AP English LANGUAGE Standards
AP Goals and Standards for English Language and Composition
Goals: Students will:
Actively participate in group discussions and critique prose styles selected from a range of disciplines and rhetorical contexts written during various time periods.
Apply the writing process to interpret, experience, evaluate, and emulate examples of high quality writing leading to the development of “stylistic maturity.”
Write expository, analytical, and argumentative assignments and manipulate compositions to account for varying audiences, contexts, and goals.
Use language effectively and cogently in both the personal and academic realms.
Critically examine the contextual relationship among graphics and visual images to text and as stand-alone messages.
Assess and incorporate primary and secondary sources into research projects and cite all sources appropriately.
Learn the critical skill of synthesizing information from their readings to produce a fresh perspective.
Actively demonstrate the ability to apply the AP rubrics and 6 Traits +1 rubrics to their own writing, to exemplars provided in class, and to the writing by fellow students in peer response activities.
Interpret ambiguities, subtleties, contradictions, ironies, and nuances in literature as well as analyze rhetorical modes of discourse and rhetorical devices.
Actively employ the use of rhetorical terminology in discussion of literature.
Informal Writing Focus
Students are required to write in Informal contexts-e.g., imitation exercises, blogs, journal keeping, collaborative writing, and in-class responses-designed to help them become increasingly aware of themselves as writers and of the techniques employed by the writers they read.)
Writing Process
Students are required to write essays that proceed through several stages or drafts, with revision aided by teacher and peers. The AP teacher provides instruction and feedback on students’ writing assignments both before and after the students revise their work, that help the students develop:
A Wide-Ranging Vocabulary used Appropriately and Effectively;
A Variety of Sentence Structure Including Appropriate use of Subordination and Coordination;
Logical Organization, Enhanced by Specific Techniques to Increase Coherence;
A Balance of Generalization and Specific, Illustrative Detail;
An Effective Use of Rhetoric, Including Controlling Tone, Establishing and Maintaining Voice, and Achieving Appropriate Emphasis through Diction and Sentence Structure.)
Formal Writing Focus:
Students are required to write in several forms- e.g., narrative, expository, analytical, and argumentative-based on readings representing a wide variety of prose styles and genres.
Graphics and Visual Images:
Students are required to analyze how graphics and visual images both relate to written texts and serve as alternative forms of text themselves.
Research Skills and Projects:
Students should be able to evaluate, use, and cite primary and secondary sources. The course assigns projects such as the researched argument paper, which goes beyond the parameters of a traditional research paper by asking students to present an argument of their own that includes the analysis and synthesis of ideas from an array of sources.
Citation Skills:
Students cite sources using a recognized editorial style (e.g., Modern Language Association, The Chicago
Manual of Style, etc.).
Goals: Students will:
Actively participate in group discussions and critique prose styles selected from a range of disciplines and rhetorical contexts written during various time periods.
Apply the writing process to interpret, experience, evaluate, and emulate examples of high quality writing leading to the development of “stylistic maturity.”
Write expository, analytical, and argumentative assignments and manipulate compositions to account for varying audiences, contexts, and goals.
Use language effectively and cogently in both the personal and academic realms.
Critically examine the contextual relationship among graphics and visual images to text and as stand-alone messages.
Assess and incorporate primary and secondary sources into research projects and cite all sources appropriately.
Learn the critical skill of synthesizing information from their readings to produce a fresh perspective.
Actively demonstrate the ability to apply the AP rubrics and 6 Traits +1 rubrics to their own writing, to exemplars provided in class, and to the writing by fellow students in peer response activities.
Interpret ambiguities, subtleties, contradictions, ironies, and nuances in literature as well as analyze rhetorical modes of discourse and rhetorical devices.
Actively employ the use of rhetorical terminology in discussion of literature.
Informal Writing Focus
Students are required to write in Informal contexts-e.g., imitation exercises, blogs, journal keeping, collaborative writing, and in-class responses-designed to help them become increasingly aware of themselves as writers and of the techniques employed by the writers they read.)
Writing Process
Students are required to write essays that proceed through several stages or drafts, with revision aided by teacher and peers. The AP teacher provides instruction and feedback on students’ writing assignments both before and after the students revise their work, that help the students develop:
A Wide-Ranging Vocabulary used Appropriately and Effectively;
A Variety of Sentence Structure Including Appropriate use of Subordination and Coordination;
Logical Organization, Enhanced by Specific Techniques to Increase Coherence;
A Balance of Generalization and Specific, Illustrative Detail;
An Effective Use of Rhetoric, Including Controlling Tone, Establishing and Maintaining Voice, and Achieving Appropriate Emphasis through Diction and Sentence Structure.)
Formal Writing Focus:
Students are required to write in several forms- e.g., narrative, expository, analytical, and argumentative-based on readings representing a wide variety of prose styles and genres.
Graphics and Visual Images:
Students are required to analyze how graphics and visual images both relate to written texts and serve as alternative forms of text themselves.
Research Skills and Projects:
Students should be able to evaluate, use, and cite primary and secondary sources. The course assigns projects such as the researched argument paper, which goes beyond the parameters of a traditional research paper by asking students to present an argument of their own that includes the analysis and synthesis of ideas from an array of sources.
Citation Skills:
Students cite sources using a recognized editorial style (e.g., Modern Language Association, The Chicago
Manual of Style, etc.).