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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.