AP Language Exams Prompts and Hints

Format The AP Language exam comes in two parts: Section 1: Multiple choice Section 2: Essays

Multiple-choice Section Allotted time: 1 hour 60-80 questions Questions come with prose passages These questions assess how well you remember rhetoric devices, if you can interpret tone, and analyze technical aspects of language.

Essay Section Allotted time: 2 hours (with 15 mins for reading) You will write three essays: Synthesis Essay. Sources will be provided. Argue for or against the topic. Rhetoric Analysis. Excerpt will be provided. Free-response. Quote will be provided. Agree/Disagree?

Writing the Essay: Timing Yourself In two hours, you have approximately 40mins to write each essay. 5mins—intro (include your thesis) 25mins—body (more than one paragraph) 5mins—conclusion (synthesize) 5mins—review/edit/revise

Types of Essays Every year, the AP Exams change, so you will encounter a variety of prompts. The Synthesis Essay is one that will always remain the same (but different topics). There may or may not be a free-response essay. In one way or another, you will be asked to analyze rhetoric and style.

Analysis Essay These essays ask you to analyze the rhetorical strategies and stylistic elements of an essay. Use the vocabulary from the Rhetoric Terms packet. These essays determine your skill with reading, understanding, and analyzing challenging texts.

Types of Analysis Essays Analyze the author’s view or attitude on a specific subject. Analyze rhetorical strategies that an author uses to achieve his/her purpose. Analyze stylistic elements in a passage and their effects. Analyze an author’s tone and how they convey that tone.

Types of Analysis Compare/contrast two passages with their style, purpose, or tone. Analyze an author’s purpose and how he/she achieves it. Analyze how an author presents himself/herself in the passage. Discuss the intended and/or probable effect of a passage to the audience.

Sample of Analysis Prompt The following paragraphs are from the opening of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. After carefully reading the excerpt, write a well-organized essay in which you characterize Capote’s view of Holcomb, Kansas and analyze how Capote conveys this view. Your analysis may consider such stylistic elements as diction, imagery, syntax, structure, tone, and selection of detail.

Breaking It Down The following paragraphs are from the opening of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. After carefully reading the excerpt, write a well-organized essay in which you characterize Capote’s view of Holcomb, Kansas and analyze how Capote conveys this view. Your analysis may consider such stylistic elements as diction, imagery, syntax, structure, tone, and selection of detail.

Sample of Analysis Prompt Carefully read the following excerpt from Louisa May Alcott’s nonfiction narrative Hospital Sketches (1863). In a carefully constructed essay, identify the author’s intended effect on the reader and the ways in which the author recreates her experience as a nurse in a U.S. Army hospital during the Civil War. Consider such elements as pacing, diction, imagery, selection of detail, and tone.

Breaking It Down Carefully read the following excerpt from Louisa May Alcott’s nonfiction narrative Hospital Sketches (1863). In a carefully constructed essay, identify the author’s intended effect on the reader and [identify] the ways in which the author recreates her experience as a nurse in a U.S. Army hospital during the Civil War. Consider such elements as pacing, diction, imagery, selection of detail, and tone.

Argumentative Essay These essays determine your understanding of a controversial subject and to effectively communicate your point of view. You need to understand the nature of the position taken in the prompt. Take a specific stand—argue, qualify, or disagree—with the assertion. Clearly and logically support your claim.

Agree, Qualify, Disagree Do you think the same way as the author? (Agree/Defend/Support) Do you think the author is totally wrong? (Disagree/Refute/Challenge/Oppose) Do you think some of the things are right and some of the things are wrong? (Qualify)

Tone in an Argumentative Essay You can be informal, personal, formal, objective, humorous, etc. Be consistent throughout your essay. Make sure it is appropriate for your purpose, which is to support your argument. Impressing the grader should NOT be your purpose.

Argumentative Essay Grade Your essay is graded for process and mastery and manipulation of the English language, not for how close you come to the viewpoint of the audience/grader.

Types of Argument Prompts You will be given an excerpt/passage and then will be asked to defend or refute its assertion. You might even be given a free-response, in which you support your claim with personal observations or experiences.

Sample of Argument Prompt A A passage is given in which the author disagrees with the adage, “Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise.” Summarize the passage’s reasoning and agree or disagree with author’s opinion.

Breaking It Down A passage is given in which the author disagrees with the adage, “Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise.” Summarize the passage’s reasoning and agree or disagree with author’s opinion. Notice that this prompt does NOT offer the choice of qualifying your argument.

Sample of Argument Prompt B A passage from James Baldwin about the importance of language as the “key to identity” and social acceptance is given. Defend, challenge, or qualify Baldwin’s ideas using your experiences, observations, or readings to develop your opinion.

Breaking It Down A passage from James Baldwin about the importance of language as the “key to identity” and social acceptance is given. Defend, challenge, or qualify Baldwin’s ideas using your experiences, observations, or readings to develop your opinion. Although it sounds like a free-response, if a passage is given, make sure to make a reference to the excerpt provided.

Synthesis Essay These essays determine your ability to understand and analyze texts, developing and supporting your claim, and incorporating and citing sources into an essay. Rather than give you multiple-choice test on MLA format, they want to see you use it. Visual graphics range from graphs, statistical data, editorial cartoons, comics, advertisements, etc.

Types of Synthesis Essays Expository essay—develop your thesis and support it with specific examples from the sources provided. Compare/contrast Cause and effect Analysis Argument essay—take a position and support your claim with specific examples from the sources provided.

Sample Synthesis Essay There will be the Introduction, Assignment, and list of sources. Introduction: A recent Supreme Court decision has provoked much debate about private property rights. In it, the court ruled that the city of New London was within the bounds of the U.S. Constitution when it condemned private property for use in a redevelopment plan. This ruling is an example of the classic debate between individual rights versus the greater good.

Sample Synthesis Essay There will be the Introduction, Assignment, and list of sources. Introduction: A recent Supreme Court decision has provoked much debate about private property rights. In it, the court ruled that the city of New London was within the bounds of the U.S. Constitution when it condemned private property for use in a redevelopment plan. This ruling is an example of the classic debate between individual rights versus the greater good.

Assignment: Carefully read the following sources, including the introductory information. Then, in an essay that synthesizes at least three of the sources for support, take a position that supports, opposes, or qualifies the claim that government taking property from one private owner to give to another for the creation of further economic development constitutes a permissible “public use” under the Fifth Amendment. Refer to the sources as Source A, Source B, and so forth. Notes in the parenthesis are for your convenience.

Assignment: Carefully read the following sources, including the introductory information. Then, in an essay that synthesizes at least three of the sources for support, take a position that supports, opposes, or qualifies the claim that government taking property from one private owner to give to another for the creation of further economic development constitutes a permissible “public use” under the Fifth Amendment. Refer to the sources as Source A, Source B, and so forth. Notes in the parenthesis are for your convenience.

Hints for Synthesis Prompt As you skim through sources, start annotating which sources support, refute, or qualify the assertion. If you already know what position to take, start making a list of points to make. Skim through the sources to find which ones would best support your claim.