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD TO DO SO.

Instructions

Section I of this examination contains 54 multiple-choice questions. Fill in only the ovals for numbers 1 through 54 on your answer sheet.

Indicate all of your answers to the multiple-choice questions on the answer sheet. No credit will be given for anything written in this exam booklet, but you may use the booklet for notes or scratch work. After you have decided which of the suggested answers is best, completely fill in the corresponding oval on the answer sheet. Give only one answer to each question. If you change an answer, be sure that the previous mark is erased completely. Here is a sample question and answer.

Sample Question

Chicago is a

(A) state

(B) city

(C) country

(D) continent

(E) village

Sample Answer

Use your time effectively, working as quickly as you can without losing accuracy. Do not spend too much time on any one question. Go on to other questions and come back to the ones you have not answered if you have time. It is not expected that everyone will know the answers to all the multiple-choice questions.

About Guessing

Many candidates wonder whether or not to guess the answers to questions about which they are not certain. Multiple-choice scores are based on the number of questions answered correctly. Points are not deducted for incorrect answers, and no points are awarded for unanswered questions. Because points are not deducted for incorrect answers, you are encouraged to answer all multiple-choice questions. On any questions you do not know the answer to, you should eliminate as many choices as you can, and then select the best answer among the remaining choices.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION

SECTION I

Time—1 hour

Directions: This part consists of selections from prose works and questions on their content, form, and style. After reading each passage, choose the best answer to each question and completely fill in the corresponding oval on the answer sheet.

Note: Pay particular attention to the requirement of questions that contain the words NOT, LEAST, or EXCEPT.

Questions 1–10. Read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers.

This passage is from a satirical essay published in 1729.

Questions 11–22. Read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers.

This passage is excerpted from a contemporary article in a scholarly journal.

Questions 23–33. Read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers.

This passage is from an eighteenth-century protofeminist work.

Questions 34–44. Read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers.

This passage is excerpted from a nonfiction work about the modern education system.

Questions 45–54. Read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers.

This passage is excerpted from the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson case.

END OF SECTION I

SECTION II

AP^® English Language and Composition Exam

SECTION II: Free-Response Questions

DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOKLET UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD TO DO SO.

Instructions

Section II of this examination requires answers in essay form. To help you use your time well, the coordinator will announce the time at which each question should be completed. If you finish any question before time is announced, you may go on to the following question. If you finish the examination in less than the time allotted, you may go back and work on any essay question you want.

Each essay will be judged on its clarity and effectiveness in dealing with the requirements of the topic assigned and on the quality of the writing. After completing each question, you should check your essay for accuracy of punctuation, spelling, and diction; you are advised, however, not to attempt many longer corrections. Remember that quality is far more important than quantity.

Write your essays with a pen, preferably in black or dark blue ink. Be sure to write CLEARLY and LEGIBLY. Cross out any errors you make.

The questions for Section II are printed in the green insert. You are encouraged to use the green insert to make notes and to plan your essays, but be sure to write your answers in the pink booklet. Number each answer as the question is numbered in the examination. Do not skip lines. Begin each answer on a new page in the pink booklet.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION

SECTION II

Total Time—2 hours, 15 minutes

Question 1

Suggested reading and writing time—55 minutes.

It is suggested that you spend 15 minutes reading the question, analyzing and evaluating the sources, and 40 minutes writing your response.

Note: You may begin writing your response before the reading period is over.

(This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score.)

Throughout much of history, humans have defined themselves as members of their tribe. With the growth of civilization in the Neolithic period, humans began to define themselves by their village or state. By the nineteenth century, humans were defining themselves by their nation. Today, in the twenty-first century, humans are being asked to define themselves as citizens of the world.

Carefully read the following seven sources, including the introductory information for each source. Then synthesize the information from at least three of the sources and incorporate it into a coherent, well-developed essay that argues a clear position on the extent to which people are able to define themselves as global citizens.

Your argument should be the focus of your essay. Use the sources to develop your argument and explain the reasoning for it. Avoid merely summarizing the sources. Indicate clearly which sources you are drawing from, whether through direct quotation, paraphrase, or summary. You may cite the sources as Source A, Source B, and so forth, or by using the descriptions in parentheses.

The following is excerpted from an article on a Web site that provides analysis and information on the Middle East.

Numbering over 22 million, the Kurds are one of the largest non-state nations in the world. Their homeland, Kurdistan, has been forcibly divided and lies mostly within the present-day borders of Turkey, Iraq and Iran, with smaller parts in Syria, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The greatest number of Kurds today still live in Kurdistan, though a large Kurdish diaspora has developed in this century, especially in the main cities of Turkey and Iran and more recently in Europe as well. Between 10 and 12 million Kurds live in Turkey, where they comprise about 20 percent of the population. Between 5 and 6 million live in Iran, accounting for close to 10 percent of the population. Kurds in Iraq number more than 4 million, and comprise about 23 percent of the population.

In the modern era, the Kurdish nation, with its distinctive society and culture, has had to confront in all of the “host” states centralizing, ethnically-based nationalist regimes––Turkish, Arab and Persian––with little or no tolerance for expressions of national autonomy within their borders. While the modes and scale of oppression have varied in time and by place, the conditions of Kurds share some important features. First, the Kurdish areas overlap nation-state borders: They thus acquire significance for “national security” and are vulnerable to interference and manipulation by regional and international powers. Second, the Kurdish regions of these countries are usually the poorest, least developed areas, systematically marginalized by the centers of economic power. Third, the dynamics of assimilation, repression and Kurdish resistance in each country have affected the direction and outcome of the Kurdish struggles in the neighboring countries. A fourth shared feature is that these Kurdish societies are themselves internally complex, and fraught with differences of politics and ideology, social class, dialect and, still in a few places, clan.

In spite of a long history of struggle, Kurdish nationalism has not succeeded in achieving its goal of independence or even enduring autonomy. Do recent events require us to change this assessment? In 1992, a Regional Government of Iraqi Kurdistan was established, but it is economically besieged and functions very much at the sufferance of a Western military umbrella. In Turkey, a ten-year-old armed struggle has effectively defied the unrestrained efforts of the Turkish state to impose a military solution, but a political solution acceptable to the Kurds does not appear imminent. The Kurdish movement, in contrast to many other national liberation movements, has experienced a persistent contradiction between its traditional leadership and the relatively developed society it seeks to liberate. Only to the extent that this may be changing does the future hold some promise for Kurdish aspirations. Today, about half the population lives in urban centers, and feudal relations of production in rural areas have almost disappeared. Yet the politics and ideology of much of the leadership can hardly be distinguished from the worldview of landed notables of the past.

The following is a graphic depicting the value of the British pound sterling on June 24, 2016, the day that England voted to leave the European Union.

The following is excerpted from an article taking exception with the New York Times’ publication of Marine Le Pen, the leader of the French far-right political party Front National.

Since 17 people were murdered in the Paris terror attacks that started with a massacre of cartoonists, staff, and police at Charlie Hebdo magazine, The New York Times has not deemed fit to print even one caricature by the French satirical weekly, citing Muslim sensitivities.

But today the Times opened up her august op-ed pages to France’s extreme right Front National (FN) party president, Marine Le Pen, the chief Gallic spokesperson for Islamophobia and racism.

We must explain who Le Pen is here because the Times did not include even a phrase qualifying its op-ed contributor as a far right party boss, nor explaining her movement’s long history of Muslim-baiting, incitement to racial hatred, Holocaust denial, and generalized anti-foreigner bile stretching back to the grimmest days of World War II collaborationist Vichy France.

The deliberately divisive FN leader is less Pat Buchanan, the renegade Republican, as she is white supremacist David Duke, and it is highly doubtful the Times would give an op-ed to either, especially on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.

The daughter of party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, an avowed Algerian war-torturer, she appropriated the legacy of Albert Camus and Georges Clemenceau, then purported to speak for “The French people,” “French values,” and the national value of “laicité,” secularism built upon the strict separation of church and state.

In 2010, to cite one notorious example among many, Le Pen compared Muslims praying in French streets (for lack of mosques) to an “occupying force” akin to the Nazis, though such outrages were airbrushed from her carefully-worded Times screed.

Her op-ed, littered with half-truths and lies, distorts the position of the French government, which strongly condemned the Charlie Hebdo attacks, the murder of police, and the attack on a Kosher market as terrorism, driven by Islamism, and as fundamentally anti-Semitic.

Of course Le Pen did not dare mention anti-Semitism, and she conveniently neglected to detail that her party promises to end all immigration, send migrants “home,” strip non-white French people arbitrarily of citizenship, close mosques and prayer halls, deport Roma peoples, close France’s borders and Europe’s free movement of peoples, leave the euro zone, and install the “national preference” for only “real” French i.e., white, nationals, thus forcing out millions of French people with dual nationality.

Le Pen is hoping to having a real shot at the French presidency in the 2017 elections, and her popularity is soaring, with more than one third of French agreeing with her views. Her success would mean a hijacking of French democracy as we know it.

The FN’s DNA is firmly fascist and Le Pen has never renounced the core of her father’s ideology; she has just presented a more acceptable face, refocused the hatred on Muslims, and calibrated her incoherent economic “platform” to sound like far-left anti-globalization populism.

But the leopard has not changed its spots. The FN remains what it always has been. It is a fascist-derived front party that capitalizes on hatred of the other, chiefly immigrants, and today, especially Muslims. Its platform espouses a monocultural white France, and its supporters are among France’s most virulently anti-Semitic voters.

Le Pen’s values are an insult to French values—the Front National abhors the legacy of the French revolution, and the universalist notion of French citizenship, as something that is not tied to race, but tied to republican French values of liberty, equality and fraternity.

The following are remarks given on Sri Lanka Day in 2016 from the Under Secretary of Management, Organization of American States, U.S. Department of State.

Thank you, Ambassador Kariyawasam, for that kind introduction, and the honor of your invitation. And I must say that I’m incredibly excited to visit your beautiful country later this month and see the progress already made on our new embassy complex.

68 years ago today, Sri Lanka found itself in good company when it joined the rather exclusive club of great nations that chose the fourth day of the month to declare independence from the United Kingdom.

Like Sri Lankans are doing today, in a few months Americans will mark our anniversary of independence, when we will also remember the heroes and patriots of years past, and reflect on how far we’ve come in our long quest for a more perfect union.

And like Sri Lankans of today, Americans are still striving to address some of the very challenging problems that have long bedeviled us. Problems like poverty, discrimination, and injustice.

But Sri Lankans and Americans both understand that these problems can only be solved through the use of the ballot box, the voice of a free press, the strength of a healthy civil society, and the actions of an empowered citizenry that is committed to democracy, human rights, and progress for all.

Yes, our nations share many interests in global affairs, and that makes us strong partners. We also have many of the same core values, and face many of the same hard problems. And that, I believe, makes us strong friends. For, in the words of the Roman poet Sallust, “to like and dislike the same things, that is indeed true friendship.”

We love to see our friends succeed, and the accomplishments of the Sri Lankan people and their government over the past year have made all of us rightly proud.

The following is excerpted from a blog of a nonprofit organization dedicated to economic policy.

Over the course of decades globalization is turning the world into an integrated economy instead of what it has been for most of its history, a series of relatively isolated economies. The more trading that takes place, the more wealth is created, and global trade across international frontiers has created more wealth than ever before in human history, and has helped lift more people out of mere subsistence than ever before.

To poorer countries, globalization brings the chance to sell their relatively low cost labour onto world markets. It brings the investment that creates jobs, and although those jobs pay less than their counterparts in rich economies, they represent a step up for people in recipient countries because they usually pay more than do the more traditional jobs available there.

To people in richer countries, globalization brings lower cost goods from abroad, which leaves them with spending power to spare and a higher standard of living. It also brings opportunities for productive investment in high growth industries in developing countries.

Those adversely affected by the global exchanges are the people in rich countries whose output is now undercut by the cheaper alternatives from abroad. They often need to find new jobs or to be retrained to do work that adds higher value. The extra wealth generated by globalization has brought an increase in service sector employment, which provides many of the new jobs needed.

Competition from abroad forces firms to become more efficient and to use resources more efficiently. Often they choose to go upmarket, seeking higher added value products that face less competition from relatively unskilled labour. Thus firms which once sold cheap textiles move into fashion and design, and find customers among the rising middle classes in developing countries.

The integration of the world economy has brought with it an interdependence. As countries co-operate in trade with each other, they get to know each other and grow into the habit of resolving disputes by negotiation and agreement instead of by armed conflict. The 19th century French economist Frederic Bastiat expressed this pithily: “Where goods do not cross frontiers, armies will.”

The following is excerpted from an article on a website devoted to matters of climate change.

Air pollution in China is blowing over the Pacific Ocean and settling on the west coast of America, causing at least one extra day of dangerous smog in Los Angeles every year.

This is a case of getting what you pay for, according to a new study led by researchers from Peking University in Beijing.

They have calculated that approximately one quarter of the sulphate pollutants that cross into the US are tied to products created within China but destined for American consumers.

“We’ve outsourced our manufacturing and much of our pollution, but some of it is blowing back across the Pacific to haunt us,” said co-author Steve Davis from the University of California Irvine.

“Given the complaints about how Chinese pollution is corrupting other countries’ air, this paper shows that there may be plenty of blame to go around.”

One of the drivers of the economic boom in China over the past ten years has been the demand for its exports. Between 2000 and 2007, the volume of Chinese exports grew by 390%.

At the same time, discontent over hazardous levels of air pollution in cities such as Beijing has been growing. Today, the governor of Hebei, the province surrounding Beijing, threatened to fire any officials who add new steel capacity, and thus increase the amount of coal being burnt.

The following chart describes the various international facilities that support the operation and management of the International Space Station, launched in 1998.

Question 2

Suggested time—40 minutes.

(This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score.)

The passage that follows is an excerpt from Emmeline Pankhurst’s “Freedom or Death” speech, delivered in Hartford, Connecticut on November 13, 1913. Pankhurst was a British political activist and leader of the women’s suffrage movement in Britain who was widely criticized for her militancy. The following speech addresses her critics and defends the tactics of the suffragettes. Read the passage carefully. Then, in a well-developed essay, analyze the rhetorical strategies Pankhurst uses to convey her message.

Question 3

Suggested time—40 minutes.

(This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score.)

In response to the issue of racial imbalance, a sociologist argued, “Neutrality in our society is supposed to be the great equalizer because we believe that, if we don’t favor any one group, things will work themselves out and become more equal. But the thing is this: neutrality has this effect only if there is no previous social or historical context. But that’s not how the real world is. There is, in fact, a social and historical context for every situation. So if I were being “neutral” and viewing everyone as being the same, ignoring personal contexts, I wouldn’t be promoting equality because I would be ignoring the differences that exist and allowing the inequalities to continue to exist, given that I wouldn’t do anything to help change them. Identifying problems and actively promoting solutions are necessary to effect useful change; being neutral is consenting to the status quo.”

In a well-written essay, develop your position on whether a “neutral” stand on race perpetuates racial imbalance today. Use appropriate evidence from your reading, experience, or observations to support your argument.

STOP

END OF EXAM

Practice Test 1: Answers and Explanations

PRACTICE TEST 1 ANSWER KEY

Once you have checked your answers, remember to return to this page and respond to the Reflect questions.

PRACTICE TEST 1 EXPLANATIONS

Multiple-Choice Questions

Free-Response Questions

Question 1—Synthesis Essay

The following essay would most likely receive a score of around 7. Its use of language is skilled, it is reasonably well constructed, and its thesis strikes an original stance straddling both views of humanity. However, its introduction is quite repetitive and a bit too long, which is a common occurrence. The well-argued first body paragraph is probably the strongest part of the essay, but the second body paragraph could be developed more. The conclusion acknowledges the possibility of a global citizen mentality, but then provides a nuanced point that it is something that people achieve for themselves through personal growth.

 

It is possible that people will always be able to embrace their role as global citizens, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only role that they have. In fact, the primitive roles of mother, father, son, daughter, sister, brother, or neighbor come first in life, and much more naturally. The basic fact is that many people also identify with the people around them, people in their community, people who they look like, talk like, eat like, and live like. This is the group that we come from and it’s the one many people feel most comfortable belonging to. After all, this is how humanity lived for millions of years, isolated in small tribes and villages. While it’s true that some people won’t ever be able to see themselves as members of humanity, it’s also true that with some effort most of us can see the bigger picture.

 

One of the greatest things that unites the world is trade. Often trade brings us together in positive ways. For example, in Source E, Pirie points out that economic ties help countries “grow into the habit of resolving disputes by negotiation and agreement instead of by armed conflict.” This is what happened after World War II, when the countries in Europe decided that if they became economically dependent upon one another, they wouldn’t ever have another massive war. This is one of the reasons for the birth of the European Union. However, sometimes trade can unite the world in negative ways. Source F shows us that China’s enormous industrial economy has created air pollution that blows across the Pacific Ocean and lands in California, Oregon, and Washington. Instead of starting war with one another, the two parties recognize this negative effect and try to find a solution that will satisfy both groups.

 

Some people have trouble seeing themselves as global citizens because other groups have shut them out, and so they turn inwards toward one another. The Kurds, discussed in Source A, don’t have their own country; they are scattered among six other countries, and have been treated badly by many of those governments. Doesn’t it make sense that they would only trust one another, and see themselves as Kurds first and foremost? We can’t attribute the tribal mentality only to ignorance.

 

Arguments to the contrary, such as Source G (an illustration of all the countries that have contributed to the International Space Station) definitely carry some weight, but they miss the underlying truth. We are not born citizens of the world; instead, we are born local, and only through conscious acts of will we build ourselves up to that role. This change can be accomplished through travel, foreign exchange students and study abroad, books, documentaries, and social media. While some of the people who see themselves as only members of their tribe are under-informed, detached, and even prejudiced, others may not have had the opportunity to change themselves yet.

Question 2—Rhetorical Analysis Essay

The following sample essay is a strong one; the writer could expect to receive a score of 8 or even a 9. One important thing to note about the essay is the well-organized structure. A clear thesis is stated upfront in the introduction, which is concise and straightforward. Each of the body paragraphs focuses on a different strategy, and the student provides evidence directly from the text to support his or her assertions. The last body paragraph ends a bit too abruptly, and the conclusion could be stronger, but overall this is a well-developed, focused essay that sticks to the thesis throughout.

 

Emmeline Pankhurst’s “Freedom or Death” address, given in 1913, reflects her intention and need to defend the tactics of the British suffragette movement, which was criticized at the time for being radical and militant. Upfront she declares that she is not there to “advocate women’s suffrage”; rather, she reiterates the fact that “women are human beings” and then goes on to show why the tactics deployed by women suffragists are necessary and, in fact, logical. She directs her argument specifically to male listeners, using appeals to reason, war-related analogies, and both historical and relatable, real-life examples to bolster her case and convey her message.

 

As Pankhurst’s speech is directed to men, she seems to use rhetorical strategies that would appeal to their sensibilities. Throughout the speech, she uses rhetorical questioning and examples to highlight the logic behind the movement’s tactics; her aim is to show that its means of protest are based on reason. She asks, “Suppose the men of Hartford had a grievance, and they laid that grievance before their legislature, and the legislature obstinately refused to listen to them…what would be the proper and the constitutional and the practical way of getting their grievance removed?” The diction here is deliberate and helps to build her reason-based argument; she uses words such as “proper,” “constitutional,” and “practical.” She then asks the men to imagine what recourse they would take if they did not have voting rights (like women) and poses another question: “what would men do then?” The “perfectly obvious” conclusion is that they would either need to accept their fate passively or “rise up.”

 

This is where another rhetorical strategy comes into play: Pankhurst cites American history to show that the suffrage movement’s tactics are based on historical precedent. This is also a clever appeal to U.S. patriotism. She states, “Your forefathers decided that they must have representation for taxation, many, many years ago…and when their arguments were absolutely disregarded, when every other means had failed, they began by the tea party at Boston, and they went on until they had won the independence of the United States of America.” Later in the speech, she turns this example on its head, pointing out that the Boston Tea Party participants (all of whom, undoubtedly, were male) had sacrificed tea and not whiskey, calling the decision to deprive women of their tea but not men of their whiskey “extraordinary,” which is both an ironic and hyperbolic use of the word. The rhetorical effect of this is twofold. First, it shows that throughout history, women have suffered from the actions of men. At the same time, it upholds her argument that in times of war—which is what she equates the suffrage movement to—sacrifice is necessary.

 

Another interesting rhetorical choice is Pankhurst’s decision to use real-life examples and analogies to underscore and legitimize her point of view. These examples are relatable but perhaps more so to women. For instance, she uses an example of a crying baby as compared to a patient baby; in this scenario, the baby that is impatient, “cries lustily, screams and kicks and makes everybody unpleasant until it is fed” is attended to first. She uses this analogy to show why it is important to “make more noise than anybody else” and be obtrusive; it is this tactic that gets noticed and achieves results. Later in the speech, she uses a cooking metaphor to reinforce the reality of civil wars and movements: “you cannot make omelettes without breaking eggs.” These analogies connect activism with the mundane, which listeners can relate to and agree with. They also juxtapose the traditional female experience (child-rearing, household work) with the more male-centered analogies and metaphors that appear in the speech. For example, early in the speech she calls herself a “soldier who has temporarily left the field of battle” in order to give the speech and explain the movement’s position. Pankhurst is thus representing two opposing experiences—that of the home and that of war—which are joined in the women’s suffrage movement.

 

One of the most effective lines in the speech is the rhetorical question she poses, “is there any limit to what we can do except the limit we put upon ourselves?” This reference to “ourselves,” which refers to women, seems to be a rallying cry directed to female listeners. Thus, the speech as a whole speaks directly both to men and women and uses specific strategies to target both audiences simultaneously. She at once appeals to reason and history to build an argument that is irrefutable, while calling upon women to continue the fight, instilling in them the knowledge that they are capable of real change.

Question 3—Argument Essay

The following sample essay is very strong. The one noticeable flaw is the discussion of Switzerland; this detour pertains to neutrality, but it is not clear how it relates to racism. It is difficult to gauge just how deleterious the flaw may be. Certainly, the essay would earn a score of at least 7 and may get an 8.

 

Often, it is believed that if one ignores an issue or a problem, it will merely disappear. Mothers tell their children to ignore bullies, and even the Bible instructs us to turn the other cheek. However, when certain issues are not dealt with, they can fester until they become something far more serious than they were originally; racism is one such issue. As the passage suggests, colorblindness and neutrality are not equalizers; they are merely blinders that allow people to continue as though nothing is out of balance. By adopting a “neutral stand” and by failing to recognize the innate differences between racial groups, one not only perpetuates racism, but also promotes the homogenization of cultures and races, in itself a form of racism.

 

Sooner or later, the issues one faces must be dealt with. Ignorance, in this case, is not bliss; the longer a problem is put aside, the harder it is to conquer when one finally decides to face it. In the United States, the quintessential example of such a problem is racism. The 1950s and 1960s were a demonstration of just what can happen when an entire nation pretends that nothing is wrong or unequal. Race riots all over the country were the culmination of a race’s mounting frustrations. The passage states that “identifying problems and actively promoting solutions are necessary to effect useful change.” In fact change, in the form of various civil rights legislatures, only took place when racism was recognized and dealt with by the federal government. Only strong action, like the integration of the Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, could ever hope to remedy the situation. By bringing the problem into the spotlight and making everyone consider it and its implications, the government steps toward change, progress, and equality.

 

The only successful neutral stance ever taken in history was by Switzerland, during all the wars that raged around the country’s borders. However, a neutral stance requires more effort to maintain than a stance that is evidently one-sided, because neutrality involves denying the “social and historical context for every situation…[and]…ignoring personal contexts.” When this occurs, it would seem that one is assenting that we are all the same equal people, yet that very assertion is flawed, since it eliminates the “differences that exist.” If one does not take a side or a stance, one is, in effect, resigning oneself to the current state of affairs, the status quo. As the author of the passage points out, ignoring inequalities and differences allows “the inequalities to continue to exist, given that [one] wouldn’t do anything to help change them.” Until the public began noticing and sympathizing with the victims of racism, it took no collective action to change the status quo. Finally recognizing the inequality which was the status quo, the public could no longer remain neutral—it split into those who wanted to maintain the status quo and those who wanted to change it and improve the situation.

 

In essence, neutrality is supposed to be an equalizer because it declares that there are no differences between human beings. However, that denial takes away that which makes us inherently human. Without our cultures and races, we would have nothing to separate one person from another. Thus neutrality states that it is better for a group of people to lack differences than to embrace those differences. Racism is looking down on and rejecting the differences between two people. In much the same way, neutrality turns a blind eye to differences, lending validity to ignorance. Without action and discussion, societies become stale. It is only with a firm stance that one can hope to incite progress and reform; there must be recognition and a definite lack of neutrality if racism is to be prevented. “Being neutral is consenting to the status quo,” a status quo which is unequal, unfair, and socially unbalanced.

Part III

About the AP English Language and Composition Exam

• The Structure of the AP English Language and Composition Exam

• How the AP English Language and Composition Exam Is Scored

• Overview of Content Topics

• How AP Exams Are Used

• Other Resources

• Designing Your Study Plan

THE STRUCTURE OF THE AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION EXAM

Below is a helpful outline that describes the basic format for the exam. The total time allotted for the completion of this exam is 3 hours and 15 minutes, or 195 minutes.

Section I: Multiple Choice (1 hour)—counts for 45 percent of your grade

Total number of questions: 52–55

Section II: Free Response (2 hours, 15 minutes; includes a 15-minute reading period)— counts for 55 percent of your grade

Composed of three essays, which the College Board describes as follows:

1. Synthesis essay: You will read several sources on a topic and create an argument that integrates information from at least three of the sources to support your thesis.

2. Rhetorical analysis essay: You will analyze a nonfiction text and discuss how the author’s language choices contribute to the purpose and intended meaning.

3. Argument essay: You will create an evidence-based argument in response to a given topic.

HOW THE AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION EXAM IS SCORED

Your Multiple-Choice Score

In the multiple-choice section of the test, you are awarded 1 point for each question that you answer correctly, and you receive no points for each question that you leave blank or answer incorrectly. So, even if you are completely unsure, guess. In Part III, we’ll show you how to narrow down your choices and make educated guesses.

Your Free-Response Score

Each AP essay is scored on a scale from 0 to 9, with 9 being the best score. Essay readers (who are high school or university English instructors) will grade your three essays, and the scores for your three essays will be added together. The resulting total (which ranges from 0 to 27) constitutes your free-response score.

We will go into the details of essay scoring in Part III, but, in general, an essay that receives a 9 answers all facets of the question completely, making good use of specific examples to support its points, and is “well-written,” which is a catch-all phrase that means its sentences are complete, properly punctuated, clear in meaning, and varied (that is, they exhibit a variety of structure and use a large academic vocabulary). Lower-scoring essays are considered to be deficient in these qualities to a greater or lesser degree, and students who receive a “0” have basically written gibberish. If you write an essay that is not on the topic, you will receive a blank (“—”). This is equivalent to a zero.

The essay readers do not award points according to a standardized, predetermined checklist. The essays are scored individually by individual readers, each of whom scores essays for only one prompt. Thus, you will have three different readers, and each reader will be able to see only the single essay that he or she reads. The readers do not know how you did on the other essays or what score you received on the multiple-choice section.

Your Final Score

Your final score of 1 to 5 is a combination of your scores from the two sections. Remember that the multiple-choice section counts for 45 percent of the total and the essay section counts for 55 percent. This makes them almost equal, and you must concentrate on doing your best on both parts. If you can get a score of 36 (number correct) on a multiple-choice section with 54 questions, you have exactly a 99 percent chance of getting at least a score of 3 on the exam.

You will have the opportunity to calculate your final score for each Practice Test in this book. Both Answers and Explanations chapters include a worksheet to guide you through the scoring formula step by step. (Remember, this worksheet is meant to serve as a guideline only!)

What Your Final Score Means

After taking the test in early May, you will receive your scores sometime around the first week of July, which is probably when you’ll have just started to forget about the entire harrowing experience. Your score will be, simply enough, a single number that will either be a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. Here is what those numbers mean.

OVERVIEW OF CONTENT TOPICS

The AP English Language and Composition Exam tests your abilities to understand how authors use rhetoric and language to convey their purpose. Students are also expected to apply these techniques to their own writing and research projects. Some of the major skills tested include the ability to

HOW AP EXAMS ARE USED

Colleges make their own decisions about the minimum AP score required to earn credit (points that count toward your college degree), the number of credit hours awarded, and whether advanced placement (the opportunity to skip introductory courses and enter higher-level courses) is offered.

Policies differ widely. Some colleges require a score of 3, while others require a 4, for instance. Some offer both credit and placement; some offer only credit, and some only placement.

The AP exam administrators have created a helpful tool that lets you check the AP credit policy for most colleges. Go to https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/​creditandplacement/​search-credit-policies and enter the names of the colleges that interest you. The tool will give you the minimum score required for credit and/or placement. It will also give you a link to the college’s website so you can check the most up-to-date policy information.

OTHER RESOURCES

There are many resources available to help you improve your score on the AP English Language and Composition Exam, not the least of which are your teachers. If you are taking an AP class, you may be able to get extra help from your teacher, such as obtaining feedback on your essays. If you are not in an AP course, reach out to an English teacher and ask if he or she will review your essays or otherwise help you review.

Another wonderful resource is AP Students, the official site of the AP exams.

The scope of the information at this site is quite broad and includes

The AP Students home page address is: http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/​home

The AP English Language and Composition Course home page address is: http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/​apc/​public/​courses/​teachers_corner/​2123.html

Finally, The Princeton Review offers tutoring and small group instruction for the AP English Language and Composition Exam. Our expert instructors can help you refine your strategic approach and add to your content knowledge. For more information, call 1-800-2REVIEW.

DESIGNING YOUR STUDY PLAN

In Part I, you identified some areas of potential improvement. Now let’s delve further into your performance on Practice Test 1, with the goal of developing a study plan appropriate to your needs and time commitment.

Read the answers and explanations associated with the multiple-choice questions (starting on this page). After you have done so, respond to the following questions:

Part IV

Test-Taking Strategies for the AP English Language and Composition Exam

PREVIEW

Review your responses to the questions on this page of Part I and then answer the following questions:

• How many multiple-choice questions did you miss even though you knew the answer?

• On how many multiple-choice questions did you guess blindly?

• How many multiple-choice questions did you miss after eliminating some answers and guessing based on the remaining answers?

• Did you create an outline before you wrote each essay?

• Did you find any of the essays easier or harder than the others—and, if so, why?

Those answers will give you an idea of what you’re doing now and where you could improve your performance on the multiple-choice section and the three essays.

• Did you miss too many multiple-choice questions when you knew (or think you should have known) the answer? Perhaps you’re not working carefully enough, or you’re letting test anxiety get the better of you.

• Did you guess blindly at more than a few questions? Maybe you didn’t make your guesses in the most successful way?

• Did you use POE (Process of Elimination) to get rid of the obviously wrong answers, and still miss the correct response when you took a guess from the remaining answers? The “Letter of the Day” approach probably would have helped there, too.

• Did you simply start writing your essay without planning what you were going to say and organizing your points? A few minutes spent on an outline will save you from getting half an hour into your essay time and realizing you’re seriously off track.

• If you found one essay more difficult than the others (typically the rhetorical analysis essay gives students the most grief), you know where to focus your efforts. The techniques and practice you’ll find in the essay chapters will help you gain confidence in tackling all three of the essays on the exam.

HOW TO USE THE CHAPTERS IN THIS PART

Before you read the following strategy chapters, think about what you are doing now. As you read and work through the directed practice, you’ll start to recognize ways you can change your current approach in order to be more successful on each section of the exam. At the end of Part IV, you’ll have the opportunity to reflect on the changes you plan to make.

Chapter 1

How to Approach Multiple-Choice Questions

WHAT TO EXPECT IN THE MULTIPLE-CHOICE SECTION

The multiple-choice section counts for 45 percent of your total score, but you’re given only 31 percent (1 hour) of the total exam time to earn that large chunk of points. So how you spend that hour is extremely important.

The exam presents you with five passages, all nonfiction. Some are from the 20th and 21st centuries, and some are pre-20th century. Our practice tests include passages from earlier works just like the real exam does, so that type will be familiar by the time you get to the test.

“Nonfiction” is a very broad term, so you could find passages taken from all sorts of works— essays, biographies, diary entries, speeches, letters, literary criticism, science and nature writing, and writings about politics or history. The passages will also run the gamut as far as types of diction (word choice), syntax (how words are combined into phrases and sentences), imagery, tone, style, point of view and purpose. You have an hour to read them and answer 55 questions, divided roughly equally among the five passages. Your responses are then scored by computer.

The questions emphasize not just what the author is saying, but especially how the author says it. The idea is to get you to focus on rhetorical devices, figures of speech and intended purposes, under rigid time constraints and with material you haven’t seen before. You’ll need to identify rhetorical devices and structures in a passage, and understand why and how the author used them. (Review Chapters 8–11 to learn more about rhetorical strategies. You’ll find this helpful for the rhetorical analysis essay, too.) The multiple-choice section is a challenging opportunity to demonstrate your ability to analyze how writers use language to achieve their purposes.

In at least one of the passages in the multiple-choice section, you’ll also find several questions about citations, which are usually presented as footnotes to the passage. Citations often give credit to sources from which the passage author drew ideas or information. The citation could state a source’s date and place of publication, which might be important in evaluating that source. (For example, a very old source might be questionable if there have been more recent discoveries about a topic.) Citations can also supplement information in the passage without cluttering up the main text with details that might distract readers.

So where do you start preparing to get that much done in such a short time? In this chapter you’ll find techniques for reading the passages and answering multiple-choice questions under the conditions that will confront you in the exam.

Active Reading

The passages on the exam are often heavy reading, particularly the older nonfiction, with the long sentences and sometimes obscure words that were common at the time. You need to read quickly but with understanding. If you just skim through the passage, you will have wasted much of your precious two or three minutes of reading time and will likely have to keep rereading parts just to gain a sense of what the author is talking about.

The solution? Active reading. That means you take control of the passage instead of simply letting it pour sentences and paragraphs into your head. Engage with it.

As you read each paragraph, ask yourself these questions:

At the end of the passage, ask yourself the following questions:

You can practice this type of active reading with any written material—textbooks, printed ads, or product descriptions, for example. Once you get into the habit, you’ll find that your reading comprehension increases considerably, along with your critical thinking skills. With enough practice, active reading will be second nature to you by the time you encounter the AP English Language and Composition Exam passages, where it’s a necessity if you’re to wade through most, if not all, of the questions and answer them successfully.

Words in Context

Chances are you’ll encounter some unfamiliar words on the exam, particularly in the nonfiction passages. Another active reading technique can take you over that hurdle, too: guessing the meaning of a word from its context. For example, let’s say the passage is describing a politician who is trying to sell an unpopular new law to the voters in his constituency.

 

The speaker’s passion and ebullience began to cut through the dour mood of the audience that confronted him.

If you have no idea what “ebullience” and “dour” mean, you can still figure them out from the context. The speaker is passionate about this law he’s trying to promote, so—paired with “passion”—“ebullience” must have something to do with enthusiasm and excitement. The voters, on the other hand, don’t like it at all, so “dour” must signify something opposite—gloomy, unreceptive. The word even sounds dark and unfriendly.

Guessing a word’s meaning from its context is something you can practice on material you encounter in your daily life. Then you can check a dictionary or thesaurus to see how your skill is improving.

Attack the Questions and Go Back to the Passage

Each question is setting a specific task for you. Make sure you understand exactly what it’s telling you to do. Read the question stem carefully, word for word.

When a question refers to specific lines in the passage, always go back to the passage and reread them. You should also read a few lines before and after the specified lines; context is often critical in determining the correct answer.

Relying on your memory—particularly in the dense, nonfiction works you’ll encounter on the exam—can easily lead you astray. Sometimes a sneaky answer choice will start out partly correct, but then make a U-turn into something that is not supported by the passage. But if you’re relying on your memory and get a glimmer of recognition from the first part, you might pick the wrong answer and miss out on scoring a point. Remember, half wrong is all wrong.

POE—Process of Elimination

After you understand the question task and have gone back to the passage to review the lines it specifies, look at the answer choices. Your active reading, careful analysis of the question task, and rereading of specific lines will most likely show you at least a couple of answer choices that are clearly wrong. Now instead of five possible answers, you have only three or perhaps two, and your chances of choosing—or even guessing at—the correct answer just went up substantially.

So start there—by quickly getting rid of choices that are obviously wrong—instead of starting by puzzling through five possible answers looking for the one right choice. That’s the Process of Elimination approach, and it will increase your success rate on multiple-choice questions significantly.

Guessing and the Letter of the Day

So you’ve tossed out two clearly wrong answers using POE, and narrowed five possible choices down to three. Suppose you still can’t tell which of those three is the correct answer, though.

What do you do? Two things: guess and use the Letter of the Day.

Guessing

You get no points for a question that isn’t answered at all. The good news with this exam, though, is that you don’t lose any points for incorrect answers. So answer every single question, even if your answer is a guess. By using POE, you’ve raised your chances of guessing correctly within a smaller number of possible answers. There’s another technique you can add that will increase your guessing success rate even more.

Letter of the Day

If you make a random guess for each question you can’t answer—(A) for one and (D) for another and maybe (E) for this one—you’ve just made an excellent start at getting every one wrong. The solution? Pick one letter—any letter—and use it for every single guess. That’s the Letter of the Day approach.

Let’s say there are 10 questions you can’t answer. If you pick, for example, (B) as your Letter of the Day and answer (B) on every one of those 10 questions, what are the chances that (B) really is the correct answer to at least one of them, possibly more? Pretty good. On the other hand, if you jump around with a different random letter for each guess, you stand a good chance of missing the correct answer on every one.

The Two-Pass System

With around 55 questions and 5 passages, you have roughly 1 minute to answer each question, about 12 minutes for each passage and accompanying set of questions. The Two-Pass System will help you use that time most efficiently. Here are the steps to take:

On your first pass through the questions,

On your second pass through,

This system works well since all the questions are worth the same number of points, regardless of whether you think they’re easy or hard, and since the order in which you answer the questions doesn’t matter.

Now let’s examine a sample passage.

SAMPLE PASSAGE—HERE’S HOW IT’S DONE

The following passage is excerpted from A Technical Guide for Monitoring Wildlife Habitat by the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service.

The publication that includes this excerpt is intended as a guide for professionals involved in forest planning and wildlife habitat monitoring. It was published in 2013 by the USDA Forest Service, which aims to balance the use of public resources with the protection of those resources. The authors are professionals in such fields as ecology, biology, and forestry.

Analyzing the Passage

In active reading mode, you should be looking for the main point of each paragraph before you move on to the next. From those building blocks, you can identify the main point of the excerpt and the author’s purpose.

The first section focuses on forest or other environment management programs. The first paragraph stresses flexibility: objectives and species can encompass a broad range. The authors are providing guidance that can be applied to just about any situation readers face. The second paragraph outlines a framework of requirements and partnerships for undertaking monitoring programs—again, within a broad range of situations. The third paragraph positions habitat monitoring within larger management programs, and gives examples of when it may or may not be appropriate to monitor habitats.

The excerpt then looks at selecting species for habitat monitoring. The fourth paragraph specifies that species likely to be affected by a change in habitat should be selected. The long fifth paragraph then makes a point the authors want to emphasize: Habitat monitoring should be distinguished from population monitoring. The paragraph gives examples of when both types of information could be considered, or even when population monitoring could be carried out on its own. However, the two types of monitoring are always considered as distinct activities.

The introductory comments provide context that helps identify the authors’ purpose and the rhetorical strategies they use. The excerpt is part of a guide written by nature management professionals for professionals. In order to influence readers to follow their recommendations and practices, the authors need to gain trust and build credibility. Rhetorical techniques they use include formal language, drawing on authorities, and providing examples. The authors do have a clear bias for distinguishing habitat monitoring from population monitoring; however, their tone is neutral and unemotional. They allow for exceptions, and they use qualified language such as “may be prudent” and “may be an acceptable approach.” They avoid complex industry jargon, making their information accessible to readers from a broad spectrum of disciplines and with varying degrees of expertise. As a result of these techniques, the authors sound like trustworthy, experienced scientists who are making sound recommendations but not alienating readers by being authoritarian.

Let’s look at a typical “big-picture” question.

 

 

1. The authors’ main purpose in this excerpt is to

 

(A) encourage professionals to adopt a monitoring approach that is similar to the Forestry Service’s approach

 

(B) influence habitat monitoring professionals to monitor populations, too

 

(C) concentrate wildlife monitoring efforts on bird populations

 

(D) educate readers about how to monitor wildlife habitats

 

(E) direct resources towards protecting endangered species

 

Through active reading, you should have identified not only the main point of each paragraph, but also the authors’ overall purpose. The correct answer is (A). The excerpt outlines the Forestry Service’s approach and, through the frequent use of “should,” encourages readers to follow a similar approach. The guide specifies that habitat and population monitoring should be distinct activities, and that they should be combined in only limited circumstances, so (B)is clearly wrong and could have been eliminated right away using POE. Although the footnote comments give several examples of birds, they also mention deer and caribou, (C). The intended audience is made up of professionals in the field, so they would not need to be educated about how to monitor wildlife habitats, (D). The authors specify that habitat can be monitored for any species, from the endangered and at risk to the thriving, so they intend to cover a broad spectrum of situations, making (E)incorrect.

Here’s another “big picture” question, focused on only one paragraph this time.

 

 

2. Paragraph 4 implies that

 

(A) resources available for habitat monitoring are limited

 

(B) forest management programs focus only on the physical environment

 

(C) the impact of forest management programs cannot be predicted

 

(D) forest management programs include climate change

 

(E) habitat monitoring should not be confined to species that are part of forest management programs

 

The answer is (E). The authors recommend also monitoring species that aren’t part of the forest plan but which could be affected by any resulting changes to their habitat. This recommendation makes (A) incorrect; resources do not appear to be limited when the scope of the monitoring could be expanded beyond the original plan. The paragraph discusses both the physical environment and the species that inhabit it, so (B) is incorrect. In addition to being wrong, though, (B) is also too extreme (“focus only on”). On the AP exam, it’s unusual for an “all or nothing” response such as this to be correct. Extreme choices can usually be eliminated right away using POE. While the authors acknowledge that the impact of forest management actions may be uncertain, they don’t claim that it’s not possible to predict the impact in every case, so eliminate (C). Forest management programs are planned and run by humans; climate change is not, so (D) is incorrect.

Here’s another question where you’re asked to make an inference from something stated in the passage.

 

 

3. The last sentence of paragraph 2 suggests that

 

(A) readers must consult the Forest Service if they want to monitor habitats for endangered species

 

(B) the Forest Service requires State wildlife agencies to include it in monitoring game species populations

 

(C) the Forest Service must be involved in population monitoring programs for certain game species

 

(D) permission must be obtained from the Forest Service before game populations are monitored

 

(E) the Forest Service demands control of game species population monitoring programs

 

A set of relatively close answers such as this one demonstrates the importance of going back to the passage instead of relying on your memory. You need to review exactly what the sentence says to avoid being tripped up by a choice that sounds close but has something wrong with it. Reread only as much as you need to, though. If you can’t answer a question without spending too much time rereading, then guess at the answer (using your Letter of the Day) and, if you have time, return to it on your second pass through the questions for that passage.

The correct answer is (C). As you found when you identified the main point of paragraph 2, the authors are cautioning that a framework of requirements governs monitoring programs. Readers can’t necessarily just set off on their own. In the last sentence of paragraph 2, the authors state—in a gentle, non-threatening way —that the Forest Service is “obligated” to “assist” with population monitoring programs for important game species. Choice (A) can be eliminated immediately because the sentence mentions game species, not endangered species. The authors don’t specify which organization initiated the agreements with State wildlife agencies, so we can’t say for sure whether (B) is true. Choice (D) would suggest getting permission and then going off and conducting the monitoring program without any further involvement by the Forest Services, which is incorrect. Choice (E) is too extreme (“demands control”) and can be eliminated on that basis.

Here are a couple of questions dealing with rhetorical strategies—how the authors say what they say in order to achieve their purpose with a specific audience in a particular context.

 

 

4. In the rhetorical strategies they use, the authors are trying to convince readers that they are

 

(A) expert authorities in the field

 

(B) a trustworthy source

 

(C) a benign enforcement mechanism

 

(D) independent thinkers

 

(E) set in their ways as a result of extensive experience

 

The correct answer is (B). Through their formal language, objective tone, supporting citations, and flexibility in acknowledging exceptions, the authors position themselves as a source whose recommendations can be trusted by professionals in the field. While the authors do cite some other U.S. environmental agencies in the footnotes, they also give references to non-government research results. They position themselves as experienced guides, not as expert authorities, (A). The authors do not suggest that they can or will enforce compliance with the monitoring practices they describe, so (C) is incorrect. Even when they outline “laws, regulations, policies,” they don’t specify penalties for non-compliance. There is no suggestion that the authors are advocating an approach that differs markedly from established monitoring practices, (D). At several points, the authors demonstrate flexibility by acknowledging that there may be exceptions to their recommendations, demonstrating an openness that makes (E) wrong.

 

 

5. One rhetorical strategy the authors use in order to achieve their purpose with their professional audience is

 

(A) examples of the negative results of combining population and habitat monitoring

 

(B) appeals to authority

 

(C) specialized technical language

 

(D) understatement

 

(E) appeals to logical reasoning

 

Choice (B) is the correct answer. In several of the footnotes, the authors draw on published works and authorities in the field to support their points. The citations in the footnotes become part of the authors’ rhetorical strategy. The authors actually acknowledge that the two types of monitoring can be combined in certain circumstances. They do not give any examples of negative results from combining them in the wrong circumstances, (A). The authors do give the correct scientific classification for certain species, and they use the term “emphasis species” to signify a monitoring target. However, their use of technical language is not extensive. The authors are aiming at a diverse range of industry participants, so in general they use formal language to signify their professionalism while not excluding readers by using highly technical language from one specific field, so (C) is incorrect. The authors’ tone is objective and neutral. They do not understate, (D), or overstate the impact of not following their general practice of distinguishing habitat monitoring from population monitoring. The authors don’t rely on logical arguments, (E), such as “X and Y are the case; therefore you should do Z or else this will happen because of this.”

This next question shows the type of detail some questions can cover.

 

 

6. The term “taxa” in paragraph 1 refers to

 

(A) characteristics of a group of organisms that distinguish them from other groups

 

(B) criteria used to determine whether a species is endangered

 

(C) a grouping of certain species of organism

 

(D) the unusually frail members of a larger group of animals who likely would not survive without habitat support

 

(E) any group of widespread and thriving organisms

 

This question demonstrates the importance of context in guessing the meaning of an unfamiliar word, and the need to go back to the passage to find the answer. Remember to read a line or two above and below the word specified, too, so you won’t miss any important information from the context.

Here, the correct answer is (C). The paragraph states that habitat monitoring is appropriate for a full range of organisms, from those on the endangered species list to those that are so numerous and widespread (“ubiquitous“) that they can be hunted. It sets up a contrast between species on both extreme ends of the range. Using the technical term “taxa” allows the authors to avoid repeating the word “species” three times in the same sentence. However, “taxa” could accurately be replaced by “species” in this sentence. Choice (A) is incorrect because “taxa” (the plural of “taxon,” which would indicate a single species) refers to the groups themselves, not to the characteristics of those groups. Both (B) and (E) are incorrect as meanings for “taxa” because species could be either endangered or thriving. Choice (D) is incorrect because “taxa” refers to entire groups, not to individual members of those groups.

Here are some typical questions about citations, which are shown as footnotes. That means you’ll need to read the footnote as well as go back to the corresponding place in the passage (indicated by the superscript number of the footnote). Read a couple of lines above and below the footnote number so you understand the context in which the authors cite a particular source or make a supplementary comment.

 

 

7. The primary function of footnote 9 is most likely to

 

(A) give readers a method for carrying out a procedure

 

(B) explain the reason for the authors’ recommendation

 

(C) provide an additional source for readers who are interested in more information

 

(D) convince readers that they need more information before they can follow the authors’ recommendations successfully

 

(E) provide an authority to support the authors’ point

 

Choice (A) is correct. The excerpt doesn’t say what is in Chapter 1, so you’ll need to guess at the most likely primary reason for referring readers to it. Since the footnote occurs at the end of a sentence that describes a procedure (comparing habitat monitoring results with population data to confirm an assumed relationship between the two), (A) is the best choice. The footnote is simply a side comment, not an integral part of the text, where the authors would likely have explained their reasoning, (B), or made a convincing case, (D), if they felt the need to do so. Choice (C) is too vague when the footnote follows the description of a specific procedure. Since the footnote sends readers to another spot in the same publication, it is not providing a supporting authority, (E).

 

 

8. The most unique aspect of footnote 8 in paragraph 5 is its

 

(A) support for the separation of habitat and population monitoring

 

(B) seven-year time span of support for the program objective of monitoring populations

 

(C) geographical diversity of the resources cited

 

(D) additional support for the authors’ acknowledgement of a situation that would favor incorporating some population monitoring into a habitat monitoring program

 

(E) acknowledgement of an opposing position

 

The answer is (D). Footnote 8 is the only one that cites two sources of support for the same point (indirect population monitoring as an objective of habitat monitoring). The sources are cited as support for a condition where habitat and population monitoring could be combined, not separated. Going back to the passage should have allowed you to eliminate (A) immediately using POE. While there is a seven-year time span between the two references, the two sources are not cited as support for only monitoring populations. Choice (B) is half wrong; therefore, it’s all wrong. Although the second study in the footnote specifies the northwest, the first study doesn’t indicate which geographical area it covers; eliminate (C). The sources are cited in support of, not in opposition to, the authors’ position; eliminate (E). Again, going back to the passage should have eliminated this choice right away.

 

 

9. The main effect of footnote 7 is to

 

(A) support the authors’ point

 

(B) convince readers who might be skeptical about the authors’ point

 

(C) illustrate and support the authors’ point

 

(D) explain the authors’ point

 

(E) support and qualify the authors’ point

 

Choice (C) is correct. The example of the impact of forest fires on woodpecker populations illustrates the authors’ point, and the citation from published research supports it. While this footnote supports the authors’ point with a reference to published research, that’s not the only thing it does, eliminating (A). It’s possible that an example and citation might convince skeptical readers, but the question asks for the main effect. The footnote is not worded as if its main objective were to convince skeptical readers, so you can get rid of (B). The footnote gives an example; it doesn’t explain what the authors mean, so (D) can be eliminated. This footnote does support the authors’ point. However, they already qualified their point in the main text (“Under some limited circumstances…”), not in the footnote. Remember, half wrong is all wrong. Eliminate (E).

Incidentally, if you had guessed at every one of these answers and had chosen (C) as your Letter of the Day, you would have gotten three correct answers on this passage. No, of course you can’t know in advance which letter is best, but this example shows the results that are possible with the Letter of the Day technique.

You’ll have the opportunity to practice what you’ve learned in the drills in Chapter 3. First, let’s look a bit more closely at some approaches to two essential aspects of doing well on the multiple-choice questions: timing and pacing.

Summary

Chapter 2

Using Time Effectively to Maximize Points

STUDYING ISN’T EVERYTHING

Very few students stop to think about how to improve their test-taking skills. Most assume that if they study hard, they will get a high score, and if they do not study, they will do poorly.

Have you ever studied really hard for an exam and then blown it on test day? Have you ever aced an exam for which you thought you probably hadn’t studied enough? Most students have had one, if not both, of these experiences. The lesson should be clear: factors other than how much you’ve studied influence your final test score, particularly on a test such as the AP English Language and Composition Exam, where timing and pacing are important aspects of thorough preparation.

This chapter will provide you with some insights that will help you perform better on the multiple-choice section of the AP English Language and Composition Exam, and on other exams as well.

Pacing and Timing

A big part of scoring well on an exam is sharpening your awareness of time. Another is working at a consistent pace.

The worst mistake made by inexperienced test takers is that when they come to a question that stumps them, rather than just skipping it, they panic and stall. Time stands still when you’re working on a question you can’t answer, and it is not unusual for students to waste five minutes on a single multiple-choice question (especially a question involving a long selection from the passage or the word EXCEPT) instead of cutting their losses and moving on to questions they can answer.

Every question is worth the same one point, whether it’s a hard question or an easy one. The computer that scores your responses doesn’t know whether you agonized for three minutes over a hard question or breezed through an easy one in a few seconds; it only knows whether your answer is right or wrong.

It is important to be aware of how much time you have spent on a given question or section. There are several ways to improve your pacing and timing for the test.

Remember, when all the questions on a test are of equal value, and you don’t lose any points for incorrect answers, no one question is that important. Your overall goal for pacing is to get the most questions correct.

Getting the Score You Need

Depending on the score you need, it may be in your best interest not to try to work through every multiple-choice question. Check with the schools to which you are applying. If you’re aiming for credit hours and need to score a 5, it’s best to find out as early in your preparation as possible. On the other hand, if you’re simply aiming for placement and you find out your first choice of college sets the cut-off point at a score of 3, some of the pressure is off and you can prepare without feeling crushed by anxiety.

Reducing Test Anxiety

No matter what score you need, everybody experiences anxiety before and during an exam. To a certain extent, test anxiety can be helpful. Some people find that they perform more quickly and efficiently under stress. If you have ever pulled an all-nighter to write a paper and ended up doing good work, you know the feeling.

However, too much stress is definitely a bad thing. If you find that your stress level prevents you from doing your best work during exams, here are a few actions you can take to stop excessive stress in its tracks.

The best way to avoid stress is to become familiar with the test material and practice doing exam questions under actual time constraints. (By buying or reading this book, you are taking a major step toward a stress-free AP English Language and Composition Exam.)

In the next chapter, you’ll have an opportunity to practice the strategies you’ve learned.

Chapter 3

Pacing Drills

DRILL 1

Questions 1–8. Read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers.

This passage is excerpted from the British Prime Minister’s 1846 speech about the repeal of the Corn Laws.

1. The opening sentence of the passage contains

(A) an expression of fear

(B) an appeal to authority

(C) a humorous simile

(D) an irreverent attack

(E) equivocation

2. The speaker is addressing

(A) a friend

(B) a group of his peers

(C) a king

(D) a crowd of voters

(E) his political adversaries

3. The most significant transition takes place in

(A) line 9 (“I have thought it consistent…”)

(B) line 16 (“These were my objects…”)

(C) line 20 (“But as a feeling of honour…”)

(D) line 24 (“But, Sir, I will not…”)

(E) line 28 (“I will not, Sir, undertake…”)

4. All of the following are part of the same extended metaphor EXCEPT

(A) “helm” (line 26)

(B) “vessel” (line 27)

(C) “fairly” (line 27)

(D) “course” (line 29)

(E) “unshackled” (line 38)

5. Which term in the first paragraph serves to prepare the dominant point of the final paragraph?

(A) “disaffection” (lines 11–12)

(B) “enjoyment” (line 14)

(C) “dangers” (line 24)

(D) “tempestuous” (line 26)

(E) “unfettered” (line 32)

6. Based on the passage, the speaker’s motivation to serve as prime minister is dictated mostly by

(A) greed

(B) political ambition

(C) sense of honor

(D) political power

(E) youthful exuberance

7. The tone of the entire passage

(A) remains consistently cynical

(B) shifts according to the speaker’s mood

(C) shifts from light to serious

(D) becomes more frivolous in the final paragraph

(E) remains consistently lighthearted

8. Which of the following best describes the rhetorical function of lines 17–20 (“it is a burden too great…the greatest favor that could be conferred upon me”) ?

(A) It makes an appeal to emotion.

(B) It states the overall thesis of the passage.

(C) It expresses a causal relationship between events in the past and events in the present.

(D) It provides a specific example for the preceding argument.

(E) It reinforces the author’s claim of responsibility in the following sentence.

DRILL 2

Questions 9–16. Read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers.

This passage is excerpted from an influential work published in 1839.

9. This passage is most notable for its

(A) meticulous classification

(B) unusual point of view

(C) precise description

(D) resourceful analogies

(E) lyrical prose

10. The speaker in the passage can best be described as

(A) a scientist making entries in a nature journal

(B) a professional sailor touring a remote island

(C) a fiction writer on holiday

(D) a surveyor measuring land for future development

(E) a volcanologist studying the site of a recent eruption

11. In context, one can infer that “tuff” (line 13) is

(A) an alternate spelling for “tough”

(B) a kind of sand

(C) made up principally of grass

(D) volcanic rock

(E) dense and resistant

12. In this passage, the speaker is most notably impressed by

(A) the flora on the islands

(B) the force of the Pacific Ocean

(C) the fragments of granite

(D) the symmetrical craters on the islands

(E) the topography of the smaller islands

13. Which of the following phrases represents a literary allusion?

(A) “parts of Staffordshire” (lines 41–42)

(B) “the strange Cyclopean scene” (lines 45–46)

(C) “situated under the Equator (lines 2–3)

(D) “the coast of America” (line 4)

(E) “the swell from the open Pacific” (line 21)

14. Which of the following landscape features are described throughout the entire passage?

(A) Craters and lava

(B) Craters and tortoises

(C) Tortoises and birds

(D) Islands and bays

(E) Tuff and volcanic mud

15. In line 52, “antediluvian” most nearly means

(A) artificial

(B) lifeless

(C) prehistoric

(D) volcanic

(E) enormous

16. Which of the following are virtually synonymous as presented in the author’s description?

(A) “ten principal islands” (line 1) and “two thousand craters” (line 12)

(B) “tuff” (line 13) and “volcanic mud” (line 15)

(C) “iron-foundries” (line 42) and “intricate thickets” (line 44)

(D) “craters” (line 40) and “caverns” (line 38)

(E) “tortoises” (line 47) and “birds” (line 53)

DRILL 3

Questions 17–25. Read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers.

This passage is excerpted from an essay by a nineteenth-century British writer.

17. The author of this passage is most likely

(A) a poet

(B) a novelist

(C) an art critic

(D) a journalist

(E) an actor

18. The author relies principally on which of the following to substantiate his thesis?

(A) A faulty analogy

(B) Process analysis

(C) Deductive reasoning

(D) An accumulation of facts

(E) Illustration by example

19. “…when Art surrenders her imaginative medium she surrenders everything” (lines 51–53) is in the form of

(A) a maxim

(B) a chiasmus

(C) an antithesis

(D) an understatement

(E) an analogy

20. Above all else, the author reveres

(A) beauty

(B) life

(C) Shakespeare

(D) Caesar

(E) English drama

21. In the context of the entire passage, “Life gets the upper hand” (lines 10–11) is best interpreted as having which of the following meanings?

(A) Art is favored over Life in English drama.

(B) Life rewrites history.

(C) Life drives Art out of English drama.

(D) Life is uncouth, vulgar, and unsophisticated.

(E) Life dominates Art in English drama.

22. The quality discussed in lines 23–27 is most directly the antithesis of which of the following?

(A) “marble tomb” (line 29)

(B) “The passages in Shakespeare” (line 44)

(C) “to find expression” (line 49)

(D) “her imaginative medium” (line 52)

(E) “a flawless artist” (lines 49–50)

23. The author’s observation in the first three sentences (lines 1–5) is best described as an example of which of the following?

(A) Personification

(B) Linguistic paradox

(C) First-person narrative

(D) Dramatic irony

(E) Authorial intrusion

24. In line 27, “She” refers to which of the following?

I. “Dramatic Art” (line 15)

II. “English drama” (line 14)

III. “Life” (line 16)

(A) I only

(B) II only

(C) I and III only

(D) II and III only

(E) I, II, and III

25. The author’s tone in the passage as a whole is best described as

(A) harsh and strident

(B) informal and analytical

(C) rueful and expository

(D) superficial and capricious

(E) enthusiastic and optimistic

DRILL 1 EXPLANATIONS

DRILL 2 EXPLANATIONS

DRILL 3 EXPLANATIONS

Chapter 4

How to Approach the Essays: Basic Principles

ESSAY SECTION TASKS

Yes, that’s right—tasks. You’ll need to write three different essays: synthesis, rhetorical analysis, and argument.

In the synthesis essay, you’ll be given a scenario and tasked with writing a response using at least three of six or seven short accompanying sources for support. You’ll need to cite the sources you use (in a simple format such as “Source A”), and incorporate them into your own position (instead of simply quoting them). At least one of the sources will be a visual (such as a picture, drawing, or graph) rather than text.

The rhetorical analysis essay asks you to analyze the techniques (such as choice of language or organization of points) an author uses, and discuss how those techniques contribute to the author’s purpose. The passage you’ll be asked to analyze is typically about a page long.

The argument essay presents a claim or assertion in the prompt and then asks you to argue a position based on your own knowledge, experience, or reading. You can choose to agree with the claim, disagree with it, or give it qualified support (for example, arguing that the claim is true only in certain circumstances).

In Chapters 5–7, you’ll learn more about the approach and expectations for each type of essay.

For all three essays, you will be writing cold on a prompt or passage you read just two minutes ago for the first time. You have to come up with good ideas and get them written down efficiently—on the very first try.

Writing a clear, effective, well-organized essay under rigid time constraints is a learned skill; writing three consecutive essays under such conditions requires special techniques and lots of practice. Fortunately, this book provides you with both of those.

Time Crunch

You’ll have two hours to write all three essays, which allows about 40 minutes for each. Before you even start working on the essays, though, you’ll have 15 minutes to read all three prompts and the source documents for the synthesis essay. While we suggest you use all 15 minutes, if you finish reading the prompts early you may start writing your response.

This 15-minute period is crucial for building a solid foundation in understanding the prompts and the source documents. You’ll need to put your active reading skills in high gear to get the best possible head start from the reading time available.

Why Three Essays?

The AP English Language and Composition Exam is designed to predict your ability to perform college-level work on such assignments as research papers and on-demand essay questions on tests. The AP exam’s three types of essays essentially give you an opportunity to demonstrate some of the important skills required for those types of college assignments:

The three essays simply separate—and highlight—these skills. In college work, you’ll often be combining them.

HOW ARE THE ESSAYS SCORED?

The essays are scored separately on a scale of 0–9; then the three scores are combined. Each essay has equal weight in that combined score, which is then combined with the result of the multiple-choice section to yield a final AP score of 1–5.

Together, the essays count for 55 percent of your final score. However, they take up 69 percent of the exam time, so it’s easy to lose perspective and feel as if the essay section is more crucial to your success than it actually is. Doing well on the multiple-choice section is almost as important, even though it’s only an hour long.

The grading is holistic, meaning that the reader will assess the overall quality of the essay rather than using a point-by-point checklist to arrive at a score. There are only a couple of exceptions, such as using fewer than three sources in the synthesis essay or consistently expressing ideas in such a confused way that the reader has great difficulty following the argument. Such lapses automatically knock an essay down to a lower point on the scoring scale.

Who Does the Scoring?

The readers are college English professors and AP course teachers who come together in June for an intense week of scoring. Thousands of readers go through thousands of essays in a few short days. A different person will read each of your essays.

Before the scoring starts, though, readers are trained in assessing that particular year’s group of essays. Educational Testing Service (ETS), the nonprofit organization that develops the exam, combs through the current crop of essays looking for work that represents a top-level 9 synthesis essay, a mediocre 4 rhetorical analysis essay, and so on, from that year’s group. These sample essays are used to train the readers so the scoring will be as standardized as possible, given that the readers are still human beings who make subjective decisions.

So what? Well, the readers are your audience—the people you’re addressing in your essays—and this scoring process tells you a few important things about them.

The essay section is the only place in this exam where your personality—at least to a limited degree—will shine through to test graders. Use it as an opportunity to show off what an exceptional thinker and writer you are.

What Are the Characteristics of Each Score Level?

The 0–9 scale breaks down into four categories: effective, adequate, inadequate, and little success.

Effective essays score between 7 and 9. These are the essays with thorough and convincing discussions, perceptive analyses, well-developed positions, smooth organization, and sophisticated control of expression. They demonstrate that the writer has understood and thought about the prompt and created an original response.

Adequate essays score 5 or 6. They address the prompt with appropriate explanations and evidence, do an adequate job of organizing and developing points, and express the writer’s ideas clearly.

Inadequate work receives a score of 3 or 4. In these essays, the writer may have misunderstood the prompt or (in the case of the synthesis essay) the sources. Evidence and explanations are limited or simplistic, or even flat-out inappropriate. The organization does not flow smoothly, and the writer has less control of English language conventions in expressing ideas.

Essays that demonstrate little success receive a score of 0, 1, or 2. Here the writer has oversimplified or completely misunderstood the prompt, and presented evidence that is inappropriate or just plain unrelated. These essays show a consistent weakness in expressing ideas in a clear, organized, and grammatically correct way.

Essays fall within one of those four categories based on the general characteristics of that category. The specific score within the two higher bands reflects more or less skill and depth in demonstrating those characteristics. Within the two lower bands, the number score reflects varying degrees of problems.

For all three essays, the 2016 mean score—the mid-point in the range, where half of the essays scored higher and half lower—around 4.5, which could be considered “high inadequate” (if you can imagine such a concept).

In Chapters 5–7, you’ll learn some more details about how these score levels apply to each type of essay.

WHAT ARE THE KEYS TO REACHING THE “EFFECTIVE” BAND?

Your goal is to rise above the vast middle bulge of essays that score 4 or 5. You’re aiming for the “effective” band, or at least for a 6. How do you get there? By familiarizing yourself with the types of essays you’ll have to write and by following a few basic tips.

Understand the Prompt

Use your active reading skills to tear the prompt apart.

Take a Position

No fence-sitting, no ambiguity, no neutral descriptive essays. The highest scoring essays take a definite position on the prompt topic and argue it convincingly. They use strong, relevant evidence to support the position and leave no doubt about where the essay writer stands.

Even in the rhetorical analysis essay you’re expected to take a position: “This is the author’s purpose, these are the three (or four, or five) most important techniques the author uses to achieve that purpose, and (very important) this is how each technique makes the purpose more effective.” Another student might see a different purpose or highlight other techniques in the passage, but then that student would be taking a different position.

Manage Your Time

No one is going to tell you that your first 40 minutes are up and it’s time to move on to the next essay. That’s up to you. Since each essay has equal weight in the combined score, you should devote about the same amount of time to each one. A slightly better score on one essay will not make up for a bad score on another. Aim for the following breakdown within each 40-minute period:

The more you practice writing each type of essay within 40 minutes, the more you’ll gain a sense of how that block of time “feels” and the better you’ll get at making occasional time checks to stay on track instead of engaging in distracting clock-watching that might only increase your anxiety.

Your school has likely given you sample essay prompts for practice. You can also find example prompts from several previous years on the AP website at http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/​apc/​members/​exam/​exam_information/​2001.html.

Plan Your Response

Just getting into the car and starting to drive could land you anywhere, at a great waste of time and fuel. It’s the same with just starting to write—you could easily spend 20 minutes and then realize you’re seriously off track.

To make the best use of your 30–35 minutes of writing time, you first need to spend a few minutes planning where you want to end up and how you’ll get there.

Organize Your Points

You’re likely familiar with the five-paragraph essay model. While it’s not the only method of organizing an essay, there’s nothing wrong with using it on this exam if it’s already a comfortable model for you. It goes like this:

Of course, there’s no rule that says you have to stop at three pieces of evidence; you might have four. Just don’t take on more complexity and length than you can handle well in 40 minutes. And if you’re familiar with another method of organizing an essay and feel more comfortable with it, then use it, as long as it provides a clear organizational framework for your points.

Get Off to a Strong Start

A great first impression goes a long way. Remember your audience of bored readers mired in stacks of mediocre essays? If you can wow them right off the top, you’ll create an expectation that the rest of your essay belongs in the “effective” band, too. That initial glow of “finally—finally—a good essay!” can diminish the impact of later lapses in greatness.

Suppose the prompt for a rhetorical analysis essay quotes from a speech by Mayor Nellie Smith attributing her election victory to the many volunteers who worked on her campaign. You could clearly announce, “This is going to be a mediocre essay” by starting out with a sentence like, “This essay will describe how Mayor Nellie Smith uses rhetorical strategies to communicate the main point of her speech.” Yawn. And do you have any clue what her main point is or what rhetorical strategies she uses? Even if you eventually do get to an insightful point later in the essay, chances are your opening has already caused the reader to tune out and miss it.

On the other hand, you could grab the reader’s attention with an opening like, “Dedicated volunteers are the bricks and mortar of successful political campaigns. That’s the overriding message of Mayor Nellie Smith’s speech thanking them for their passionate support and acknowledging the key role they played. Through the skillful use of parallelism, repetition, and analogy, she makes her listeners feel that the victory is really theirs, likely winning their support after she takes office, too.”

That stronger start doesn’t take a lot of extra effort or time, but it shows the reader that you understand the mayor’s purpose and rhetorical strategies, and can express your ideas with style and sophistication. You’ve just raised the reader’s impression of your abilities, even if your essay tapers off to a more routine effort later on.

Express Your Ideas Clearly, Concisely, Correctly, Persuasively, and with Flair

Oh yes, you can do that.

Be clear. You should know exactly what you want to say as a result of your initial planning and organizing. Imagine yourself on a clear path instead of stumbling around in the underbrush. If you find you’re getting tangled up in long sentences or overlapping ideas, pause for a minute and think of telling someone right beside you what you mean to say. This strategy usually helps clarify your thoughts and language in your own mind. Now write down what you just “said.”

Be specific. Making a vague statement such as, “The demand for subsidized housing increased a lot during the past few years (Source A) ” isn’t good enough if Source A actually referred to a study that proved demand grew by 65 percent between 2000 and 2010. Being as specific and concrete as possible will add credibility and impact to your words. Your argument will be clearer and more persuasive.

Be concise. That doesn’t mean leaving out details that are essential to your argument. It means leaving out pointless repetition and padding. Say it once, precisely and with punch and then move on.

Say it correctly. Use proper grammar. Essays with so many errors that the reader can’t follow the argument are consigned to the bottom of the scoring scale.

Create correct paragraphs, too. Have you ever opened a book and seen nothing but very long paragraphs? Your next thought is probably, “Do I really have to read all of this?” That’s exactly what readers think when they see an essay without paragraphs.

So create proper paragraphs—one main idea per paragraph, beginning with a topic sentence and ending with a smooth transition to the next paragraph—and make them obvious by leaving a space between or indenting them.

Say it smoothly. Lead the reader through your argument with seamless transitions between your points and paragraphs. Transition words and phrases such as “on the other hand,” “in addition,” “therefore” and “nevertheless” will do the job.

Say it persuasively. These essays are all evidence-based writing, so you need strong evidence that supports each of your main points. Connect each piece of evidence clearly to the point it supports, and explain exactly how or why the evidence is relevant. Unrelated evidence and vague, weak explanations won’t persuade anyone.

Say it with flair. Is there a punchier, more descriptive word you could use? Perhaps “shack” or “cabin” or “mansion” instead of “house.” Can you make the phrasing of a sentence slicker? For example, instead of “The candidate’s appearance was neat, and the boss gave him the job right away,” let yourself get carried away and say, “The candidate’s Armani suit and sleek silk tie captivated the boss, who slipped a contract across the table without comment or hesitation.”

It doesn’t take long to think of a more forceful word or a stronger way of saying something if you put your mind on that track, and even a few of these sprinkled throughout your essay can impress the reader with your ability to control language and use it to achieve your desired effect.

Proofread

You won’t have time to revise, but leaving a couple of minutes to proofread can allow you to fix little errors that you would never have made if you weren’t writing in such a rush. And that, in turn, might just knock your essay up a notch on the scoring scale. You’ll have to write your essay in dark blue or black pen—no pencils allowed on this section of the exam. However, you can strike out any errors you want the readers to ignore (they will) and then write in (neatly) your correction.

In Chapters 5–7, you’ll get a closer look at the types of prompts on the exam, and find additional suggestions for responding to the three different types.

Summary

General Essay Information

Essay Scoring

Presentation

Expression

Content

Chapter 5

How to Approach the Synthesis Essay

SYNTHESIZE WHAT?

By “synthesis,” the AP exam writers mean two things:

High-scoring synthesis essays draw a clear connection between a source and a particular point in the writer’s argument. By the time you get down to a score of 5 (the bottom of the “adequate” band), the link is still apparent but “strained.”

Also at the higher score levels, the essay writer cites the specific source being used (with a simple reference such as “Source A”; you’re not expected to remember formal citation formats for this exam). Writers who score in the lower bands merely summarize a jumbled collection of points they’ve read in various sources, without citing a specific source and linking it to a particular point in their argument.

Your performance on the synthesis essay will help the readers (and yourself) predict how well you’ll be able to handle college research assignments. In particular, your essay will show whether you can

How Many Sources?

The prompt will instruct you to use at least three sources, and in most cases that’s a safe choice. Trying to use more than three might lead you into an unnecessarily complicated essay at best, and at worst, a pyramid of similar, superficially treated points piled up on top of each other. Using fewer than three will definitely knock your essay down into the “inadequate” scoring band.

Three sources are enough to show progress in your argument (for example, a more general or older source of support followed by increasingly specific or more recent claims, each one building upon the previous one). If you choose to argue a qualified position, three sources will give you, for instance, two authors who argue against something and one who is in favor of it in particular circumstances, supporting your qualified rejection of the claim.

Having a Conversation with Your Sources

Since your aim is synthesis, you need to weave the three sources into your own discussion of the prompt, using them to support and develop the position you’ve chosen to take. The exam writers offer a helpful image of how to do that. They call it having a conversation with your sources.

Imagine the creators of your chosen sources are sitting together in a living room discussing the topic of the prompt. Now you walk in and join the conversation. You wouldn’t simply record each author’s (or artist’s) comments. That’s the equivalent of just copying and pasting chunks from each source into your essay and stringing them together.

You would respond to each person’s comments, build on them, and use them to enrich your own views about the topic. You would add something to the discussion your three authors are having, and they would add something to your own understanding of the topic. Then, if you had a conversation with each author individually, you would try to understand that author’s position and add your own ideas to the discussion. That’s what the test writers mean.

Direct Quote vs. Paraphrase

When you’re drawing a source into your argument, you have a choice of paraphrasing (summarizing in your own words) what the author says, or quoting some of his or her words directly (within quotation marks, of course).

In many cases, paraphrasing makes it easier to incorporate someone else’s ideas smoothly into your own. Several quotes, too, could make your essay appear to be more of a copy-and-paste exercise than a synthesis. However, if an author uses a particularly striking phrase or unusual wording that would be difficult to paraphrase accurately, then an occasional direct quote could make your essay more vivid.

SAMPLE ESSAY—HERE’S HOW IT’S DONE

Here’s an example of a synthesis essay prompt. As you go through it, use your active reading skills to make sure you understand exactly what it’s asking you to do.

The Directions

Suggested reading and writing time—55 minutes.

It is suggested that you spend 15 minutes reading the question, analyzing and evaluating the sources, and 40 minutes writing your response.

Note: You may begin writing your response before the reading period is over.

(This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score.)

Throughout history, people have portrayed men and women differently, often requiring masculinity of the former and femininity of the latter. What does it mean to be a man, or masculine, and a woman, or feminine?

Carefully read the following seven sources, including the introductory information for each source. Then synthesize the information from at least three of the sources and incorporate it into a coherent, well-developed essay that argues a clear position that defends, challenges, or qualifies the claim that men must be masculine and women must be feminine.

Your argument should be the focus of your essay. Use the sources to develop your argument and explain the reasoning for it. Avoid merely summarizing the sources. Indicate clearly which sources you are drawing from, whether through direct quotation, paraphrase, or summary. You may cite the sources as Source A, Source B, and so forth, or by using the descriptions in parentheses.

It’s Time to Read

There’s quite a lot of reading (not to mention some art interpretation) as you go through the sources for a synthesis essay question. In order to use your reading time effectively, before you start you should already be clear on what the prompt is asking you to do and have some idea which position you want to take.

In this example, the prompt clearly tells you to “defend” (agree with), “challenge” (disagree with), or “qualify” (agree or disagree, but only in certain defined circumstances) the claim that “men must be masculine and women must be feminine.” To show the depth of thought that pulls an essay up into the “effective” score band, you also need to consider questions beyond that claim. In other words, use your active reading skills on the prompt. It doesn’t take much extra time if you’ve already put your brain into “active reading” mode. What do “masculine” and “feminine” mean? Who says men and women “must” be something? Why would a society of “masculine” men and “feminine” women be desirable—or not desirable?

After you’ve examined the prompt’s claim, decide which of the three positions (defend, challenge, or qualify) you’d probably like to take.

Now you’re ready to read through the sources with a fairly clear idea of what you’re looking for. You want three sources that will enrich the position you’ve chosen, and will help you develop your argument in a logical way. If two sources say essentially the same thing, you probably don’t need both—which one is stronger? Which sources deal with the “beyond the prompt” questions you asked during your active reading? If you’ve chosen to take a qualified position, which source presents an opposing viewpoint that will support your “only in these circumstances” argument?

To help you locate supporting points later on while you’re writing, underline a few key words and put a stroke through sources you don’t want to use. Then plan your essay: jot down a quick outline of the points you want to make, the order in which you’ll explain them as you develop your argument, and the source you’ll use (and cite) to support each point.

The following is excerpted from a letter written by English social reformer and founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale, to the sanitary commissioner and Health Officer of Bombay, India. Nightingale often provided advice to Hewlett regarding issues such as disease prevention, disposal of sewage, and reaching out to the native women of India to spread sanitary education.

My dear Sir,

You are aware of Lady Dufferin’s scheme for “reaching” the native “female population” of India, in order to “teach the most ordinary facts relating to health to the women themselves, & to the young girls in schools.”

You have kindly offered to give your invaluable help in this important matter which must be begun quite from the beginning: The special points of information required as a very first step would be, as I think we agreed:

The advice you would give on these points would be simply priceless.

Success to the endeavour to get the women of India on our side.

And success to all your noble endeavours in the great cause of Sanitary progress in India which have wrought such great results as to be almost a revolution to the right way.

Pray believe me ever yours faithfully,

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE

In the following dialogue, Henry the Fifth is speaking to one of his nobles, Lord Exeter. Exeter has just seen two of Henry’s uncles, the Duke of York and the Earl of Suffolk, die in the tremendous battle with the French.

The following passage is excerpted from a treatise on women’s rights.

To account for, and excuse the tyranny of man, many ingenious arguments have been brought forward to prove, that the two sexes, in the acquirement of virtue, ought to aim at attaining a very different character: or, to speak explicitly, women are not allowed to have sufficient strength of mind to acquire what really deserves the name of virtue. Yet it should seem, allowing them to have souls, that there is but one way appointed by Providence to lead mankind to either virtue or happiness.

If then women are not a swarm of ephemeron triflers, why should they be kept in ignorance under the specious name of innocence? Men complain, and with reason, of the follies and caprices of our sex, when they do not keenly satirize our headstrong passions and groveling vices. Behold, I should answer, the natural effect of ignorance! The mind will ever be unstable that has only prejudices to rest on, and the current will run with destructive fury when there are no barriers to break its force. Women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain for them the protection of man; and should they be beautiful, every thing else is needless, for, at least, twenty years of their lives….

How grossly do they insult us who thus advise us only to render ourselves gentle….

The following painting depicts a scene from Roman legend.

The following is a speech delivered at the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851.

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that ‘twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man—when I could get it—and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [member of audience whispers, “intellect”] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ‘cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.

You Try It

Now you’re ready to begin writing. Remember to leave a couple of minutes at the end to proofread your work.

After you’re finished writing your essay, take a look at the following page. This is a student essay that was written in the allotted 40 minutes. As you read it, evaluate how well it

A Student Essay

 

Every society tries to define what is masculine and what is feminine. In doing so, all societies assign certain traits to men, and others to women. In our own society, manhood is associated with bravery, stoicism, strength, and wisdom; the conventional (and insulting) view is that womanhood is the lack of those virtues. Instead, women are valued primarily because they are pleasing to men—even when they try to show themselves as powerful and strong on their own terms, they still look to male approval to measure their success. While one may wish to challenge these notions, men and women alike seem to agree with them—suggesting an inherent truth about men and women.

 

Our society’s traditional view is that manhood is associated with bravery in battle, strength in the face of suffering, and level-headed rationality. Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “If,” provides a conclusive summary to manly virtues. For him, a boy becomes a man when he can wait patiently, endure the criticisms of lesser men and the reversals of fortune without complaint, and give his all by seeking success at every moment, neither proud in victory nor broken in defeat. These are admirable qualities in anyone—but Kipling assigns them specifically to men. Men are also stoic in the face of emotion: all the way back to Shakespeare’s time, men were supposed to be strong enough to fight their own tears. Losing that battle is a feminine sign of weakness.

 

This cultural assumption has not gone unnoticed by women. Sojourner Truth notes in her famous speech that she has personally accomplished all the same things that men have done. However, this is nothing more than egotism, because at the end she notes that “now they [women] is asking to do it, the men better let them.” This suggests that, in her view, men still allow women certain behaviors. An earlier feminist writer, Mary Wollstonecraft, also noticed (and objected to) the difference in social roles for men and women: in her view, men keep women in ignorance by denying them education and responsibility, but then say that women are not worthy of these things because it is their nature to be frivolous and overly emotional. Instead, women are to appeal to men for protection. Men are valuable in themselves; women cannot be, but must only be measured by their relationships with men.

 

It would be easy to dismiss the complaints of the feminist writers, except that both male and female creators reinforce those same complaints. Consider David’s “Oath of the Horatii.” The scene shows a father stoically offering swords to his three sons, who are ready to go bravely off to war. Meanwhile, the women helplessly cry in the background, victim of their emotions and their own lack of courage. And in Florence Nightingale’s letter to Thomas Gillham Hewlett, despite her efforts to organize a “female Sanitary Mission” to help the women of India, she still asks Gillham to find “a native gentleman who could write a practical Sanitary Primer.” She also asks whether he knows any “Medical men” who would be willing to find women to distribute the primers. This shows somewhat of a dependency on men despite her accomplishments and status.

What did you think? This essay has some strong points:

Did you pick up the weaknesses in this essay, though? They’re significant.

There are some minor weaknesses, too. The opening isn’t a strong one that would grab the reader and make him want to keep reading, and the conclusion seems tacked on. The most serious problem, though, is the writer’s misreading of the prompt, which takes her whole essay off track and pushes it down the scoring scale. The “sources over argument” quality, the oversimplification and misreading of the prompt would put this essay into the “inadequate” band at a 4. However, the writer’s strong control of expression and flowing organization would likely elevate it to a 5.

By following our strategies and using the essays that you’ve seen as models, you can aim for—and achieve—higher scores.

Next, let’s take a look at how to tackle the rhetorical analysis essay.

Chapter 6

How to Approach the Rhetorical Analysis Essay

FIRST THING’S FIRST: WHAT’S A RHETORICAL STRATEGY?

Authors use certain techniques, in both the language and the structure of the piece they’re writing, to convey their messages effectively and to achieve the intended effect(s) on their audiences. Speakers use these techniques, too. Often they’re trying to persuade their audiences to do something or to agree with their points of view.

In Chapters 8–11, you’ll find explanations and examples of rhetorical strategies, plus questions so you can practice using them. Once you become familiar with rhetorical strategies and their effects, you’ll probably start spotting them in your day-to-day life, too—in ads, in interviews given by politicians, or in instructions from your teachers, for instance.

YOUR TASKS IN THE RHETORICAL ANALYSIS ESSAY

The AP readers are looking for three main things in the rhetorical analysis essay.

• An understanding of the author’s intended purpose

Of course, the readers are also assessing the usual skillful control of the language, clear expression, and smooth organization that they want to see in all three essays.

In the rhetorical analysis essay, the AP readers don’t want a summary of the entire passage, or an argument for or against the author’s main point. Your focus is strictly on what the author’s purpose is, and what rhetorical strategies the author uses to achieve it effectively. Students typically find this essay the most challenging of the three, and straying from that focus is often where they go wrong.

Another common problem that lands essays in the lower score bands is being too general. An essay might describe the author’s purpose right up front, in the first paragraph (a good idea, incidentally), and identify the three or four most important rhetorical strategies, but then fail to link each one to the author’s purpose with a specific, thorough explanation of exactly how that strategy makes the message more effective. Direct references to the passage are a must, too, or the explanation runs the risk of being too general and oversimplified.

So your first task is to identify the author’s purpose, which your active reading skills will enable you to do. After that, your task is to detect the main rhetorical strategies and build a convincing case for why and how each advances the author’s purpose.

The Rhetorical Diamond

While you’re reading the prompt and the passage, imagine—and try to flesh out—a baseball diamond with the following four points:

The passage represents an interaction among those points. Understanding them will help you recognize rhetorical strategies that an author might use to achieve his or her purpose for a specific audience and within a distinct context.

For example, you would expect a politician trying to win support from a mass audience at a rally to use different rhetorical techniques than a heart disease specialist writing the findings from a research study for publication in a professional, peer-reviewed journal. The politician, because of the verbal delivery and the diversity of the mass audience, would use simpler language, emotional appeals (pathos), and techniques such as repetition. The heart disease specialist, on the other hand, would use technical language and techniques to inspire respect for her qualifications and the thoroughness of her work (ethos).

The prompt will give you some of the information you need to describe the four points of the rhetorical baseball diamond. With a solid understanding of those points, you’ll be able to predict at least some of the rhetorical strategies you can expect to find as you apply your active reading skills to the passage.

More Tips for Spotting Rhetorical Strategies

The author’s main point will give you some clues about the rhetorical strategies you might find in the passage. Does it deal with a controversial topic, or with a “motherhood and apple pie” position that would create almost no opposition from anyone? Is it promoting a new, “fuzzy” concept that the audience would find hard to understand, or a topic that would be familiar to most people?

Trying to put yourself in the audience’s shoes can also help you uncover rhetorical strategies. If you were part of that audience, at that time and in that context, would this piece of writing influence you? Why? Did it help you understand something through the use of examples, for instance? Did it make you feel the author sympathized with your concerns, perhaps through the use of anecdotes echoing your own experiences? Did it keep bringing you back to one central idea through the skillful use of repetition?

Now that you know your tasks and where you need to focus, let’s look at a couple of rhetorical analysis prompts and passages.

A PERSUASIVE SPEECH EXAMPLE

The Directions

 

Question 2

 

Suggested time—40 minutes.

 

(This question counts for one-third of the total essay score.)

 

Susan B. Anthony delivered the speech below in 1873, after she was arrested for voting in the 1872 presidential election. She spoke throughout the county where her trial was to be held, aiming primarily at potential jurors and other women. Read the passages carefully. Then, in a well-developed essay, analyze the rhetorical strategies Anthony uses to persuade her audience that she did not commit a crime.

Analyzing the Prompt

As you’re reading the prompt, look for how much it tells you about the four points on the rhetorical diamond.

Armed with the information you’ve gained from the prompt, you can now put your active reading skills into gear looking for Anthony’s rhetorical strategies in the passage. Imagine you’re in the audience listening to her speech. Does she convince you to agree with her? If so, how does she do it? If not, what would you need to hear in order to be convinced? As you identify each rhetorical strategy, keep asking yourself, “Why does she use this? How does it help her achieve her purpose?” because you’ll need to answer those questions in your essay.

First try writing your own essay in 40 minutes. Remember to spend a few minutes planning your essay and support your points with direct references to the passage. Then read the sample student essay and assessment that follow the passage.

The Passage

Woman’s Rights to the Suffrage

by Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)

1873

[abridged]

The terms “bill of attainder” and “ex post facto law” in paragraph 5 refer to the power of the legislature to declare someone guilty (often without a trial), and to change, retroactively, the legal status of an action that occurred before the law was passed. The three people mentioned in paragraph 6 all published dictionaries.

A Student Essay

 

Susan B. Anthony broke the law. For this, she was arrested and about to be tried. Before the trial took place, however, she wanted to prove that she didn’t do anything wrong and to gain support for her innocence. So she gave this speech to convince people—potential jurors at her trial, other women and anyone who chose to listen—that it wasn’t wrong for her to vote in the presidential election.

 

That would have been a radical assertion at the time. Anthony lived in an era when men and women had different rights, and the difference in their status was widely accepted as normal. While the audience likely included people who knew of Anthony and supported her position, others would have been shocked by the fact that she dared to challenge the accepted social order. She would have needed a strong argument to explain her action and win those people over.

 

Anthony bases her entire appeal on logos, or logic. “Are women persons?” she asks. If women are people, then they are also citizens and entitled to the “blessings of liberty” that the nation’s Constitution guarantees, including the right to vote. She does not try to claim that she didn’t break a state law. Instead, she argues that the law she broke is “null and void” because it denies her the status and the rights that the federal Constitution guarantees her.

 

In this appeal to reason and logic, Anthony is basically claiming that anyone who thinks she did something wrong by voting is also saying that she—or any woman—is not a person. In addition, anyone who thinks she committed a crime would also have to argue that a state law (which she did break by voting) outweighs the Constitution of the entire nation. Both positions would be hard to defend. By attributing these positions to her opponents, Anthony portrays people who don’t agree with her—including everyone connected with her arrest and trial and with passing the law in the first place—as illogical, unreasonable idiots. Such people couldn’t possibly be right.

 

Not only are her opponents fools; Anthony claims they are more dangerous than that. They have created a “hateful aristocracy” and ensured that every family in the country is plagued by “dissension, discord and rebellion.” The government is not a democracy, as the Constitution intended, she claims, but is instead controlled by a privileged few who are depriving her—and all women—of liberty. Her passion and hyperbole come through even more when she describes the government as “the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe.”

 

After this tirade, Anthony comes full circle back to her original point: women are citizens too, and therefore no state law (like the one preventing them from voting) can deny them the rights guaranteed by the country’s Constitution. Through this passionate appeal to logic, Anthony achieves the purpose she clearly stated at the beginning: “to prove to you that in thus voting, I…committed no crime.” It is as if she were a lawyer arguing her case at her upcoming trial, rather than the accused trying to drum up support and influence potential jurors. How could anyone disagree with her after listening to the logic of her argument?

The Assessment

This student makes a comon mistake in responding to the rhetorical analysis essay question. Can you identify it? He focuses on what the author says rather than on how the author says it in order to achieve her purpose.

His discussion of Anthony’s logical argument is accurate, although rather superficial. The trouble is, that’s not what the prompt asked. The prompt instructed him to identify and analyze the rhetorical strategies the author uses. That task requires a focus not just on the author’s message, but on the interaction among message, purpose, audience, and context. Different elements—for example, if Anthony were creating a written submission to the judge at her trial—would require different rhetorical strategies in order to achieve the author’s purpose effectively.

This confusion between what the author says and how the author says it is one of the main reasons why test takers typically earn a lower score on the rhetorical analysis than on any of the other essay tasks. In this case, the essay would likely have received a score of 3 or 4 because the student misread the prompt and did not do an adequate job of analyzing Anthony’s rhetorical strategies.

There are some good points in this essay. Although the first paragraph is simply an uninspiring restatement of the information provided in the prompt, the first sentence does turn out to be a good attention-getter. It makes the reader want to keep going to uncover more of the story, and creates a good first impression. The student also cites some evidence from the passage, which is essential to earning a good score. He conveys his thoughts clearly, leads the reader through his argument with transitions between points, and displays a good vocabulary and grasp of English language mechanics.

Let’s look at some points this student could have covered in his essay to get a better score.

Although he correctly identifies Anthony’s classical appeal to logos, or logic, the student doesn’t catch her use of pathos—an appeal to the audience’s values, to a sense of fairness in this case.

He does touch upon the likely makeup of the audience and the context of an era in which the restricted status of women was the norm. However, he connects these two elements only to the content of Anthony’s message (the need for a strong argument), not to rhetorical strategies that would help her deliver that content more effectively to that audience in that era. For example, he could have discussed strategies such as identifying with the audience and establishing common ground (the wording of the Constitution, the desire for a peaceful home life) to make her action seem less alien to listeners who might initially find it shocking.

The student mentions “passion and hyperbole” but doesn’t connect these rhetorical devices to Anthony’s verbal delivery (can’t you just hear the rising volume as she goes through that long “odious aristocracy” sentence?) or to her purpose of inflaming her audience to support her right to vote. And Anthony injects a bit of humour (“not we, the white male citizens”) to give some relief to her impassioned plea for support.

He astutely notices that Anthony concludes her speech by returning to her starting point. However, again he fails to tie this rhetorical technique to the verbal delivery or to the mass audience she’s addressing. Her listeners don’t have a written version of her argument in front of them. In that context, she can achieve her purpose more effectively by reminding them of her main points and wrapping up her speech neatly by returning to the beginning.

The student also ignores some major rhetorical strategies used in speeches: repetition, cadence, and rhythm. Try to hear, for instance, the “…not to…but to…” rhythms of the fourth paragraph, or the repeated “an oligarchy of” descriptions in the fifth. Anthony also uses repetition in organizing her points, again in consideration of the verbal delivery and an audience that could well include people who are simply curious. She not only begins and ends with her main points (women are people, the nation’s Constitution supersedes a state law, and therefore she did nothing wrong), but also refers to those points throughout the body of her speech.

The student misses the rhetorical technique of appeal to authority, too. Anthony claims she has no less authority on her side than the founding Constitution of the entire nation, and in case that isn’t enough, she invokes Webster (of dictionary fame), Worcester, and Bouvier (who also published dictionaries). That technique would enhance her stature and credibility with listeners who might have regarded her as just some minor figure who was silly enough to challenge a state law.

Anthony also uses the tried and true politician’s technique of identifying with her listeners in order to get them on her side. She addresses them as “Friends and Fellow Citizens,” and tells them that she is fighting for them because the injustice she wants to overturn affects “every household.”

Keep this student’s mistake in mind when you reach the rhetorical analysis essay on the test. Don’t simply discuss what the author says. Discuss how the author delivers the message in order to achieve his or her purpose with this particular audience in this particular context.

Here’s another example for you to try, this time from a written work.

AN EDUCATIONAL BOOK EXAMPLE

The Directions

 

Question 2

 

Suggested time—40 minutes.

 

(This question counts for one-third of the total essay score.)

 

In1880, nine years after he created “The Greatest Show on Earth,” circus promoter P.T. Barnum wrote a short book about making money. He became wealthy himself, and believed that anyone could do the same if they would only follow the simple rules he had learned. Read the passages carefully. Then, in a well-developed essay, analyze the rhetorical strategies Barnum uses to convey his point of view.

Analyzing the Prompt

As you’re reading the prompt, look for how much it tells you about the four points on the rhetorical diamond.

Armed with the information you’ve gained from the prompt, you can now use your active reading skills to look for Barnum’s rhetorical strategies. In this excerpt, does he teach you any lessons that would help you improve your own financial situation? How does he do it? Does he explain his rules in a way that will help you remember them? Does he make you believe that his desire to help you is genuine, and that you, too, can become wealthy? As you identify each rhetorical strategy, keep asking yourself, “Why does he use this? How does it help him achieve his purpose?” because you’ll need to answer those questions in your essay.

First, try writing your own essay in 40 minutes. Remember to spend a few minutes planning your essay and support your points with direct references to the passage. Then read the sample student essay and assessment that follow the passage.

The Passage

Excerpt from

The Art of Money Getting

or

Golden Rules for Making Money

by P.T. Barnum

1880

In paragraph 2, “Dr. Franklin” refers to Benjamin Franklin, the Founding Father who promoted the virtues of thrift and frugal living. “Mr. Micawber” is the chronic debtor in Charles Dickens’ novel, David Copperfield. “Furbelows” signifies showy, basically useless ruffles on women’s dresses. In paragraph 4, a “bung-hole” is a hole in a barrel (which might hold beer or whisky) capped with a cork called a bung. Punch was a popular satire magazine at the time.

A Student Essay

 

Circus promoter P.T. Barnum wanted to do more than entertain people at the Greatest Show on Earth. He wants to teach them how to make money and become wealthy, too. To do this, he uses some effective rhetorical strategies. He tells stories, he gives examples, he uses a comparison/contrast structure, he mentions authorities, he identifies with his readers, he uses the tone of a cheerleader and he uses simple language.

 

Telling stories is a good way to teach lessons. Barnum’s readers are ordinary people, without much formal education. They will remember stories much more easily than if the author ordered them to follow a list of rules. For example, Barnum tells the story of the woman with the candle so vividly that readers could likely see her guest squinting, then finally giving up on trying to read with such inadequate lighting. Then they could imagine the woman dashing around the village buying ribbons with the money she saved by only burning one candle.

 

Readers would also be more accepting of a lesson told in a story than they would of a rule ordered by a successful businessman. If Barnum just told them not to save money for buying foolish things, but to invest the money instead (in this case, in the knowledge she would gain by reading), readers might resent being ordered around. A story conveys the same rule in a friendlier way to this audience. They are reading Barnum’s book because they want to learn, not be ordered around.

 

The author gives other examples so he can avoid delivering his lessons as rules and so readers will remember them better. He tells the story of the businessman who saves scraps of paper, but wastes the money he saved on parties and carriages. He gives the example of Mr. Micawber, who always spent more than he earned and therefore couldn’t become wealthy. The author compares Mr. Micawber’s practice with a contrasting habit of spending less than one earns, which leads to the ability to accumulate wealth.

 

Citing authorities that would be familiar to readers gives Barnum more credibility with his audience, and also strengthens his position as “one of them” rather than a remote, successful businessman they could never hope to become. Barnum reads Charles Dickens and the satire magazine Punch, too, just like his readers do. His statement, “many of my hearers will agree,” reinforces his connection with the audience so they will accept his rules as advice from a friend rather than a route to something they could never achieve (wealth). The author needs to convince his readers that he really wants to help them become wealthy. Making them feel that he is “one of them” helps him achieve that goal.

 

He cheers them on and encourages them to follow his advice. It’s “not at all difficult for persons in good health to make money,” he assures them. Anyone can do it, even women (which would have been unusual at the time).

 

Barnum used simple language to convey simple lessons. There are no complex financial terms or concepts that would make his readers feel the book or Barnum’s lessons were beyond their abilities. Spend less than you earn, and invest wisely instead of spending foolishly are his two main messages in this excerpt. The rhetorical strategies he chooses ensure that these important lessons are understood and remembered by ordinary readers.

The Assessment

In terms of the task given in the prompt, this student gets it to a large extent. Instead of simply rehashing the author’s message, she focuses on the rhetorical strategies the author uses to help readers understand, remember, and accept his rules for gaining wealth. She gives evidence from the passage to support her points. It’s obvious that she planned her response before she started writing, since her first paragraph contains a laundry list of rhetorical strategies that she then checks off in the following paragraphs.

That sense of checking items off a list makes her discussion adequate, landing this essay at a score of 6. It’s the “analyze” part of the task where this student’s essay falls short of a top score. Her explanations don’t have the depth, sophistication, or conviction to elevate her work into the higher score range. A more effective, thorough analysis would explain how each of the author’s rhetorical strategies fits into the interplay among purpose, audience, and context.

For example, plenty of authorities counsel thrift. Why was Benjamin Franklin a particularly good one for Barnum to cite? The student doesn’t explore what the author gains with a mass audience by drawing on a trusted Founding Father: Barnum gains credibility for his message, legitimacy for his subject (the pursuit of wealth), and a connection to the concept of helping people build something.

As another example, the student misses the fact that Barnum uses different rhetorical strategies to achieve different purposes. Before he can successfully teach readers how to become wealthy, Barnum needs to convince them that his desire to help them is genuine and that they will benefit from his book. In order to achieve that initial purpose, he first gets his readers on his side with a rousing, encouraging “land of opportunity” opening. It’s easy to make money in a country where there is so much land and so many jobs, he claims. An ordinary reader would likely feel, “I can actually do this, too, just like the famous Barnum did, and he really wants me to succeed.” Next, the author identifies with his readers and demonstrates that he understands them: “I have no doubt many of my hearers will agree it is the most difficult thing in the world to keep it.” Only then does he turn to his main purpose, launching into the stories that teach the difference between false economy (which does not lead to wealth) and true economy (which does).

In addition to the superficial analysis, another weakness in this essay occurs in the way the student expresses her ideas. No one expects a polished essay from a 40-minute effort. However, there is a choppy, disjointed quality to the way the student develops her points, and a weakness in her ability to control English mechanics (such as some confusion in verb tenses and some unclear pronoun antecedents). As a result, it’s difficult to follow her argument in spots. A more in-depth analysis of the author’s rhetorical strategies would have raised her score another notch, to a 7, but level 8 and 9 essays demonstrate a smoother, more controlled prose style than this student achieves. Understanding the task and citing evidence from the passage are both important in the rhetorical analysis essay, but so is the ability to express ideas clearly and effectively, with smooth transitions to guide the reader through the discussion.

In the next chapter, we move on to the argument essay.

Chapter 7

How to Approach the Argument Essay

WHERE YOUR OPINION COUNTS

At last—a chance to make your own argument, without being limited by the source documents you’re given and without having to focus on rhetorical strategies instead of the merits of what an author says. Here you get to take a stand and present your point of view on the topic in the prompt. This should be an essay you look forward to!

Even better, there is no “right” or “wrong” answer. All that matters is how effectively you argue and back up your position. If you like to debate, this is the part of the essay section where you can really shine.

The argument essay isn’t a license to ramble on about your own personal views, though. To get a high score, you need to do three things.

Lower-scoring essays tend to simply summarize what the author says in the passage, or wander aimlessly through an impassioned list of the student’s own beliefs without giving any evidence to support them. As in the synthesis essay, the concept of a conversation with the author is helpful. If you were talking with this author and either agreeing, disagreeing, or giving a “yes, but” (qualifying) opinion, how would you argue your position? What evidence would you offer to back it up?

Let’s look at an example. We’ll work through an analysis of the prompt and passage before you try writing your own essay in 40 minutes. Then read the student essay and evaluation that follow.

SAMPLE ESSAY #1—HERE’S HOW IT’S DONE

Here’s a sample argument essay prompt.

The Prompt

 

Question 3

 

Suggested time—40 minutes.

 

(This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score.)

 

In Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill promoted a theory of morality that postulated: “The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure.”

 

Mill argues that happiness is the foundation of morality, and that pursuing one’s own happiness will necessarily lead to an ethical society for all. Write an essay that argues your position on the extent to which Mill’s claims are valid. Use appropriate examples from your reading, experience, or observations to support your argument.

Analyzing the Prompt

If you’ve taken a lot of history courses, then you may have studied John Stuart Mill, and this would give you some information about context. If not, then the prompt still gives you rich material for a thoughtful argumentative essay.

Your first task is to identify the author’s main point, so you can decide what position you want to argue. In this case, the author’s main point is clearly stated: “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.” In the next sentence, Mill defines happiness (“pleasure”) and unhappiness (“pain or the privation of pleasure”).

You still have terms to define when you write your own essay, though. Happiness may equal pleasure, but one person’s pleasure may be a matter of complete indifference to another person. What does Mill mean by “pleasure”? How will you define it?

You can see why this particular example is tailor-made to take you beyond the prompt. Here you can really demonstrate that you’ve thought deeply about the topic. Is “pleasure” the same thing for everyone? What are the consequences of individuals pursuing a “pleasure” that doesn’t mean the same thing to all of them? If everyone pursued pleasure, what consequences might result for society? Does one person pursuing pleasure mean someone else has to experience pain?

As you think through those questions, what kind of evidence from your own experiences or reading pops into your mind? Which would be the strongest and the easiest to develop? That evidence should determine what stand you take on the argument. Remember that no reader knows or cares what you really think about an issue. You’ll want to take the stand that’s easiest for you to defend at that particular moment, based on the ideas that come to you. The most important things are that you have clearly decided how you feel about the issue and that you have the examples to back up your position.

Let’s look at an essay that was written by a student under actual testing conditions.

A Student Essay

 

In John Stuart Mill’s work Utilitarianism, the author advances a theory of morality that associates “the promotion of pleasure and the prevention of pain” with ethical correctness. While the pursuit of happiness can sometimes lead to a path of moral righteousness, Mill’s claim is flawed in that it assumes hedonism will inherently bring positive results. By championing any action that produces pleasure, Mill condones humanity’s greed, lust, and selfishness; three traits that are clearly immoral. As history and literature have demonstrated, pursuing goals motivated purely by self-interest does not lead to ethically responsible outcomes. Furthermore, the greatest achievements often arise when people readily eschew pleasure to attain a nobler end.

 

During the second half of the nineteenth century, a number of technological advances made the American economy blossom and helped to make the nation a world power. Eager to enjoy the pleasures made possible by great wealth, entrepreneurs and businessmen sought to increase profits and lower costs in any possible way. Workers were paid abysmally low wages, conditions were highly unsafe, and monopolies were commonplace. Though the heads of “Big Business” clearly adhered to Mill’s “Greatest Happiness Principle,” their actions were highly unethical. Their pleasure came at the expense of the poor and created a polarized society. In contrast, patriots seeking independence from England a century before, gladly relinquished the “absence of pain” afforded by accepting the status quo. Despite the great “privation of pleasure” brought about by the Revolutionary War, the patriots achieved their lofty goal of freedom, a morally desirable outcome. Evidently, seeking happiness does not necessarily entail finding “what is right and good.”

 

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s portrait of the Roaring Twenties, The Great Gatsby, examines hedonism and reaches a conclusion much different than Mill’s. Jay Gatsby pursues pleasure in the form of rekindling a relationship with a former love, Daisy. Following utilitarian principles, seeking the desirable outcome should be an ethically sound choice. However, it instead leads Gatsby to engage in questionable business and to court a married woman, two clear violations of ethical standards. Clearly, morality based on pleasure is an unsound principle.

This essay is rather short. An additional example—perhaps from the student’s own experience—would have made it stronger. However, it does the job quite well, and would likely earn a score of 7, at the bottom of the “effective” band.

The introduction is slightly long, but notice how well this student addresses the two tasks set forth. Right away, the student states the author’s claim (“the author advances a theory of morality that associates the ‘promotion of pleasure and the prevention of pain’ with ethical correctness.”) and takes a firm stand against it: “As history and literature have demonstrated, pursuing goals motivated by mere self-interest does not lead to ethically responsible outcomes.” The student’s clear definition of pleasure (“humanity’s greed, lust, and selfishness”) both explains and reinforces this stand.

The student gives the reader a roadmap for the rest of the essay by first mentioning history and then literature, and follows that roadmap in the same order.

The conclusion is weak and seems tacked on. It would have been stronger if it reminded the reader of the evidence brought in to support the student’s stand against Mill’s claim.

What keeps this essay from scoring an 8 or 9 is the student’s failure to follow the prompt where it leads. This essay simply takes the prompt at face value and doesn’t examine the broader ethical questions it raises.

SAMPLE ESSAY #2—GIVING IT ANOTHER TRY

Let’s try another one. Again, now that you’re comfortable with the process for writing the argument essay, try writing this one on your own before you look at the student’s essay.

The Prompt

 

Question 3

 

Suggested time—40 minutes.

 

(This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score.)

 

The former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) wrote, “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”

 

Write an essay that argues your position on the relationship between literacy and freedom in the world today. Use appropriate examples from your reading, experience, or observations to support your argument.

A Student Essay

 

Frederick Douglass once wrote, “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free” and this is true of the modern world. Though everyone in America can read, alot of people in the world can’t read today and that’s a serious problem for them. There are too many people in places like India and China who can’t read and this iliteracy is holding them back. If we would have more programs to teach literacy to people in these Third World countries, then we we would have more literacy and therefore more freedom for all.

 

One reason I think there should be more literacy is that you need to educate children early on in their educational experience, otherwise, they will not learn what they need to succeed. Once the children in a given country achieve literacy, then the country can also improve the quality of life and the children can teach there parents how to read when they return home from school. This would help the parents to find better jobs and allow for more financial freedom for the family. Also, if the people in China and India learned English, they could get jobs using their new skills in English.

 

Another reason why I think literacy increases freedom is because literacy is the key concept to the development of political freedom. When Frederick Douglass was a slave in America, black people were enslaved and deprived of literacy. When the slave owners didn’t teach their slaves to read, they were holding them back from the freedoms they deserved; including the right to read. If the slaves learned to read, though, they would have been more free and this would have threatened the slave masters. So with slaves having been deprived of literacy, the owners could keep control of them.

 

In conclusion, literacy is the key to freedom around the world. As the examples of India and slavery have demonstrated, freedom is possible for people who have a chance to read the way we do.

This essay has significant flaws in both content and style and would not score above a 5. The most serious problem is the absence of a strong connection between literacy and freedom. This is not an easy concept and many students would struggle to find good, specific examples to bridge a connection between these ideas. While literacy in the Third World and in American slavery could be excellent examples, they are not made specific or relevant in this essay. In the discussion of slavery, for example, the student wrote

 

If the slaves learned to read, though, they would have been more free and this would have threatened the slave masters. So with the slaves having been deprived of literacy, the owners could keep control of them.

What does this mean? How would literacy have made slaves “more free”? How did illiteracy help slave owners “keep control of them”? Good essays on the AP English Language and Composition Exam develop specific examples and then carefully connect them to the issue at hand. They also demonstrate a depth of thought and complexity that is mostly absent in this essay. As you write your own essays, be sure to have a clear, stable definition of the essential terms (in this case, “literacy” and “freedom”) in mind and don’t be afraid to talk about how complex the terms can be.

The style of this essay did not help. It is not necessary, for example, to repeat the quote verbatim in the first sentence: The grader already knows what Frederick Douglass said. Also, the first paragraph does not really contain a thesis or any clear statement about how literacy allows people to be more free. Throughout, the student makes some awkward errors in style and diction, which detract from the overall effect.

But, in spite of these flaws, the essay does provide some examples and at least attempted to address the relationship between literacy and freedom, so it would receive a score of 3 or 4.

Now let’s take a look at a more successful essay, which was also written by a student under time constraints.

A Student Essay

 

Literacy is something we take for granted in America. Most children learn to read at an early age and receive formal education until they are eighteen years old. During this time, they develop a deep understanding of their own language, both in its written and spoken forms. I remember when I first learned to read and how it made me feel so empowered over my younger sister, who hadn’t learned yet. As my teachers encouraged me in elementary school, I grew to enjoy reading adventure stories and then much harder books. In my AP English class this year, my teacher Mrs. Lasko assigned extremely challenging books, such as Paradise Lost, Gulliver’s Travels, and Lord of the Flies. In all these cases, literacy empowered me to feel more and more intellectually free and to explore new ideas through reading.

 

But literacy does more that just free our minds: it is the key to bringing about political and economic freedom for ordinary people. There are many times in history when increasing literacy allowed people to experience a new kind of political freedom. For example, during the Protestant Reformation, ordinary people began to read because the printing press allowed books to be printed quickly rather than copied by hand. As the people began to read the Bible for themselves, they developed their own interpretations about theology and they challenged the teachings of the Catholic Church. People also read political pamphlets and were empowered to overthrow the leaders in power during that time. These kinds of political pamphlets, which only work when the majority of the population can read, have formed the basis of many political movements in the modern era.

 

In women’s history, too, increasing literacy has brought about an increase in political freedoms. For centuries, few women could read or write and thus they were denied freedoms we now consider basic: the freedom to vote, the freedom to hold political office, the freedom to represent oneself in court. When we think of the movement for women’s suffrage a century ago, how could the suffragettes have succeeded if they did not have a largely literate population of women to support them. As women learned to read in large numbers, they began to develop the political tools necessary to fight for their own freedom. In this way, literacy was a prerequisite to real political freedom for millions of women around the world.

 

When Frederick Douglass wrote of literacy and freedom, he was speaking of real freedom from the bondage of slavery. For him, the power to read and write played a role in his abolitionist activities. But as I have discussed in this essay, literacy can bring about more than just freedom from slavery: it can free us to think for ourselves, determine our own theologies, and fight for real political freedom. And whether it is African Americans, children, the poor, or just ordinary people, reading can transform the lives of those with less power. Literacy is thus a direct cause of freedom, both in the distant historical past and in the future of our constantly evolving world.

This essay is an obvious success and would score very highly (probably an 8) on the real AP. Not only did the student specifically answer the question at hand, she offered a nuanced assessment of the relationship between literacy and freedom. In fact, she took pains to define multiple senses of the word freedom (intellectual, political, etc.) throughout the paper. The examples were specific, detailed, and relevant to the topic at hand.

The student begins by briefly recounting her own history of literacy and how it empowered her as she developed her reading skills. The first body paragraph then explicitly connects increasing literacy with newfound political and religious freedom during the Protestant Reformation. Notice how the student takes her time in introducing each example and then adds as much relevant, specific information as possible. The next body paragraph is equally effective and shows yet another dimension of the complex link between literacy and freedom.

The student also helped her score by creating fluid prose and elegant transitions from one paragraph to the next. The range of vocabulary was good, but not exceptional—it never needs to be to get a high score on this test. Offer the readers as wide a range of vocabulary as you can, but focus on writing a good essay as you design, develop, and execute your response.

COMING UP…

In this chapter and the two preceding chapters, you’ve seen a range of essay examples. In the next part of this book, you’ll learn (or review) the important aspects of formal training in rhetoric and composition that will prepare you to craft essays that equal—or exceed—the ones that you’ve examined so far.

REFLECT

Think about what you’ve learned in Part IV, and respond to the following questions:

Part V

Terms and Modes Review for the AP English Language and Composition Exam

HOW TO USE THE CHAPTERS IN THIS PART

You may need to come back to the following chapters more than once. Your goal is to obtain mastery of the content, and a single read of a chapter may not be sufficient. At the end of each chapter, you will have an opportunity to reflect on whether you truly have mastered the content of that chapter.

Chapter 8: Words and Their Use

This chapter introduces you to the most important terminology that appears on the AP English Language and Composition Exam. If you have heard the words “diction,” “syntax,” and “rhetoric,” but you’re not really sure what they mean, this chapter will finally help you figure them out. In addition, it covers the entire vocabulary of rhetorical and literary devices that appear most commonly on the exam.

Chapter 9: Rhetorical Fallacies

This brief chapter introduces you to the kinds of faulty reasoning that commonly appear in student writing. The errors may even be lurking in the background of the passages you have to analyze on the AP English Language and Composition Exam.

Chapter 10: Basic Rhetorical Modes

“Rhetorical modes” refers to the ways that writers organize their arguments. What is the difference between an illustration and a classification? Why do some authors structure their essays around comparisons and contrasts? This brief chapter will help you identify these structures quickly on the multiple-choice passages.

Chapter 11: Complex Rhetorical Modes

This chapter expands on the content of the previous chapter and goes much deeper into analyzing how authors conceptualize their evidence and arguments. If you are running low on time, you can skim through this chapter and jump right to Practice Test 2.

Chapter 8

Words and Their Use

THE GOOD NEWS AND THE BAD NEWS ABOUT THE AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION EXAM

The Good News

While the title of this exam allows people to differentiate between this test and the AP English Literature Exam, it’s still somewhat misleading. The AP English Language Exam is not a language exam—at least not in the sense that you may think. For example, it is possible not to know the difference between a gerund and a present participle—or even a gerund and a giraffe—and still score a 5 on this exam.

In the multiple-choice section of the exam, test writers will attempt to evaluate your ability to analyze how writers use language to explain or to argue; in the free-response, or essay, section they will expect you to use language to explain or to argue. Naturally, you’ll want to avoid making egregious errors in grammar or usage on the test, but don’t get hung up on the rules of language as you study. If you’re considering taking the AP exam, your language skills are probably sufficient for the task. Now, you may be wondering what is tested on the exam. The answer is composition, and we’ll spend Chapters 9 through 11 of this book reviewing all you need to know about composition to be fully prepared for the test.

The Bad News

Now for the bad news. Despite the test’s lack of emphasis on the rules of language, there are some aspects of language that we must examine here to make sure you’re ready for test day. We’ll start by discussing diction, syntax, style, tone, and point of view. We’ll move on to rhetoric and the many types of figurative language, and then discuss circumlocution and euphemism. Finally, we will review irony and satire.

DICTION

The basic definition of diction is “word choice.” Generally, the diction questions you’ll see on the test will ask you to evaluate why an author’s choice of words is particularly effective, apt, or clear. However, as we explained in the chapters on the multiple-choice section, more often than not it is the test writer’s diction that you have to crack. While knowledge of grammar and usage is almost irrelevant for this exam, a broad vocabulary is a necessity.

 

 

1. The style of the first paragraph on the previous page can best be described as

 

(A) pedantic

 

(B) lyrical

 

(C) terse

 

(D) ludic

 

(E) edifying

 

While it’s possible that none of the answers stands out to you as the correct choice, you could rule out “pedantic” if you know that it means narrowly, stodgily, and often ostentatiously learned. Likewise, an AP test and lyricism (intense, intimate display of emotion) make for an unlikely pair, so you can use POE to get rid of that choice too. The test writers slipped “ludic” (pertaining to game, playful) in there in case you wanted to misremember some Latin (ludus). Finally, “terse” (concise, without superfluous detail) shows up regularly on this exam but probably doesn’t describe the writing in this book very well. Given that the last choice can mean both enlightening and informative, (E) is the best answer.

But as you can see, if you knew none of these words, the question may as well have read as follows:

 

 

2. The style of the paragraph above can best be described as

 

(A) pompom

 

(B) banana

 

(C) dog

 

(D) tire iron

 

(E) Susan

 

And then which would seem like the correct answer? Obviously, vocabulary is important, so start that vocabulary journal.

Syntax

Syntax is another language term that you should be familiar with for the AP English Language and Composition Exam. Syntax is the ordering of words in a sentence; it describes sentence structure. Syntax is not a topic that excites many high school students—or teachers—and therefore is not discussed very much. However, syntax is a word that finds it way onto AP English Language and Composition Exams on a regular basis. Don’t worry: You don’t need to be an expert on this subject, but you should know how manipulating syntax can enhance an author’s meaning, tone, or point of view. Let’s look at an example from Candide, taken from the famous opening of Chapter 3.

 

Never was anything so gallant, so well outfitted, so brilliant, and so finely disposed as the two armies. The trumpets, fifes, reeds, drums, and cannon made such harmony as never was heard in Hell.

The first sentence poses as a fairly simple sketch of a glorious battle scene. The second begins in the same fashion, but its words are arranged in a way that maximizes the effect of surprise that comes at the end of the sentence. The cannons are slipped in as the final member of a list of military musical instruments; the formation of the list creates an expectation that the final element will fit nicely into the set. It doesn’t, but we don’t have time to register our surprise because we’re immediately distracted by a new setup with the phrase “such harmony as never was heard….” We expect harmony to be something beautiful, and we already begin to supply the final word (Earth? Heaven?) when—surprise—we are jolted by the word that Voltaire chose instead: hell. The syntax in this sentence is brilliant.

Here’s another slightly different example. In the following example, Candide asks about the proper etiquette for greeting the King of Eldorado through his servant and sidekick, Cacambo.

 

When they drew near to the royal chamber, Cacambo asked one of the officers in what manner they were to pay their respects to His Majesty; whether it was the custom to fall upon their knees, or to prostrate themselves upon the ground; whether they were to put their hands upon their heads, or behind their backs; whether they were to lick the dust off the floor; in short, what was the usual ceremony for such occasions.

The syntax of this long sentence is very carefully constructed; Voltaire uses all of the parallel clauses that begin with “whether” to achieve great comic effect. At first, the text is fairly straightforward—after all, going down on one’s knees before a king would have been fairly standard for a European reader of the 18th century; however, with each clause, the groveling etiquette becomes more extreme, and the final image—of licking the dust off the floor—pushes the concept beyond the believable. The syntax of this sentence is structured in a way that allows us to see the absurdity of all forms of ceremonial deference. In fact, in this story the enlightened King of Eldorado simply embraces both Cacambo and Candide.

Related to syntax are style, tone, and point of view. As you will read in the next section, these elements work together with syntax to create a “profile” of the speaker that tells us how the speaker or author feels about the subject at hand.

Style, Tone, and Point of View

You can count on seeing some combination of the terms style, tone, and point of view in both multiple-choice and essay questions on this exam, so let’s make sure you’re familiar with their definitions.

Consider this excerpt.

 

Our left fielder couldn’t hit the floor if he fell out of bed! After striking out twice (once with the bases loaded!), he grounded into a double-play. My grandmother runs faster than he does! In the eighth inning, he misjudged a routine fly ball, which brought in the winning run. What a jerk! Why didn’t the club trade him last week when it was still possible? What’s wrong with you guys?

The style is simple, direct, unsophisticated, truculent, and even crass. The style helps evoke a simple sentiment: anger. The tone is angry, brash, emotional, and even virulent.

The point of view is clear; the author appears to be a disgruntled spectator who doesn’t like the player at all and wants the team to get rid of him.

Now let’s try a sample question with an excerpt from Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground.

 

The long and the short of it is, gentlemen, that it is better to do nothing! Better conscious inertia!

 

 

3. The tone of the speaker is best characterized as

 

(A) ironic

 

(B) nihilistic

 

(C) reflective

 

(D) optimistic

 

(E) accusatory

 

You probably immediately eliminated (C) and (D) because the passage did not sound particularly reflective or optimistic. The author is not accusatory, so eliminate (E) as well. Choice (B) may have confused you a bit; nihilism refers to a belief in nothing. (Again notice the importance of vocabulary!) The speaker’s tone can indeed by described as “nihilistic,” so the correct answer is (B).

RHETORIC AND FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

Rhetoric is the art of speaking or writing effectively. Figurative language is strictly defined as speech or writing that departs from literal meaning to achieve a special effect or meaning. The terms covered later in this section are terms you should know cold before taking the exam. Multiple-choice questions may use them in answer choices, and you are certainly expected to use them in your essays.

Rhetoric

First of all, what is rhetoric? It is often referred to as the stylistic devices an author uses to appeal successfully to a specific audience and is usually persuasive in nature. Before we get into the nitty gritty of figurative language and how it’s used, let’s review the three classical rhetorical appeals—methods of persuasion—you should know for the exam.

Classical Appeals

Aristotle identified three methods of appealing to an audience in order to persuade them to your point of view: logos, pathos, and ethos.

Logos is an appeal to reason and logic. An argument that uses logos to persuade needs to provide things like objective evidence, hard facts, statistics, or logical strategies such as cause and effect to back up its claim. (Logos is the root of our word “logic,” which is a good way to remember which of the appeals this is!)

Ethos is an appeal to the speaker’s credibility—whether he or she is to be believed on the basis of his or her character and expertise. For example, the prosecution in a murder trial might put a renowned psychiatrist on the stand to testify that the defendant is able to identify right and wrong and is thus capable of standing trial. Their argument would be using an appeal to ethos to persuade the jury (their audience) that the testimony of this expert is to be trusted. (Ethos is related to our word “ethics”—the principles of conduct that govern people and organizations and give them the authority to speak on certain topics.)

Pathos is an appeal to the emotions, values, or desires of the audience. Aristotle felt that, although ideally people would be persuaded by appeals to logic (logos, remember?), they would probably most often be persuaded by their emotions and beliefs instead. This is why, in that same murder trial, a defense attorney might tell the jury about the lonely childhood and difficult life of the defendant—he would be appealing to the pathos of the audience to convince them that his client should not be convicted. (Pathos is also the root of “pathetic,” a word we use to describe something that is, shall we say, suffering from inferiority.)

Figurative Language

As we stated at the beginning of this chapter, you don’t need to be an expert in rhetoric to ace the AP English Language and Composition Exam; however, you do need to have some understanding of how language works. With the exception of technical manuals (like the one that helped you assemble your entertainment center), few texts are written such that all of their language is meant to be taken literally. Take, for example, the end of one of Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural speeches.

 

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Are we supposed to take “to bind up the nation’s wounds” literally? Of course not. Lincoln has personified our country to make the suffering of particular individuals relatable to all the people of the nation. And what about “him who shall have borne the battle”? Clearly, Lincoln is using the singular (a man) to represent the collective mass of soldiers, and when he adds “his widow and his orphan,” we understand that “shall have borne the battle” really means “shall have died in battle.” Lincoln personalizes the suffering of this group of people by instead speaking of individual sacrifice, which he knows is far more likely to strike a profound emotional chord in his listeners.

Despite the effectiveness of Lincoln’s speech, you should keep in mind that many other perfectly convincing arguments and explanations are conveyed primarily through literal language. On this exam, there’s no need for you to strain yourself attempting to use figurative language in the free-response section. But it will be very helpful for you to review the common terms associated with figurative language that we’ve listed below because you will be obliged to analyze texts that contain figurative language on this test.

With all this in mind, here is a list of some common terms related to figurative language; we’ve put them in order of their decreasing relevance to the test.

Imagery

For the purposes of this exam, you may consider imagery to be synonymous with figurative language. However, in a more restricted sense, imagery is figurative language that is used to convey a sensory perception (visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, or gustatory).

Hyperbole

Hyperbole is overstatement or exaggeration; it is the use of figurative language that significantly exaggerates the facts for effect. In many instances, but certainly not all, hyperbole is employed for comic effect. Consider the following example.

 

If you use too much figurative language in your essays, the AP readers will crucify you!

Clearly, this statement is a gross exaggeration; while the readers may give you a poor grade if you use figurative language that doesn’t suit the purposes of your essay, they will not kill you.

Understatement

Understatement is figurative language that presents the facts in a way that makes them appear much less significant than they really are. Understatement is almost always used for comic effect.

 

After dinner, they came and took into custody Doctor Pangloss and his pupil Candide, the one for speaking his mind and the other for appearing to approve what he heard. They were conducted to separate apartments, which were extremely cool and where they were never bothered by the sun.

Taking the last sentence literally would lead you astray. The understatement in this case (“They were conducted to separate apartments, which were extremely cool and where they were never bothered by the sun”) should be taken to mean that the poor men were thrown into horribly dark, dank, and cold prison cells.

Simile

A simile is a comparison between two unlike objects, in which the two parts are connected with a term such as like or as. Here’s an example of a simile:

 

The birds are like black arrows flying across the sky.

You can easily identify a simile—and distinguish it from a metaphor—because of the use of like or as.

Metaphor

A metaphor is a simile without a connecting term such as like or as. Here’s an example of a metaphor.

 

The birds are black arrows flying across the sky.

Birds are not arrows, but the commonalities (both are long and sleek, and they travel swiftly through the air—and both have feathers) allow us to easily grasp the image.

Extended Metaphor

An extended metaphor is precisely what it sounds like—it is a metaphor that lasts for longer than just one phrase or sentence. A word of caution for the exam, however; do not use extended metaphors in your own AP essays, for many scholars (and many AP graders) believe that the extended metaphor is a poor expository or argumentative technique. Consider this example:

 

During the time I have voyaged on this ship, I have avoided the cabin; rather, I have remained on deck, battered by wind and rain, but able to see moonlight on the water. I do not wish to go below decks now.

As surprising as this may seem, this passage is not about nautical navigation. The ship’s voyage is the central metaphor (representing the course of life) ; the writer extends the metaphor by relating elements of figurative language: cabin, deck, wind and rain, moonlight, water, and decks. The cabin is a safe place, but it’s a place where you can’t experience much; on deck, you’re exposed to the elements, but you can experience beauteous sights. Having made the difficult, dangerous, but rewarding choice of staying on deck, it would be a personal defeat, a kind of surrender to wish for the safety, comfort, and limited horizons of the cabin later in life.

Symbol

A symbol is a word that represents something other than itself. Here’s an example:

 

The Christian soldiers paused to remember the lamb.

In this case, the rough, tough soldiers did not stop to think about the actual animal; the lamb is a traditional Christian symbol for Jesus Christ.

Denotation and Connotation

Denotation refers to a word’s primary or literal significance, while connotation refers to the vast range of other meanings that a word suggests. Context (and at times, author’s intent) determines which connotations may be appropriate for a word. An author will carefully pick a particular word for its connotations, knowing or hoping a reader will make an additional inference as a result. Some literary critics argue that it is impossible to distinguish between denotation and connotation. Who, they ask, is to determine which meaning to assign as a primary significance? Let’s move on and look at an example.

 

I am looking at the sky.

The denotation of the underlined word should be as clear as a cloudless sky (the space, often blue, above the earth’s surface). However, there can be connotations associated with the word. The sky is often associated with heaven; it can also evoke the idea of freedom or vast openness. Because of connotation, one can’t help but believe that the sky evokes in the writer a sense of longing for freedom from work, the computer, or the AP English Language and Composition Exam.

Oxymoron

In an oxymoron, two seemingly contradictory words (or sometimes brief phrases) are paired together. However, the two elements only appear to contradict each other. Look deeper, and the contradiction can be resolved.

One common example is “jumbo shrimp.” Since “shrimp” is an edible creature as well as a term meaning “small,” there is really no contradiction. The oxymoron describes a large version of an edible creature.

What does an oxymoron add to a written work? Look at some other common examples: open secret, civil war, freezer burn, old news, deafening silence. How about the title of George Romero’s zombie film, Night of the Living Dead? Or Juliet’s “Parting is such sweet sorrow” in the first balcony scene from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet?

As these examples show, oxymorons give authors a couple of tools: a way to describe a new or unusual thing, and economy of expression. For instance, the oxymoron “cold comfort” describes an unusual case in which something (perhaps a friend’s comment) that one would expect to be warm and helpful has the opposite effect instead. Notice how many words it just took to describe that concept, compared with the vivid image economically conveyed by the oxymoron “cold comfort.”

By using an oxymoron, an author can also jolt readers into paying attention if they’ve been skimming through the work on autopilot. Something doesn’t sound quite right; they go back to reread the seemingly contradictory words and try to figure out what those words mean. Perhaps the readers then pay more attention to the next few paragraphs or pages.

Paradox

A paradox contains two elements which cannot both be true at the same time (although usually each one could be true on its own).

The classic example is the Cretan Liar Paradox, attributed to the sixth-century BC philosopher and poet Epimenides. He was from Crete, and his famous paradox says, “All Cretans are liars.”

Think about it. He’s a Cretan, therefore (if his statement is true), he must also be a liar. But if he’s a liar, he can’t be making a true statement, so the statement must be false. As you can imagine, many philosophers and logicians have puzzled over how to resolve Epimenides’ paradox.

Here’s another ancient Greek example, this time from Socrates, the fifth-century BC philosopher: “One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing.” Well if it’s true that he knows nothing, then it can’t also be true that he knows even that one thing. And if he knows that one thing, it can’t be true that he knows nothing.

A great real-life example comes from the 17th-century witch trials. If a woman passed the test, thereby proving she was not a witch, she could live and go free. Failing the test proved she was, indeed, a witch and she was burned at the stake. So far, so good. But here’s the test—and the paradox. The suspect was bound, attached to a large rock and thrown into a nearby deep body of water. If she sank to the bottom, that meant the water (symbolizing baptism) accepted her and that she was not a witch. However, since she would have drowned in the process of passing the test and proving her innocence, she could hardly live and go free. If you’re innocent, you live but you’re dead.

What’s the point of putting a paradox in a piece of writing? It depends on the author’s purpose and point of view—both of which you should have identified as you were reading the passage.

Perhaps the writer is describing a world—or advancing an argument—where things are not always what they seem. A paradox is a good way to encourage readers to look at familiar things in new ways, or to question their assumptions. The writer might also be asking readers to suspend logical reasoning and use intuition or a more spiritual type of perception instead. Or, quite simply, the author might just be trying to jolt readers out of a habitual, absorption-type mode of reading—to make them think and return to reread and analyze the paradoxical statement.

Whatever the specific reason, the writer is trying to get your attention by using a paradox. You need to figure out why.

Personification

Personification is the figurative device in which inanimate objects or concepts are given human qualities. It can enhance our emotional response because we usually attribute more emotional significance to other humans than to things or concepts. Consider this example of personification:

 

He had been wrestling with lethargy for days, and every time that he thought that he was close to victory, his adversary escaped his hold.

This figurative wrestling match, in which lethargy is personified as the opponent to the author of this sentence, brings the struggle to life—human life. If you don’t believe this, think about the literal alternative: He tried to stop being lethargic, but he was not successful. This doesn’t sound very lively.

Rhetorical Question

A rhetorical question is a question whose answer is obvious; these types of questions do not need to be answered—and usually aren’t. Rhetorical questions attempt to prove something without actually presenting an argument; sometimes they’re used as a form of irony, in which something is stated, but its opposite is meant.

 

With all the violence on TV today, is it any wonder kids bring guns to school? (no irony)

Since it has already been determined that you agree (even if you don’t), the writer need not substantiate this remark.

 

Aren’t AP exams great fun? (with irony)

Here, there is an assumption that you would answer in the negative, although there is no way for you to respond—unless you write a letter. Rhetorical questions allow a writer to make a point without further support, whether it’s a straightforward remark or one with a touch of irony.

Bombast

Bombast (adjective = bombastic) is language that is overly rhetorical (pompous), especially when considered in context. Generally speaking, graduation speeches contain bombast; pedantic people (those who use their learning ostentatiously) tend to use bombast. Occasionally, a passage on the AP English Language and Composition Exam will contain bombast.

This passage is marked by pretentious and inflated speech; it is a perfect example of bombast.

Pun

A pun is a play on words. In general, a pun either plays on the multiple meanings of a word or replaces one word with another that is similar in sound but very different in meaning. Puns are almost always used for comic effect.

 

In Star Wars, why did the Empire leave the Catholic nuns alone? Force of habit.

If you know anything about the significance of “the Force” in Star Wars and about the double meaning of “habit,” you’ll get the play on words here.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

Both metonymy and synecdoche are terms that mean the use of figurative language in which characteristics are substituted for the things with which they are associated.

In metonymy, one term is substituted for another term with which it is closely associated. Consider this example:

 

The sailors drank a glass of hearty red.

Red is a color; sailors cannot drink it. However, metonymically, the color represents wine (red wine), which sailors over the age of twenty-one may drink.

Synecdoche is a form of metonymy that’s restricted to cases where a part is used to signify the whole. Here’s an example of synecdoche:

 

All hands on deck!

The hands (part of each sailor) represent the sailors (the whole).

If you have an aversion to learning rhetorical terms, then for the purposes of this exam you can feel free to forget the definition of synecdoche; you can get away with using the term metonymy for any situation in which a characteristic of a certain thing is used to represent the thing.

Theme

A theme is a general idea contained in a text; the theme may be stated explicitly or only suggested. A theme is not just an idea; it is an idea that is developed, often over the course of a chapter or an entire book. Usually, one can identify a central theme and several minor ones. Sometimes both are overtly stated, as in the example that follows:

 

Many scholars agree that the central theme in Huckleberry Finn is the conflict between nature and civilization. But clearly, the book contains other themes, such as the worth of honor and the voyage of self-discovery.

Read the following passage, and see if you can identify a central theme.

It should not surprise you that the title of the essay that this passage is excerpted from is “On Trade.” In his essay, the French socialist Charles Fourier develops a central theme: Merchants, through trade, have both corrupted society and become its tyrant.

Many of the passages in the multiple-choice and free-response sections of the AP exam are long enough to permit you to identify at least one central theme, and you will almost certainly be asked to do so.

Aphorism

An aphorism is a concise, pithy statement of an opinion or a general truth.

 

Life is short, the art [of medicine] is long, opportunity fleeting, experimentation dangerous, reasoning difficult.

That aphorism is attributed to Hippocrates, the “Father of Medicine.” Note that his statement is more sophisticated than the “commonplace wisdom” of a saying like “Haste makes waste.”

Malapropism

Malapropism is the unintentional use of a word that resembles the word intended but that has a very different meaning.

 

He was a man of great statue.

The AP English Language and Composition readers often collect malapropisms to share with friends and colleagues as they read through the free-response essays; it isn’t in your best interest to provide them with any good laughs, so try to avoid them.

Circumlocution and Euphemism

Circumlocution has two meanings, and you should be familiar with both of them. For the purposes of this exam, we’ll say that one meaning of circumlocution is “talking around a subject” and that the other is “talking around a word.”

It is entirely possible that you have used circumlocution when addressing your parents. For instance, instead of simply asking them straight out if you may borrow the car, have you ever said something such as, “I understand that you guys are going to stay in tonight and watch a DVD, right? If so, since I’ve already seen that movie, I was thinking about maybe going downtown. It’s a nice summer evening and all that, but it’s still too far to walk, and I’ll be with Nina, anyway, and she’d never agree to walk downtown. We were thinking that she could drive, but, unfortunately, Nina’s parents are going out, so she can’t take their car. I know that I forgot to put gas in your car the last time that I drove to the mountains, but I learned my lesson. That won’t happen again.” You may even have gone on speaking for longer. You might never have gotten to the point where you actually asked to borrow the car, but your parents understood what you wanted and put you out of your misery by saying something such as, “We already told your sister that she could use the car tonight.”

On the AP English Language and Composition Exam, you’re more likely to encounter the second type of circumlocution—“talking around a word”—that is, using several words or a phrase in place of a specific word (or specific words). You may have noticed that sometimes it is more effective to be wordy than to be precise. For example, some people consider their automobiles cars, and, not surprisingly, they refer to these objects just as cars. Other people, however, use evocative circumlocutions when referring to their heap of metal—one of which is “cruisin’ machine” (and the other of which is “heap of metal”). The point is that circumlocution is often an effective means for communicating points of view. Take a look at the following sentence.

 

Candide was court-martialed, and he was asked which he liked better, to run the gauntlet six and thirty times through the whole regiment, or to have his brains blown out with a dozen musket-balls.

In this sentence, we read that in a spirit of compassion and justice, the military court is giving Candide a choice: He may choose to be either beaten to death or executed by firing squad. The wording of the second choice, in particular, provides a wonderful example of the evocative power of well-used circumlocution. While using the phrase “execution by firing squad” would have allowed both the author and the reader to remain distant from the event and dispassionate, the circumlocution that the author employed with “to have his brains blown out with a dozen musket-balls” vividly describes the horror and brutality of the event. In this sentence, Voltaire succeeds in relating his feelings about the court-martial without commenting on it.

A euphemism is a word or words that are used to avoid employing an unpleasant or offensive term. Again, you probably (hopefully) use euphemisms all the time. In both fiction and nonfiction, the most common euphemisms have to do with sex. In these cases, the author knows what he or she means, you know what he or she means, and the author knows that you know what he or she means. Let’s look at another example from Voltaire’s Candide. In this passage, Voltaire uses euphemism for comic effect.

 

One day when Mademoiselle Cunégonde went to take a walk in a little neighboring wood that was called a park, she saw—through the bushes—the sage Doctor Pangloss giving a lecture in experimental philosophy to her mother’s chambermaid, a little brown wench, very pretty and very accommodating.

Voltaire knows that his readers know what is really going on here. This particular example of euphemism is used for comic effect rather than direct avoidance of the word sex. One may expect Pangloss to limit his sagacity to philosophical matters, but clearly his “lecture in experimental philosophy” is most prosaic.

IRONY AND SATIRE

When reading the passages on the AP English Language and Composition Exam, you cannot always take what you see at face value; in fact, when reading you must always be on the lookout for slightly or very veiled meanings behind the words.

Isn’t It Ironic?

Irony: Most people use the term without really knowing its definition. Alanis Morissette’s 1996 song about irony didn’t help the situation. If you don’t believe this, ask one of your friends to define irony and see what kind of answer you receive. The two basic types of irony that you’ll need to be familiar with for this test are verbal irony and situational irony.

Verbal Irony

Verbal irony refers to the process of stating something but meaning the opposite of what is stated. Verbal irony can refer to irony that’s used in spoken language as well as in print. In spoken language, intonation is often a clue to ironic intent; however, in writing, it is not possible to imply things through intonation, so there’s always a danger that the irony may be missed; in essence, the writer who employs irony risks communicating the exact opposite of what is intended. For example, let’s say that you write, “This Princeton Review book is really interesting.” Unless your listener or reader hears your remark in context, he or she won’t know if this is high praise for this book, or if you’re bored silly and have chosen to express your sentiment more forcefully by using verbal irony.

Consider the following excerpt, again from Candide. The philosopher Pangloss has just given a rather personalized history of venereal disease, a veritable uncontrollable—and uncontrolled—plague in 18th-century Europe.

 

“O sage Pangloss,” cried Candide, “what a strange genealogy is this! Is not the devil at the root of it all?”

 

“Not at all,” replied the great man, “it was unavoidable, a necessary ingredient in the best of worlds.”

The student Candide shows sincere respect for Pangloss when he addresses him as “sage Pangloss”; Candide has no ironic intent. However, the same cannot be said of the narrator—who for all intents and purposes is Voltaire. In Candide, one of Voltaire’s principal aims is to excoriate (to censure scathingly) the “philosophers of optimism,” of whom Pangloss is a caricature. He does this through the frequent use of verbal irony; in the passage above, his use of “great man” is ironic—even though Candide’s tone is not. After all, neither the narrator nor the careful reader views Pangloss as a great man—he is just the opposite.

In essence, to fully appreciate the passage, we must read in stereo, simultaneously picking up on Candide’s serious tone and the narrator’s ironic tone. This is a pretty complicated case of verbal irony.

Sarcasm is simply verbal irony used with the intent to injure. It’s often impossible to discern between irony and sarcasm, and, more often than not, sarcasm is in the mind of the beholder. Let’s say that your close friend and soccer teammate missed a wide-open goal from ten feet away, and you smiled and shouted, “Nice shot!” Presumably your friend, used to your jests, would interpret your quip as playful irony. If the opposing team’s goalie said the same words, however, it is far more likely that your friend would take the remark as sarcasm—and reply with a not-so-kind word or two. In written form, irony and sarcasm can be considered to be fairly synonymous—but just think of sarcasm as malicious. Here is an example from Heinrich Ibsen’s Hedda Gabbler.

 

Brack: There’s a possibility that the appointment may be decided by competition—

 

Tesman: Competition! By Jove, Hedda, fancy that!

 

Hedda: [motionless in her chair] How exciting, Tesman.

Of course, it is easier to see the sarcasm when you are familiar with the play, but it is sufficient for you to know that Tesman is the rather boring, plodding husband and that Hedda is an unfulfilled wife. The stage direction (“motionless in her chair”) helps us see that her words are at least full of irony; if you add the bitter, malignant intent, which the husband misses but we do not, then you have sarcasm.

Situational Irony

Situational irony refers to a situation that runs contrary to what was expected.

Suppose you live in Seattle during the rainy season and plan a vacation to sunny Phoenix. While you are in Phoenix, it rains every day there, but is sunny the entire week in Seattle. This is situational irony.

Satire

In satire, something is portrayed in a way that’s deliberately distorted to achieve comic effect. Implicit in most satire is the author’s desire to critique what is being mocked. Voltaire’s Candide is principally a satire of optimism, the philosophy that, given that the first “cause” was perfect (God’s creation of the world), all causes and effects must naturally be part of this original perfect plan. The French satirist takes on many other causes, however, and one of his favorite targets is the part of religion that he considers no more than fanatical superstition. Here is what happens after Candide and Pangloss are caught in the infamous earthquake of Lisbon, Portugal.

After the real earthquake of 1755, there were real auto-da-fes (“acts of faith”), where “evil” inhabitants of Lisbon were sacrificed to appease God, who, ostensibly (to all outward appearances), had provoked the earthquake to punish the city. The “evils” that are being punished say more about the ridiculous prejudices of the persecutors than they do about the so-called evil victims. The two Portuguese who refrained from eating the bacon are guilty of nothing—but they are taken for Jews; the man who married his godmother, who, presumably, is not tied to him by blood, is guilty of no more than infringing on a technicality of the religious code (Catholicism, in this case).

Note that the satire is heightened by Voltaire’s use of verbal irony (“the sages”), situational irony (right after the ceremony there is a second earthquake), and a comical circumlocution (“burning a few people alive over low heat and with great ceremony” is a circumlocution for auto-da-fe). Satire can be effective in both fiction and nonfiction, and Candide, a philosophical story that combines both, is thought to be one of the most brilliant satires of all.

Most critics, however, relegate satire—and satirists—to a secondary sphere in the universe of writing; satire makes for good entertainment, but mocking others does not measure up to the conviction of cogent writing. Had Voltaire been nothing more than a satirist, he would not have been remembered as a brilliant philosophe, but as a clever joker—if he were remembered at all. Although Voltaire’s satire in Candide is quite brilliant, some other examples of satire are a little easier to figure out. Let’s look at a sample question based on a passage from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.

 

 

4. The above passage is an example of

 

(A) an analysis of court customs

 

(B) a satire of British footwear

 

(C) a study of British eccentricities

 

(D) a satire of the British court

 

(E) a nonsensical account of life at court

 

Well, the correct answer must be either (B) or (D) because this section is all about satire. The correct answer is (D). The passage serves to satirize the Whig-Tory discord (the Whigs dominated politics during much of the 18th century) and the relationship of the “parties” (the Whigs and Tories were not really political parties as we know them today) and the king. Unless you recognize that the passage is satirical, you will not have a good grasp of what is going on—which will lead to major problems with all of the multiple-choice questions on that passage.

REFLECT

Respond to the following questions:

Chapter 9

Rhetorical Fallacies

AVOIDING THE FATAL FALLACY

A fallacy is strictly defined as guile, trickery, or a false or mistaken idea. Fallacies have the appearance of truth but are erroneous. Let’s say that you really want to attend a famous university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and you’ve heard that the acceptance rate for the institution is 25 percent higher for early decision applicants than for regular applicants. However, it is a fallacy that applying early would increase your chances of being accepted. But why? Because if you have a 2.8 GPA, then that university isn’t going to accept you regardless of when you apply.

Does this sound more like logic and rhetoric than language to you? What is it doing on the AP English Language and Composition Exam? Well, as we mentioned earlier, although “language” is contained in the title of this exam, the exam primarily tests rhetoric and composition. In other words, this exam tests how language works.

In this chapter we provide you with an overview of some common rhetorical fallacies. You should be familiar with all of these for the exam.

COMMON RHETORICAL FALLACIES

When writers have trouble making convincing “honest” arguments with the facts that they have in hand, they often resort to using rhetorical fallacies. As you may expect, when you begin to write your essays in the free-response section of the exam, you shouldn’t resort to these tactics. However, you should be able to recognize the use of these common fallacies in the reasoning of others; this will help you substantially on test day.

Ad Hominem Argument

An ad hominem (in Latin, “to the man”) argument is any kind of fallacious argument that criticizes an idea by pointing something out about the person who holds the idea, rather than directly addressing the actual merit of the idea. There are people who learn this form of rhetorical fallacy at a very tender age and may argue thusly: “You’re wrong because you’re a jerk.” But there are plenty of mature examples of ad hominem arguments, too. Consider this example:

 

Of course the writer supports tax cuts; she’s rich!

The attack shifts from the issue (tax cuts) to the wealth of the writer.

Argument from Authority (or Argument from False Authority)

An argument from authority tempts us to agree with the writer’s assumptions based on the authority of a famous person or entity or on his or her own character (when the writers are well-known). Here’s one example:

 

It is absurd to believe that professional baseball players have used steroids because the most famous slugger of our time has repeatedly asserted that such a claim is false.

You see how it works? Or how about this: If The Princeton Review put the following quotation on the back cover of a book, how impressed would you be?

 

“This is absolutely awesome—it’s the best review book ever written.”—John Schiff

Would that convince you? Probably not. How about this quote?

 

“This is absolutely awesome—it’s the best review book ever written.”—Shakira

Even though the pop star didn’t have to take AP exams in her native Colombia, her fame may give her the authority necessary to get some students to buy the book.

Appeal to Ignorance

Appeal to ignorance is based on the assumption that whatever has not been proven false must be true (or, similarly, whatever has not been proven true must be false).

 

No one can prove that the Loch Ness monster does not exist; therefore the Loch Ness monster exists.

 

No one can prove that the Loch Ness monster exists; therefore the Loch Ness monster does not exist.

This is a fairly common form of rhetorical fallacy.

Begging the Question

Begging the question is a fallacious form of argument in which someone assumes that parts (or all) of what the person claims to be proving are proven facts. (Keep in mind that this does not refer to incomplete or illogical statements that actually would prompt someone to ask a question.) This circular form of reasoning is easier to grasp by example than explanation.

 

The Loch Ness monster spoke to me in my dreams, so it must exist.

Well, wouldn’t you want me to prove to you first that the Loch Ness monster really did speak to me in my dreams before you would accept my conclusion? I hope so. It may have been the pepperoni pizza that was speaking to me in my dreams. Examine the following scenario.

 

Interviewer: Your resumé looks impressive, but I need another reference.

 

Brendan: Heidi can give me a good reference.

 

Interviewer: Good, but how do I know that Heidi is trustworthy?

 

Brendan: I can vouch for her.

Hasty Generalization

Sometimes a writer will deliberately lead you to a conclusion by providing insufficient, selective evidence. This is called a hasty generalization.

 

Ping-pong is an extremely dangerous sport; last year, my friend got hit in the eye with a ping-pong ball and almost lost his vision in that eye.

This rhetorical fallacy can be used very effectively. In the case of hasty generalization, often statistics that are “good”—meaning empirically true—are used to “prove” things that aren’t true.

Non Sequitur

In Latin, non sequitur means “It doesn’t follow.” In English, a non sequitur is a statement that does not logically relate to what comes before it. Consider the following example:

 

If you really wanted to earn a 5 on the AP English Language and Composition Exam, you wouldn’t spend so much time reading Isabel Allende’s novels.

Wait a second. First of all, reading novels may help you prepare for the exam. Second, who says that you don’t have plenty of time for preparing for the exam and reading—especially now that you’ve stopped wasting time in front of the computer? In a non sequitur, there is no logical connection between the initial phrase and the one that follows it, so you shouldn’t try to make one.

False Dichotomy

False dichotomy consists of a consideration of only the two extremes when there are one or more intermediate possibilities.

 

AP Calculus BC is impossible; either you get it or you don’t.

This statement sounds like a great way to explain to your parents why you just earned a less-than-stellar grade on your last calculus test, but it sets up a false dichotomy. In fact, there are various levels of understanding and thus various degrees of success in AP Calculus, and as is the case in many fields, success is a direct result of effort.

Slippery Slope

Slippery slope arguments suggest dire consequences from relatively minor causes.

 

If we stop requiring men to wear coats and ties in the dining room, pretty soon they’ll start coming in dressed in beachwear.

Another way that the slippery slope fallacy can be expressed is by the phrase “give ’em an inch, and they’ll take a mile.”

Faulty Causality

Faulty causality refers to the (sometimes unintentional) setting up of a cause-and-effect relationship when none exists. In faulty causality, one event can happen after another without the first necessarily being the direct cause of the second.

 

Violent crime among adolescents has risen in the past decade, and that is the result of increased sales of violent video games.

As is the case with all examples of faulty causality, there is no proof for the video game argument, and it is possible to think of a dozen other convincing reasons for the rise of violent crime—a trend that we just made up.

Straw Man Argument

The straw man argument consists of an oversimplification of an opponent’s argument to make it easier to attack.

Here’s an example of how this works.

 

Students who want to eliminate the school uniform are exhibitionists who want to show off bare midriffs.

In fact, students who are arguing against having to wear a school uniform may be interested only in expressing their individuality; it’s even possible that they would be happy in conservative clothing. However, if the author of this sentence attributes a simplistic argument to the students, who had, in reality, a more substantive motivation (individuality), it is easier to attack their position.

Sentimental Appeals

A sentimental appeal is a tactic that attempts to appeal to the hearts of readers (or, of course, listeners) so that they forget to use their minds.

 

The assignment that I gave you last night was much too long, but just think how pleased your parents and I will be when you score a 5 on the AP exam. Think about the pride you’ll feel when tears of joy stream down our faces!

Here, the teacher knew that arguing that the assignment was an important intellectual exercise wouldn’t convince his or her students, even though that may have been a more valid argument. So in this case, he or she decided to use a sentimental appeal. Sentimental appeals are generally not valid arguments, but they work sometimes!

Red Herring

A red herring attempts to shift attention away from an important issue by introducing an issue that has no logical connection to the discussion at hand. Consider this example:

 

My opponent talks about the poor quality of military intelligence, but this is a time for decisiveness, not for weakness. We must stick together and present a common front as the other nations look on. If we do not, we could jeopardize our position as a global leader.

As you can see, this is very similar to a sentimental appeal, although the political speaker is (apparently) still appealing to minds, rather than sentiments. In this case, the speaker shifts the discussion from the topic under debate (military intelligence) to a different issue (our role as a super power).

Scare Tactics

The aptly named scare tactic is used to frighten readers or listeners into agreeing with the speaker; often, when scare tactics are used, the speaker has no logical argument on which to fall back.

 

My opponent talks about the need to explore stem cell research, but this would bring about an end to ethical uses of technology, and, before long, scientists will be creating superraces—the Nazi dream of an Aryan Nation will ensue!

Here the speaker mentions Nazis to frighten the listeners; there is no logical (or at least, logically presented) link between exploring stem cell research and the creation of an Aryan Nation. The example may seem to you like a combination of scare tactics and slippery slope; this combination is sometimes seen when a slippery slope argument is used to scare readers or listeners.

Bandwagon Appeals

Bandwagon appeals have a different name in school settings; there, they are known as “peer pressure.” A bandwagon appeal encourages the listener to agree with a position because everyone else does. The logic goes something like this: If everybody else is doing it, it must be all right.

 

It’s time for our county to repeal the ban on strip mining—every other county in the state has already done so!

Notice that the speaker (or writer) avoids having to explain the merits of the issue and explain why the ban is inappropriate.

Dogmatism

Dogmatism does not allow for discussion because the speaker presumes that his or her beliefs are beyond question; essentially, the “logic” runs thusly: I’m correct because I’m correct.

 

We are members of the Wombat Party and, as such, know that we are right when we assert that Wombats are the best!

There is no way to rebut the claim.

Equivocation

Equivocation is telling part of the truth, while deliberately hiding the entire truth; typically, this is similar to lying by omission.

 

There is a Pink Panther movie in which Inspector Clouseau enters a quaint European hotel and, upon spying a cute little dog, asks the owner, “Does your dog bite?” The manager responds, “No,” and Clouseau attempts to pet the dog, which growls and bites him. “You told me that your dog does not bite!” exclaims Clouseau. “That’s not my dog,” responds the owner.

Setting the comedy aside for a moment, the owner of the chalet gave an equivocal answer. Presumably, he was telling the truth when he responded that his dog does not bite, but that truth hid the more relevant truth—the dog he was with at the time does, in fact, bite. It is possible that you have indulged in equivocation. Let’s say that you’re about to leave the house, but your mom stops you and says, “You’re not going to Marina’s party tonight, are you? I heard that her parents are out of town and there’s not going to be any supervision.” “No, Mom, I’m not going there.” Your mom smiles in relief and lets you go. You’re relieved too because you are going to Dave’s party, where there will be no supervision because his parents are out of town. You did not exactly lie because you truly are not going to Marina’s party; however, you did lie because you are going to the same kind of party somewhere else, and it is the kind of party that your mom objects to, not its specific location.

Faulty Analogy

A faulty analogy is an illogical, misleading comparison between two things. Here’s an example:

 

Why should we invade that country? Let me explain it to you like this. What if you looked out the window and saw a $20 bill in the street? Wouldn’t you go outside and take it?

This analogy is really faulty! Here’s a better one: What if you saw a person in the street with a $20 bill? Wouldn’t you go outside and try to steal it from the person? Analogy is always a weak form of argumentation; a faulty analogy exploits this weakness to mislead listeners (or readers), when true logic may not convince them.

As we mentioned earlier, make sure you have memorized all of these rhetorical fallacies before test day. After you’ve studied them carefully (make flashcards if you need to, using the examples we gave you), try the following questions.

DRILL: RHETORICAL FALLACIES

In each question, choose the most fitting rhetorical fallacy.

 

 

1. If such actions were not illegal, then they would not be prohibited by law.

 

(A) Faulty causality

 

(B) Begging the question

 

(C) Appeal to ignorance

 

(D) Argument from authority

 

(E) Ad hominem

 

 

 

2. We all knew he would think abortion is wrong! He’s a priest!

 

(A) Faulty causality

 

(B) Hasty generalization

 

(C) Ad hominem

 

(D) False dichotomy

 

(E) Dogmatism

 

 

 

3. “Recently, I’ve been thinking that there is some merit in the Republicans’ tax-cut plan. I suggest that we come up with something like it because if we Democrats are going to survive as a party, we have got to show the people that we are as tough-minded as the Republicans, because that is what the public wants.”

 

(A) Red herring

 

(B) Straw man argument

 

(C) Slippery slope

 

(D) Equivocation

 

(E) Non sequitur

 

 

 

4. “We should have a car wash to raise money for our Senior Prom. The three classes before us have all done it!”

 

(A) Begging the question

 

(B) Bandwagon appeal

 

(C) Red herring

 

(D) Scare tactics

 

(E) Dogmatism

 

 

 

5. The mill must be polluting the river because there has been a recent increase in bird deaths around there.

 

(A) Straw man argument

 

(B) Appeal to ignorance

 

(C) Faulty analogy

 

(D) Non sequitur

 

(E) Slippery slope

 

Rhetorical fallacies, when used with savvy, can be very convincing. It is worth knowing about them to do well on the AP English Language and Composition Exam and to become a critical reader and listener.

In the next chapter, we will discuss rhetorical modes, or patterns of exposition. This is an important topic because it will outline ready-made tactics and methods for writing your free-response essays.

The answers to the above questions are (B), (C), (A), (B), and (D). If you didn’t get them right, go back and review those rhetorical terms.

REFLECT

Respond to the following questions:

Chapter 10

Basic Rhetorical Modes

WHAT ARE RHETORICAL MODES?

The rhetorical modes (or patterns) contained in this chapter are worth studying for two reasons. First, they will provide you with ready-made approaches for writing your essays on the exam, and second, the multiple-choice questions on the test also often include some of the rhetorical mode terminology.

As you prepare for the exam by taking practice tests, you’ll see that 40 minutes is not much time in which to write a sophisticated essay, and the shortcuts you’ll learn in this chapter will be invaluable in helping you write a great essay in the allotted time. However, you do not need to cram and memorize all the material in this section. If you read and understand the explanations and just make sure you retain the basics, you’ll be comfortable enough with the process to do well on the exam.

Another important point to remember is that, more often than not, rhetorical modes are used in combination. Breaking them up into individual components is a somewhat arbitrary process—but for our purposes, it makes the material easier to understand. Let’s begin.

EXAMPLE OR ILLUSTRATION

Our first rhetorical mode consists of using specific examples to illustrate an idea. Now, this may seem like a pretty simple idea, but one of the most common mistakes students make when writing their AP English Language and Composition essays is to use poor examples. Remember that all examples are not created equal. If you use poor illustrative examples, your ideas will be communicated much less clearly and effectively than if you’d used solid, appropriate ones. In writing these essays, your principal goal is clarity.

Read the following student essay based on Candide, and as you do so, evaluate the effectiveness of the examples that it uses.

 

Pangloss is correct when he claims that everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. First of all, we are seeing more and more technological innovation every year. Computer technology, in particular, has helped us in many ways, and breakthroughs in medicine have helped raise the life expectancy significantly. Furthermore, in most cities, there are bustling restaurants and great nightlife. Finally, travel has become affordable for most people, and paradises like Aruba and Hawaii await us all!

Surely you agree that the examples are not convincing, but you should also understand that they are not even relevant. Implicit in the examples chosen is the reduction of the best of all possible worlds to the writer’s own tiny corner. A better approach would be something as follows:

 

Pangloss is correct when he claims that everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. First of all, the challenges that we have faced or are facing have inspired some of our most important scientific advances. Great famines have led scientists to exciting new agricultural discoveries, such as drought-resistant crops; great droughts have inspired engineers to develop cost-effective desalination plants. In essence, the evils in the world have been necessary stimulants for changes for the better. Furthermore, advances in medicine are no longer restricted to the wealthy nations of the world, and there is reason to hope that coordinated efforts to help developing countries will become more effective; take, for example, the international relief efforts to help the people whose homes were destroyed by the recent tsunami. Not only will the victims have better and safer homes now, but also the cooperation among the developed nations will translate into a better, safer world. Indeed, everything is for the best.

While the second essay may be naive, at least it does its best to substantiate an untenable position. Without any doubt, the examples in the second passage are much more appropriate for the argument than those that were used in the first passage.

Just as it is important to choose relevant, convincing examples to substantiate your own ideas, it is essential to constantly evaluate the examples that others use in their attempts to explain or to convince.

Laundry List for Example (Illustration)

Sample Question

Write a thoughtful and carefully constructed essay in which you use specific examples to defend, challenge, or qualify the assertion that Hollywood movies are a reflection of a decaying society.

Drill: Reflect on How You Could Use Examples to Address the Following Topics

As you read each of the topics listed below, make a list of five examples you could use to support them. Are your examples all relevant? Do they support just this side of the argument? Treat each as the basis for your thesis statement in a practice free-response question.

 

 

TOPIC 1: High schools unwittingly encourage students to cheat.

 

TOPIC 2: Studying the humanities is important.

 

TOPIC 3: Respecting diversity reveals much about a person.

 

CLASSIFICATION

How do you classify things? Well, you probably start by dividing up whatever you have into groups according to certain characteristics. For example, if you wanted to explain “new music” to someone, you might divide the artists into groups by type (female vocalists, male vocalists, and bands) and classify the groups by genre (heavy metal, punk rock, alternative, and so on). This would make the material easier for someone to understand because it would be organized. In other words, We classify to more easily analyze and explain.

When you place things into categories on the AP English Language and Composition Exam, avoid creating classifications that overlap. For example, it would not make sense to classify your favorite foods in the following way: sweets, barbecued meats, vegetables, and chocolates; logically, the last group is a smaller subset of the first group.

All of this boils down to the following: classification is nearly the same thing as organization. And organization is important. As you know by now, the directions in the free-response section of the AP English Language and Composition Exam request that you write “a well-organized essay.” It may seem obvious that the test writers would request this of you—but then you’d be surprised how poorly organized many of the AP essays that students write are. Classify before you write.

Aristotle liked to classify, and he did so quite often. Some of his classifications have stood the test of time, including the one below, which is the beginning of Part 6 of an essay entitled “Categories.”

Here, Aristotle’s division of quantity into two categories (discrete and continuous) makes sense. The examples that he uses to illustrate the nature of his categories reveal a great deal about his interests: time, space, language, and mathematics. This is a well-organized passage; the categories are well-defined and Aristotle clearly explains how the members of each category have been classified.

Laundry List for Classification

Sample Question

Write a short essay in which you analyze the different methods a teacher uses to convey information to his or her class. Once you’ve written your essay, show it to your AP teacher or tutor. You might want to show it to a fellow AP student for peer review.

Drill: Reflect on How You Could Use Classification to Address the Following Topics

As you read each of the topics, think about how you would organize your essay in terms of classification. Come up with a possible thesis (central idea), and plan how you could categorize the information you have on these topics into three or four meaningful divisions.

 

 

TOPIC 1: Television commercials

 

TOPIC 2: Movies

 

TOPIC 3: Students

 

TOPIC 4: Cars

 

ANALOGY

Although analogies are not that useful in argumentative writing, they are useful in expository writing—this means that analogies will be useful when you write your expository essay for this test.

Analogies are sometimes used to explain things that are difficult to understand by comparing them with things that are easier to understand. Let’s say that you want to explain how a well-run corporation works. You might explain that it functions like a football team. In both cases there are owners or stockholders. In the corporation, there’s a CEO, who is similar to the coach of a football team. The CEO directs the managers (or vice presidents), just as the coach directs the assistant coaches; these work directly with the employees—the players. When an employee doesn’t heed directions, the success of the enterprise is put at risk, just like when a player fails to execute a block or a tackle. The most important thing about using analogies is that you choose one that will be readily understood by your audience.

In this case, if the reader knows nothing about football, this analogy may do more harm than good.

You can also use an analogy to explain something that’s abstract by comparing it with something that’s concrete. Throughout history, people have used analogies to explain their god or gods. Christians explain their god, for example, through analogy. They say that their god is like a father who loves his children and, thus, both punishes and rewards them. The only difference is that they consider their god’s judgment to be perfect. They believe that their god is like a father in that both are good, but that the difference is that their god is perfectly good.

The most famous philosophical analogy serves as the basis for Plato’s “allegory of the cave.” The analogy purportedly evolved from a conversation between Socrates and Glaucon.

This is only part of the analogy, but you probably get the idea. Socrates uses this analogy to explain that we think that we see things just as they really are in our world, but that we are seeing only reflections of a greater truth, an abstraction that we fail to grasp. The cave is our world; the shadows are the objects and people that we “see.” We are like the prisoners, for we are not free to see what creates the shadows; the truth, made up of ideal forms, is out in the light.

Laundry List for Analogy

Sample Question

Write an essay in which you explain the process of applying to college. Use analogy when appropriate. Once you’ve written your essay, show it to your AP teacher or tutor. You might want to show it to a fellow AP student for peer review.

Drill: Reflect on How You Could Use Analogy to Address the Following Topics

As you read each topic, think of it as the basis for the thesis of an expository essay. Come up with a simpler subject that you can use as an analogy for this more complex topic. Write down a basic plan for an essay.

 

 

TOPIC 1: The way your school functions

 

TOPIC 2: The benefits of honesty

 

MOVING ON…

In this chapter we discussed three rhetorical modes: example, classification, and analogy. Make sure you are familiar with the laundry lists in this chapter. If you get into good habits now when using these rhetorical modes, you’ll be much better off on test day!

Further proving how useful these modes will be, we guarantee that both your expository and argumentative essay questions will fit into some combination of these modes.

Of course, remember to plan your essay before you begin writing. It often helps to write your thesis statement along with this plan so that you can keep in mind whether the parts of your plan are relevant to your central idea. This will ensure that you write the best organized, most coherent essay you can.

Now that we’ve covered the three basic rhetorical modes, let’s move on to review a few complex modes in the next chapter.

REFLECT

Respond to the following questions:

Chapter 11

Complex Rhetorical Modes

In this chapter, we’ll discuss a few more—and more complex—rhetorical modes, including process analysis, cause-and-effect, definition, description, narration, and induction and deduction. As was the case with the rhetorical modes you learned about in the last chapter, it will be extremely beneficial to you to know all you can about these modes on test day. It will not only help you recognize when these modes are used in the sample passages, but also enable you to use them in your essays.

So let’s jump right in.

PROCESS ANALYSIS

Process analysis is a rhetorical mode that’s used by writers when they want to explain either how to do something or how something was done. When your science teacher hands you instructions for a lab, she is giving you a rather dry sheet of process analysis that says, “first do this; then do that; then examine the data; then explain such-and-such.” When you write your lab report, you’re also indulging in process analysis, saying, “first we did this; then we did that; then we examined the data; then we determined such-and-such.” If you like to follow recipes when you cook, then you’ve already been exposed to process analysis. However, process analyses used in writing generally aren’t as dry as recipes or how-to manuals; they usually have a few examples to spice them up a little.

Process analysis can be an effective way of relating an experience. Take, for example, this excerpt from “On Dumpster Diving” from Travels with Lizbeth by Lars Eighner.

Here’s a good example of process analysis in writing. Although the material is organized in chronological stages, the author inserts explanatory examples and personal commentary that make the passage more lively. In this passage, the author is not instructing the reader on how to scavenge for food in Dumpsters; rather, he is explaining the psychological evolution of a homeless scavenger—based on his own experience—and illustrating the excesses of a consumerist society.

Laundry List for Process Analysis

Sample Question

Write a short essay in which you describe the process of how you selected the colleges to which you applied (or are going to apply to). Once you’ve written your essay, show it to your AP teacher or tutor. You might want to show it to a fellow AP student for peer review.

Drill: Reflect on How You Could Use Process Analysis to Address the Following Topics

Try making a numbered list with a few examples. Make sure you have included all the necessary steps and have used appropriate language and terminology for your reader. Remember to use transition words when you write the essay.

 

 

TOPIC 1: How decisions are made at your school

 

TOPIC 2: How to get through high school successfully

 

TOPIC 3: How to choose and keep close friends

 

CAUSE AND EFFECT

You just saw how process analysis is a useful rhetorical mode for explaining how to do things or how things were done; the rhetorical mode known as cause and effect explains why things should be done or should have been done. In a sense, cause and effect explains the processes responsible for the process. You’ve probably received at least some rudimentary process analysis about how to use a computer at some point (first, turn on the computer; then launch your browser; log on to your IM; select someone else who is logged in…), but you probably don’t know why all that works.

Some cause-and-effect relationships are easy to describe. For instance, read the example below from Candide’s Dr. Pangloss.

In this passage, Pangloss is using a series of cause-and-effect relationships to prove his point, that “things cannot be otherwise than as they are.” This rhetorical mode is everywhere, however. You see examples of this rhetorical mode all around you.

On this exam, the causes and effects that you choose to explore will depend on what you’re asked to explain. You may have to use cause and effect in your essays, possibly in combination with one or more other rhetorical modes; you may also see a few questions in the multiple-choice section that deal with how the author uses cause and effect to make a point. When making critical decisions, writers will often consider both the immediate and the long-term effects; when analyzing an important event, writers will often examine both the immediate and the underlying causes.

Laundry List for Cause and Effect

Sample Question

Write an essay in which you examine the possible causes and effects of violence in the United States today. Once you’ve written your essay, show it to your AP teacher or tutor. You might want to show it to a fellow AP student for peer review.

Drill: Reflect on How You Could Use Cause and Effect to Address the Following Topics

 

 

TOPIC 1: Academic dishonesty in high schools

 

TOPIC 2: The fear of terrorism in the United States

 

TOPIC 3: The changing face of ethnic America

 

DEFINITION

You are probably familiar with definitions; you see them every time you look up a word in the dictionary. Hopefully when you write, you try to make sure your reader understands the words that you use.

When writing your essays for the AP English Language and Composition Exam, if you happen to leave a key term unexplained or explained vaguely, even a carefully crafted essay will fall apart. This is especially true of very specialized terminology and obscure words. For example, if you are explaining a wonderful new tradition at your school and define it by synonym, you may write, “Basically, it’s a Mexican feis.” If your readers are Irish, this would be all right; if your readers were from just about anywhere else, you would need to define feis by putting it in a category (defining it in terms everyone will understand) : “a feis is a competition for Irish dance, song, and instrumental music.” Then, you could explain your project: “We want to do the same thing with traditional Mexican dance, song, and music.”

In this case, a paragraph—or an entire essay—is devoted to the definition of a term. Here, for example, is a paragraph that defines feis (pronounced “fesh”).

The passage begins with a straightforward definition, but the definition is extended and rhetorical modes are mixed. You noted, I’m sure, the analogy to a soccer game; then, there is an inchoate (imperfectly formed) stab at classification (the divisions in the competition). You could even argue that the mention of Lord of the Dance serves as a kind of example. The rhetorical mode of definition can be used simply to explain a word or concept, but typically the author using it also wants to interest the reader in what’s being explained.

Let’s take a look at another good example of definition.

Again, the passage begins with a simple definition; but here, too, we have an example of another rhetorical mode—analogy (to the Super Bowl).

However, the author of this passage uses an important additional tactic, known as definition by negation. You should be aware of this rhetorical device and use it where appropriate. In the passage above, the negation is partial—the Palio is, indeed, a race, but it is not “just a race.” Most negations work in that manner; definition by negation is usually used to impress upon the reader the importance of the item under discussion or create a distinction between the item under discussion and the item with which it is being “negatively” compared. For instance, you may write, “Madonna is not a pop singer; she’s a phenomenon, a true diva, a multi-talented musical ambassador, and savvy businesswoman.” Perhaps this statement is true, but she’s still a pop singer.

You may be able to use definition as a mode in your free-response essays, but most likely, you will see definition used in the passages in the multiple-choice sections. For example, you may be asked to answer a question that deals with how an author uses definition to analyze a topic.

Laundry List for Definition

Sample Question

Write an essay in which you use definition to analyze the role of integrity in your life. Once you’ve written your essay, show it to your AP teacher or tutor. You might want to show it to a fellow AP student for peer review.

Drill: Reflect on How You Could Use Definition to Address the Following Topics

First define each word by category; then, define each word by negation.

 

 

WORD 1: Hip-hop

 

WORD 2: Success

 

WORD 3: Love

 

WORD 4: Cool

 

DESCRIPTION

Description can help make expository or argumentative writing lively and interesting and hold the reader’s interest, which is vital, of course. Think of how many essays those test graders have to read every day; as we mentioned in the techniques chapters, a large part of scoring well on the free-response section is keeping your audience interested.

Oftentimes description serves as the primary rhetorical mode for an entire essay—or even an entire book. It’s typically used to communicate a scene, a specific place, or a person to the reader. Although writers tend to concentrate most on the visual aspects of descriptions, descriptions can be used to appeal to any of the reader’s senses.

It is important to keep in mind that sometimes description can be objective; in these cases, the author is not describing something in a sentimental or otherwise subjective way—he or she is merely stating the facts. As an example of this, take a look at Charles Darwin’s depiction of Valparaíso, the chief seaport in Chile, in Voyage of the Beagle.

This type of objective description tends to be drier than more subjective description. The degree of objectivity exhibited above probably doesn’t thrill you—nor will it thrill the AP readers.

Fortunately, unlike most other rhetorical modes, description allows for a significant degree of subjectivity. In most descriptions, the writer attempts to communicate personal impressions of something or someone, and to do so it is necessary to draw on the powers of figurative writing; simile, metaphor, and personification are the most common.

Here is another description of a city: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s impressions of Florence. The description comes not from one of Hawthorne’s novels, but from one of the notebooks that he kept during his travels in Europe.

This is a much more personal vision of a city. Hawthorne uses one simile to give us a better visual image of the countryside around Florence (“as if we were between two great waves of the tumultuous sea of hills”), and another to communicate the effect of the gas lamps (“like a cornice of golden light”) ; and he employs a metaphor (“a city of dream and shadow”) to evoke his impression of the reflections in the river. In fact, virtually all of the description serves to communicate or explain Hawthorne’s impressions of the city; here, the writer wishes to evoke and is not interested in scientific exactitude.

Keep in mind that this rhetorical device allows you a certain amount of freedom of language, but it also allows you certain liberties in organization. In Hawthorne’s passage, for example, the author put down in writing his impressions in whatever order they came to him. In more objectively written descriptions, however, it often makes sense to think spatially when writing a visual description. You might describe a scene from left to right or front to back, for example; you might start a description of a person with the head (and end with the feet).

In the following passage, Fyodor Dostoyevsky gives us both a spatial description and a barrage of sensory impressions.

Note that Dostoyevsky’s description first takes us through the ground floor and leads us up the staircase. Unlike the previous passages, this one appeals to our tactile (“so covered with filth that the hand sticks”) and, even more prominently, olfactory senses. Choice of detail is important, and the choice of fish bladders, for example, conveys wonderfully the disgusting sights and smell. This is great writing—not only is the description effective, it’s also humorous, thanks to the short comment at the end of each paragraph.

Laundry List for Description

Sample Question

Write an essay in which you describe your local shopping mall. Remember that you are not limited to physical descriptions. Once you’ve written your essay, show it to your AP teacher or tutor. You might want to show it to a fellow AP student for peer review.

Drill: Reflect on How You Could Use Description to Address the Following Topics

First decide the general feeling you’d like to convey, and second begin to list some specifics; don’t forget examples or anecdotes. When describing people, go beyond just the physical.

 

 

TOPIC 1: A party

 

TOPIC 2: Your parents

 

TOPIC 3: A natural disaster (seen from personal experience or on television)

 

TOPIC 4: Your favorite place to relax

 

TOPIC 5: The campus of your school

 

NARRATION

A narrative is a story in which pieces of information are arranged in chronological order. Narration can be an effective expository technique. Decades after her experience in a Japanese internment camp, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston decided to narrate her experiences before, during, and immediately after imprisonment. She did not want to tell the story just for the story’s sake; she wanted to relay her experience to the public to exorcize personal demons and to raise public awareness about this period in history. Here is a passage from this personal narrative. The passage describes the period after the Wakatsuki family had lost their house in Ocean Park, California, when they were forced into detention.

You may be asked to use personal narrative when writing your essays on the AP English Language and Composition Exam; and you will certainly be asked to analyze narratives that employ this rhetorical mode.

In the following passage, Booker T. Washington uses narrative to explain how his view on education developed. Watch for changes between the first- and third-person style of narration.

Notice that in the first paragraph, the narration slips briefly into the third person—Washington is telling the story of the girl, not his own. Likewise, Washington presents the story of the boy studying French from his point of view. In these two instances, Washington switches from first to third person with ease, so that the transition is optimally effective and unnoticeable. The second paragraph effortlessly transitions to a personal anecdote, which is continued in the third paragraph. The final paragraph justifies the narrative: Washington’s life story leads to his commitment to establish his own institute—called the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute—deep in the South.

Laundry List for Narration

Sample Question

“A college education is not necessary for success.” Relate an experience of someone you know (directly or indirectly) that defends, challenges, or qualifies this statement. Once you’ve written your essay, show it to your AP teacher or tutor. You might want to show it to a fellow AP student for peer review.

Drill: Reflect on How You Could Use Narration to Address the Following Topics

Think of a personal experience (or an experience of someone you know) that pertains to the topic. Determine how you would best describe this experience. Come up with a few anecdotes or examples.

 

 

TOPIC 1: Danger when eating becomes an obsession

 

TOPIC 2: Hardship is a necessary part of our education

 

INDUCTION AND DEDUCTION

You will probably find that the rhetorical modes of induction and deduction are most useful when you’re writing the argument essay, although they will be helpful on the rhetorical analysis essay too.

Induction is a process in which specific examples are used to reach a general conclusion. If you took the AP European History Exam and did not like the experience, and then took the AP Calculus BC Exam and did not like the experience, you might arrive at the following general conclusion: AP exams are always an unpleasant experience. If, when you were young, you found that you didn’t like broccoli, asparagus, or cabbage, your parents might have concluded that you didn’t like vegetables. In both cases, the conclusion would be of questionable value because there is not enough evidence to justify the generalization.

Assume that you want to argue that your English teacher is in a bad mood every time the Boston Red Sox lose a game to the New York Yankees. You could substantiate that generalization by recalling certain tantrums that he or she threw and comparing those days with the dates of Red Sox losses. This would substantiate your claim but not prove it, especially if you didn’t even know whether your teacher saw the games. After all, what if something else happened to coincide with the games and was the real cause of his or her bad temper, such as traffic jams on the way home from school?

We tend to believe in generalizations arrived at through induction, whether or not they can actually be proved. The Food and Drug Administration, for example, has to follow the inductive reasoning of scientists; just because a certain drug produced the desired results—and didn’t produce an undesirable result, such as death—20,000 experimental cases does not prove that the same results will occur when 20,000,000 people take the drug.

Deduction involves the use of a generalization to draw a conclusion about a specific case. For example, if you read in the morning paper that all schools in your county would be closed that day because of inclement weather, you could conclude that you won’t have to go to school. You just used deductive reasoning.

Laundry List for Induction and Deduction

Sample Question

Write a short essay in which you analyze the following statement: Contemporary films are a reflection of today’s values. Once you’ve written your essay, show it to your AP teacher or tutor. You might want to show it to a fellow AP student for peer review.

Drill: Reflect on How You Could Use Induction to Substantiate the Following Theses

 

 

THESIS 1: Academic honesty is alive and well.

 

THESIS 2: High schools don’t really care about their mission to educate.

 

THESIS 3: Computer games have beneficial effects.

 

THESIS 4: Children generally demonstrate more wisdom than their parents.

 

In this chapter we looked at a few more rhetorical modes that will be extremely useful to you on test day. Remember that these can be used in combination with each other and, further complicating matters, in combination with the modes in the previous chapter. Hopefully, these modes have given you some ideas about how you can structure your essays into coherent works that the test readers will understand and maybe even enjoy.

Here we are at the end of the review section of the book. You are now ready to take the second practice test; depending on how you did on the first one, you may have been dreading this moment, but we know that once you begin, you’ll see that you know a lot more than you think you do! If you’ve worked through the book up to this point and complete these practice exams, you’ll certainly be ready for test day.

Good luck!

REFLECT

Respond to the following questions:

Part VI

Practice Test 2

• Practice Test 2

• Practice Test 2: Answers and Explanations

Practice Test 2

Click here to download a PDF of Practice Test 2.

The Exam

AP^® English Language and Composition Exam

SECTION I: Multiple-Choice Questions

DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOKLET UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD TO DO SO.

Instructions

Section I of this examination contains 55 multiple-choice questions. Fill in only the ovals for numbers 1 through 55 on your answer sheet.

Indicate all of your answers to the multiple-choice questions on the answer sheet. No credit will be given for anything written in this exam booklet, but you may use the booklet for notes or scratch work. After you have decided which of the suggested answers is best, completely fill in the corresponding oval on the answer sheet. Give only one answer to each question. If you change an answer, be sure that the previous mark is erased completely. Here is a sample question and answer.

Sample Question

Chicago is a

(A) state

(B) city

(C) country

(D) continent

(E) village

Sample Answer

Use your time effectively, working as quickly as you can without losing accuracy. Do not spend too much time on any one question. Go on to other questions and come back to the ones you have not answered if you have time. It is not expected that everyone will know the answers to all the multiple-choice questions.

Many candidates wonder whether or not to guess the answers to questions about which they are not certain. Multiple-choice scores are based on the number of questions answered correctly. Points are not deducted for incorrect answers, and no points are awarded for unanswered questions. Because points are not deducted for incorrect answers, you are encouraged to answer all multiple-choice questions. On any questions you do not know the answer to, you should eliminate as many choices as you can, and then select the best answer among the remaining choices.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION

SECTION I

Time—1 hour

Directions: This part consists of selections from prose works and questions on their content, form, and style. After reading each passage, choose the best answer to each question and completely fill in the corresponding oval on the answer sheet.

Note: Pay particular attention to the requirement of questions that contain the words NOT, LEAST, or EXCEPT.

Questions 1–11. Read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers.

This passage is from an eighteenth-century biography of Sir Thomas Browne.

Questions 12–20. Read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers.

This passage is excerpted from an essay about the author George Eliot that was first published in 1919.

Questions 21–29. Read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers.

This passage is excerpted from a book of essays on race by renowned American sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois, published in 1903.

Questions 30–40. Read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers.

This is from the Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858.

Questions 41–55. Read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers.

This passage is excerpted from a recent work that examines popular conceptions of the history of medieval Spain.

END OF SECTION I

SECTION II

AP^® English Language and Composition Exam

SECTION II: Free-Response Questions

DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOKLET UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD TO DO SO.

Instructions

Section II of this examination requires answers in essay form. To help you use your time well, the coordinator will announce the time at which each question should be completed. If you finish any question before time is announced, you may go on to the following question. If you finish the examination in less than the time allotted, you may go back and work on any essay question you want.

Each essay will be judged on its clarity and effectiveness in dealing with the requirements of the topic assigned and on the quality of the writing. After completing each question, you should check your essay for accuracy of punctuation, spelling, and diction; you are advised, however, not to attempt many longer corrections. Remember that quality is far more important than quantity.

Write your essays with a pen, preferably in black or dark blue ink. Be sure to write CLEARLY and LEGIBLY. Cross out any errors you make.

The questions for Section II are printed in the green insert. You are encouraged to use the green insert to make notes and to plan your essays, but be sure to write your answers in the pink booklet. Number each answer as the question is numbered in the examination. Do not skip lines. Begin each answer on a new page in the pink booklet.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION

SECTION II

Total Time—2 hours, 15 minutes

Question 1

Suggested reading and writing time—55 minutes.

It is suggested that you spend 15 minutes reading the question, analyzing and evaluating the sources, and 40 minutes writing your response.

Note: You may begin writing your response before the reading period is over.

(This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score.)

Individuals have argued the concept of what it means to live a good life for thousands of years. Many have posited that happiness is an internal choice, a question of free will, and that it is something that can be reached every moment of every day. Others have pointed to external factors such as the slow accumulation of wealth and the construction of solid relationships—both of which require time and long-term strategy—as the primary drivers of a “life well-lived.” More recently, some have even pointed to the role of genes in determining life satisfaction.

Carefully read the following seven sources, including the introductory information for each source. Then synthesize the information from at least three of the sources and incorporate it into a coherent, well-developed essay that argues a clear position on whether life satisfaction is better achieved by living in the moment or by working toward long-term goals.

Your argument should be the focus of your essay. Use the sources to develop your argument and explain the reasoning for it. Avoid merely summarizing the sources. Indicate clearly which sources you are drawing from, whether through direct quotation, paraphrase, or summary. You may cite the sources as Source A, Source B, and so forth, or by using the descriptions in parentheses.

The following is excerpted from an article on the National Institute of Health’s Web site.

How do drugs work in the brain to produce pleasure?

Most drugs of abuse directly or indirectly target the brain’s reward system by flooding the circuit with dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter present in regions of the brain that regulate movement, emotion, motivation, and feelings of pleasure. When activated at normal levels, this system rewards our natural behaviors. Overstimulating the system with drugs, however, produces euphoric effects, which strongly reinforce the behavior of drug use—teaching the user to repeat it. Most drugs of abuse target the brain’s reward system by flooding it with dopamine.

How does stimulation of the brain’s pleasure circuit teach us to keep taking drugs?

Our brains are wired to ensure that we will repeat life-sustaining activities by associating those activities with pleasure or reward. Whenever this reward circuit is activated, the brain notes that something important is happening that needs to be remembered, and teaches us to do it again and again without thinking about it. Because drugs of abuse stimulate the same circuit, we learn to abuse drugs in the same way.

Why are drugs more addictive than natural rewards?

When some drugs of abuse are taken, they can release 2 to 10 times the amount of dopamine that natural rewards such as eating do. In some cases, this occurs almost immediately (as when drugs are smoked or injected), and the effects can last much longer than those produced by natural rewards. The resulting effects on the brain’s pleasure circuit dwarf those produced by naturally rewarding behaviors. The effect of such a powerful reward strongly motivates people to take drugs again and again. This is why scientists sometimes say that drug abuse is something we learn to do very, very well.

What happens to your brain if you keep taking drugs?

For the brain, the difference between normal rewards and drug rewards can be described as the difference between someone whispering into your ear and someone shouting into a microphone. Just as we turn down the volume on a radio that is too loud, the brain adjusts to the overwhelming surges in dopamine (and other neurotransmitters) by producing less dopamine or by reducing the number of receptors that can receive signals. As a result, dopamine’s impact on the reward circuit of the brain of someone who abuses drugs can become abnormally low, and that person’s ability to experience any pleasure is reduced.

This is why a person who abuses drugs eventually feels flat, lifeless, and depressed, and is unable to enjoy things that were once pleasurable. Now, the person needs to keep taking drugs again and again just to try and bring his or her dopamine function back up to normal—which only makes the problem worse, like a vicious cycle. Also, the person will often need to take larger amounts of the drug to produce the familiar dopamine high—an effect known as tolerance.

The following is excerpted from an article published by a Web site dedicated to current psychology topics and research.

Life unfolds in the present. But so often, we let the present slip away, allowing time to rush past unobserved and unseized, and squandering the precious seconds of our lives as we worry about the future and ruminate about what’s past.

When we’re at work, we fantasize about being on vacation; on vacation, we worry about the work piling up on our desks. We dwell on intrusive memories of the past or fret about what may or may not happen in the future. We don’t appreciate the living present because our “monkey minds,” as Buddhists call them, vault from thought to thought like monkeys swinging from tree to tree.

Most of us don’t undertake our thoughts in awareness. Rather, our thoughts control us. “Ordinary thoughts course through our mind like a deafening waterfall,” writes Jon Kabat-Zinn, the biomedical scientist who introduced meditation into mainstream medicine. In order to feel more in control of our minds and our lives, to find the sense of balance that eludes us, we need to step out of this current, to pause, and, as Kabat-Zinn puts it, to “rest in stillness—to stop doing and focus on just being.”

We need to live more in the moment. Living in the moment—also called mindfulness—is a state of active, open, intentional attention on the present. When you become mindful, you realize that you are not your thoughts; you become an observer of your thoughts from moment to moment without judging them. Mindfulness involves being with your thoughts as they are, neither grasping at them nor pushing them away. Instead of letting your life go by without living it, you awaken to experience.

Cultivating a nonjudgmental awareness of the present bestows a host of benefits. Mindfulness reduces stress, boosts immune functioning, reduces chronic pain, lowers blood pressure, and helps patients cope with cancer. By alleviating stress, spending a few minutes a day actively focusing on living in the moment reduces the risk of heart disease. Mindfulness may even slow the progression of HIV.

Mindful people are happier, more exuberant, more empathetic, and more secure. They have higher self-esteem and are more accepting of their own weaknesses. Anchoring awareness in the here and now reduces the kinds of impulsivity and reactivity that underlie depression, binge eating, and attention problems. Mindful people can hear negative feedback without feeling threatened. They fight less with their romantic partners and are more accommodating and less defensive. As a result, mindful couples have more satisfying relationships.

Mindfulness is at the root of Buddhism, Taoism, and many Native-American traditions, not to mention yoga. It’s why Thoreau went to Walden Pond; it’s what Emerson and Whitman wrote about in their essays and poems.

“Everyone agrees it’s important to live in the moment, but the problem is how,” says Ellen Langer, a psychologist at Harvard and author of Mindfulness. “When people are not in the moment, they’re not there to know that they’re not there.” Overriding the distraction reflex and awakening to the present takes intentionality and practice.

Living in the moment involves a profound paradox: You can’t pursue it for its benefits. That’s because the expectation of reward launches a future-oriented mindset, which subverts the entire process. Instead, you just have to trust that the rewards will come.

The following chart shows the growth of national debt between 1980 and 2013.

The following is excerpted from an academic journal focused on environmental issues.

Climate change is a long-term decadal issue, while western-style democracies are short-term (2-4 year). Rising GHG emissions are tightly linked to energy use and development, with our current heavy reliance on fossil fuels as the root cause of climate change (IPCC, 2007). Hofmeister (2010) has argued that this timing mismatch between long-term energy use and development, resulting climate changes, and the political process is part of our fundamental problem in not making progress on these intertwined issues.

Bold new policy initiatives generally need to take place before the term of office is half over as this is generally thought to be a high-risk venture by politicians. In the second half of the elected term, politicians tend to shift to pre-electioneering and are averse to taking on any new high-risk policy or fiscal actions that may affect their electability. This second half of the term tends to be the time wherein new climate change policies that have been approved and announced can move to implementation—a politically quiet activity. However, this raises the question…how can you review the performance or effectiveness of a policy in the limited time frame of the political cycle? The results of strong policy may not be evident for years beyond the normal political cycle. Additionally, the policy review phase is often hammered by GHG data that is often two or more years out of date.

This makes it difficult for policy makers to assess whether or not progress is being made. For relatively stable governments, who tend to stay in power for long periods of time (such as the People’s Republic of China or the conservative-dominated government in the province of Alberta, Canada) this does not pose a great problem. However, most democracies have a great deal of political turnover. This can lead to constantly changing climate policy positions and strategies with few policy actions moving to implementation and consequently, little progress being made in reducing GHG emissions. The United States is a case in point; Democrat administrations try to put climate change and environmental policies in place while Republican administrations usually attempt to roll them back.

In positive psychology, flow, also known as the zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. The chart below describes the balance that a person encounters, when doing an activity, between how much challenge the task presents and how much skill that person already possesses for the activity. Experts such as Mihály Csíkszentmihályi have suggested that happiness can be found by entering the upper right quadrant of this chart.

The following is excerpted from a book about redesigning your lifestyle in order to work less and increase your income.

To do or not to do? To try or not to try? Most people will vote no, whether they consider themselves brave or not. Uncertainty and the prospect of failure can be very scary noises in the shadows. Most people will choose unhappiness over uncertainty. For years, I set goals, made resolutions to change direction, and nothing came of either. I was just as insecure and scared as the rest of the world.

The simple solution came to me accidentally four years ago. At that time, I had more money than I knew what to do with—I was making $70K or so per month—and I was completely miserable, worse than ever. I had no time and was working myself to death. I had started my own company, only to realize it would be nearly impossible to sell.

Critical mistakes in its infancy would never let me sell it. I could hire magic elves and connect my brain to a supercomputer—it didn’t matter. My little baby had some serious birth defects. The question then became, How do I free myself from this Frankenstein while making it self-sustaining? How do I pry myself from the tentacles of workaholism and the fear that it would fall to pieces without my 15-hour days? How do I escape this self-made prison? A trip, I decided. A sabbatical year around the world.

So I took the trip, right? First, I felt it prudent to dance around with my shame, embarrassment, and anger for six months, all the while playing an endless loop of reasons why my cop-out fantasy trip could never work. One of my more productive periods, for sure.

Then a funny thing happened. In my undying quest to make myself miserable, I accidentally began to backpedal. As soon as I cut through the vague unease and ambiguous anxiety by defining my nightmare, the worst-case scenario, I wasn’t as worried about taking a trip. I could always take a temporary bartending job to pay the rent if I had to. I could sell some furniture and cut back on eating out. I could steal lunch money from the kindergarteners who passed by my apartment every morning. The options were many. I realized it wouldn’t be that hard to get back to where I was, let alone survive. None of these things would be fatal—not even close.

I realized that on a scale of 1–10, 1 being nothing and 10 being permanently life-changing, my so-called worst-case scenario might have a temporary impact of 3 or 4. On the other hand, if I realized my best-case scenario, or even a probable-case scenario, it would easily have a permanent 9 or 10 positive life-changing effect.

In other words, I was risking an unlikely and temporary 3 or 4 for a probable and permanent 9 or 10, and I could easily recover my baseline workaholic prison with a bit of extra work if I wanted to. This all equated to a significant realization: There was practically no risk, only huge life-changing upside potential.

That is when I made the decision to take the trip and bought a one-way ticket to Europe. I started planning my adventures and eliminating my physical and psychological baggage. None of my disasters came to pass, and my life has been a near fairy tale since.

The following is excerpted from a pamphlet on retirement savings.

Fewer than half of Americans have calculated how much they need to save for retirement.

In 2014, 30 percent of private industry workers with access to a defined contribution plan (such as a 401(k) plan) did not participate.

The average American spends roughly 20 years in retirement. Putting money away for retirement is a habit we can all live with. Remember…saving matters!

Start saving, keep saving, and stick to your goals. If you are already saving, whether for retirement or another goal, keep going! You know that saving is a rewarding habit. If you’re not saving, it’s time to get started. Start small if you have to and try to increase the amount you save each month. The sooner you start saving, the more time your money has to grow. Make saving for retirement a priority. Devise a plan, stick to it, and set goals. Remember, it’s never too early or too late to start saving.

Know your retirement needs. Retirement is expensive. Experts estimate that you will need at least 70 percent of your preretirement income—lower earners, 90 percent or more—to maintain your standard of living when you stop working. Take charge of your financial future. The key to a secure retirement is to plan ahead.

Contribute to your employer’s retirement savings plan. If your employer offers a retirement savings plan, such as a 401(k) plan, sign up and contribute all you can. Your taxes will be lower, your company may kick in more, and automatic deductions make it easy. Over time, compound interest and tax deferrals make a big difference in the amount you will accumulate. Find out about your plan. For example, how much would you need to contribute to get the full employer contribution and how long you would need to stay in the plan to get that money?

Learn about your employer’s pension plan. If your employer has a traditional pension plan, check to see if you are covered by the plan and understand how it works. Ask for an individual benefit statement to see what your benefit is worth. Before you change jobs, find out what will happen to your pension benefit. Learn what benefits you may have from a previous employer. Find out if you will be entitled to benefits from your spouse’s plan.

Consider basic investment principles. How you save can be as important as how much you save. Inflation and the type of investments you make play important roles in how much you’ll have saved at retirement. Know how your savings or pension plan is invested. Learn about your plan’s investment options and ask questions. Put your savings in different types of investments. By diversifying this way, you are more likely to reduce risks and improve return. Your investment mix may change over time depending on a number of factors such as your age, goals, and financial circumstances. Financial security and knowledge go hand in hand.

Don’t touch your retirement savings. If you withdraw your retirement savings now, you’ll lose principal and interest and you may lose tax benefits or have to pay withdrawal penalties. If you change jobs, leave your savings invested in your current retirement plan, or roll them over to an IRA or your new employer’s plan.

Question 2

Suggested time—40 minutes.

(This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score.)

The passage below is excerpted from one of Mark Twain’s most famous essays, “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses.” At the time Twain wrote his essay, Cooper’s novels were generally well liked and respected. Read the passage carefully. Then, in a well-developed essay, analyze the rhetorical strategies Twain uses to convey his attitude.

Question 3

Suggested time—40 minutes.

(This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score.)

The French Enlightenment writer Voltaire wrote, “It is dangerous to be right in matters about which the established authorities are wrong.”

In a well-written essay, develop your position on Voltaire’s claim. Use appropriate evidence from your reading, experience, or observations to support your argument.

STOP

END OF EXAM

Practice Test 2: Answers and Explanations

PRACTICE TEST 2 ANSWER KEY

PRACTICE TEST 2 EXPLANATIONS

Multiple-Choice Questions

Free-Response Questions

Question 1—Synthesis Essay

This sample essay is above average. The student does a good job defining the two sides of the question, choosing one, and defending it. However, it could be argued that the student spends too much time attacking the counterargument, and not enough time supporting his or her own side. Also, the analysis of Source A is very thin—it’s not enough to merely recast the source in different words. The student should have added original analysis. The conclusion is well structured and makes a salient point. Overall, this essay would likely earn an 8.

 

It seems that there are as many approaches to life as there are people. However, in general, these approaches can be divided into two categories: living for the moment and living for the future. People who live for the moment are often spiritual and artistic personalities, individuals who feel that they may have reached the perfect way to live but who sometimes fail to take care of some of the more mundane parts of life. Those who live for the future, however, have usually made concrete plans that yield benefits over the course of one’s life, allowing them to find their happiness later, once the material comforts are taken care of. Of these two ways of living, the future-oriented style produces a better life overall, even though it may be seen as boring or nonspontaneous by some.

 

While not all of those who “live in the present” use drugs, of course, generally people who use drugs are not focused on the future. The problem with that approach, as shown in Source A, is that drug use changes your dopamine levels (which are responsible for happiness), resulting in a reduced “ability to experience any pleasure.” Then, not only is that person unable to live in the moment, but life begins to seem more pointless.

 

The hazards of living solely in the moment may also be seen in examples taken from economic and financial areas. In Source G, the Department of Labor urges all people to begin saving for their retirement, noting that “30 percent of private industry workers with access to a defined contribution plan (such as a 401(k) plan) did not participate.” That means that those workers, even if they’re living in the blissful moment by taking expensive vacations and buying the latest trendy technology, will most likely find themselves in hard economic times come retirement. If those people would begin to save just a few hundred dollars per month, with the power of compounding interest, they could guarantee a better material future for themselves. Our nation has committed similar stupidity on a grand scale. According to Source C, the national debt has gone from $1 trillion to almost $17 trillion in about 35 years. Why did the federal government think it was okay to borrow that kind of money? Didn’t it realize that it would someday have to pay it back—and that the youngest taxpayers would be responsible for that?

 

The happiest people have usually been the ones who have put aside their short-term needs to build a good long-term life. This means making lifelong friends, studying many hours to get a high-paying job, and avoiding momentary distractions like drugs that can derail these goals. It’s very possible that, after many years, a future-oriented person can “relax” and have some short-term fun. There are dangers to this approach, of course; a person can become burdened by stress, leading to poor health, or forget how to have fun. But this is still an often safer and more prudent approach than the alternative.

Question 2—Rhetorical Analysis Essay

The following sample is a slightly better than adequate response; the strong writing would probably carry it to a 7 or 8, despite the tenuous grasp of rhetorical strategies. It would be possible to question the student’s assertion that Mark Twain’s comment that “the scow episode is really a sublime burst of invention” proves that “he is a reasonable critic and not bent on purely insulting the popular author.” Most likely, this represents more of Twain’s sarcasm.

 

Mark Twain’s well-known essay “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses” seeks to mock both the work itself and its devoted readers. Though Twain’s piece has a decidedly ironic tone and is not meant to be serious literary criticism, he employs a variety of rhetorical tactics to argue his point and persuade the audience that not only is Cooper’s work flawed and ridiculous, but also that they are mislead in having enjoyed Cooper’s writing. Twain uses rhetorical devices rooted in both language and content to convince the reader of the validity of his scathing conclusion about Cooper.

 

By subtle choices of persuasive writing, Twain conveys his meaning through his language. He uses the first person plural as his point of view to connect with the reader and to give an impression of a sympathetic guide alerting the reader to literary inadequacy. Instead of always presenting his evidence outright, Twain uses rhetorical questions to intensify his essay and to catch the reader’s attention. By demanding “Did the Indians notice […]?” he highlights the unrealistic nature of Cooper’s work. In the final paragraph, he employs an anaphora, beginning several successive sentences with “Then No….” This repetitive wording emphasizes his message of Cooper’s inadequacy. His phrasing plays a key role in convincing the reader of his point.

 

In addition, Twain’s choice of evidence is clearly intended to strengthen his argument. He uses a simile, “He saw nearly all things as through a glass eye, darkly” to help the audience visualize and better comprehend his meaning. To dramatize his critique, Twain writes “It would take you thirty years to guess,” an obvious hyperbole that vividly depicts the ridiculousness of Cooper’s work. Throughout the essay, Twain relies on mathematical computations and logic to undermine Cooper’s credibility, hoping that objective reasoning will sway his readers. Finally, in a concession to Cooper’s competency, Twain admits that “the scow episode is really a sublime burst of invention” to illustrate that he is a reasonable critic and not bent on purely insulting the popular author.

 

Twain’s wide range of rhetorical techniques serve to convince his audience in as many different ways as possible that he is a logical, credible critic and that his argument is valid.

Question 3—Argument Essay

The sample essay below serves as a great model, for it exudes an ease that can come only with great practice with the art of writing. There is a clear thesis and organizational structure. Quality replaces quantity, and the clarity is pristine. Remember that above all else, the AP reader craves clarity. The work might not earn a 9, but it would definitely receive an 8.

 

For as long as authority has existed, there have been those who have challenged it, rebelled against it, and even refused to acknowledge it. Institutions that hold great power—the government, the church, public opinion—have dictated what is right and wrong to those under their control. However, when an individual’s personal convictions come into conflict with authority’s established morality, persecution, isolation, and other such punishments often follow. Voltaire was correct in his assertion that “it is dangerous to be right” in opposition to the status quo, as demonstrated in history and literature.

 

As science developed during the Renaissance and humans began to have a more objective understanding of the world, the church held vehemently to its tenets and persecuted those who contradicted its teachings. Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, whose observations played a pivotal role in our model for the solar system, was one such man who suffered greatly for his non-Christian hypotheses. Though Galileo’s theories were indeed correct, the Church nonetheless suppressed his work and placed him under house arrest. Similarly, during the 1950s, McCarthyism swept America, as the government tried to root out “Communists.” For the few who condemned the inherent immorality of McCarthy’s campaign and tactics, the result was that they too would be blacklisted and effectively ruined. In contradicting the Church and the government, independent thinkers have suffered greatly for “being right” throughout history.

 

The dangers of questioning authority have not been neglected in world literature. In Milan Kundera’s The Joke, the protagonist Ludvik is expelled from the university and the Communist Party for making comments derogatory to the Party. Though his criticisms would certainly be deemed valid by later generations, his correct thinking is rewarded with isolation and prison-like punishment in the military. Fighting against both the establishment and the majority, Arthur Miller’s character John Proctor is indeed “right” that the Salem witch trials depicted in The Crucible are madness, and ruining the lives of innocent people. However, his unpopular beliefs only cause him danger as he, too, is soon labeled as a witch. These two protagonists, whose lone voices of reason decry the authorities’ “wrong” stance, suffer great dangers as a result of their challenges to the establishment. Voltaire’s claim has been continually confirmed by history and literature.