AP Language and Composition

Course: 551

Course Description:

*The recent average PSAT Reading and Writing and Language scores for AP students have been 32.

This course focuses on writing and analysis of non-fiction prose. Students will explore how others write effectively through a study of rhetorical analysis and various modes of writing, such as journalistic, evaluative, persuasive, satirical, narrative, descriptive, argumentative, analytical, compare and contrast, and synthesis. In addition, students will focus on critical reading skills so that they will be able to not only understand what the text is communicating but also how writers use the English language and artists use images to manipulate those effects convincingly. In the spring, students will complete the AP English Language and Composition exam. Summer reading and written work (due the first week of class) are required to maintain enrollment.

Textbook/Class Resources:

9781319056148, Shea, The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric, 3rd ed., Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2018

9780393538700, Graff, They Say/I Say, 5th ed., W.W. Norton & Co., 2021

9781457683039, Hacker, The Bedford Handbook: Tenth ed., Bedford St. Martin’s, 2016
This book was previously purchased for use in 9th grade.

9780316017930, Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success, Back Bay Books, 2011

9780141439471, Shelley, Frankenstein, Penguin Classics, Revised ed., 2003
9780812984965, Stevenson, Just Mercy, Spiegel & Grau, 2015