AP English Language

STEP 4
Review the Knowledge You Need to Score High

CHAPTER 8

Comprehensive Review—Analysis

Rapid Review

• Analysis is the deconstruction of a passage into its components in order to examine how a writer develops a subject.

• The AP English Language exam requires the analysis of structure, purpose, style.

• Discourse is conversation between the text and the reader.

• Rhetoric is a term for all of the strategies, modes, and devices a writer employs.

• There are four major modes of discourse:

— exposition

— narration

— description

— argumentation

• Rhetorical strategies are used to develop the modes of discourse:

— example

— comparison and contrast

— definition

— cause and effect

— process

— analysis

— classification

• Practice each of the rhetorical strategies.

• Style is the unique writing pattern of a writer.

• Style comprises:

— subject matter

— selection of detail

— organization

— point of view

— diction

— syntax

— language

— attitude

— tone

• Practice with stylistic devices.

• Review words that describe tone.

• Review “connective tissue”:

— transition

— subject consistency

— tense consistency

— voice consistency

• Practice using active and passive voice.

• Practice recognizing pacing in professional writing and in your own essays by sentence variety:

— construction

— openings

— types

• Utilize rubrics to gauge your essays.