3rd Period AP Language and Composition
Course Description
AP English Language and Composition is an introductory college-level composition course. Students cultivate their understanding of writing and rhetorical arguments through reading, analyzing, and writing texts as they explore topics like rhetorical situation, claims and evidence, reasoning and organization, and style.
The following skill categories, tied to the big ideas, describe what skills
students should develop during the course:
■ Rhetorical Situation – Reading: Explain how writers’ choices
reflect the components of the rhetorical situation.
■ Rhetorical Situation – Writing: Make strategic choices in a
text to address a rhetorical situation.
■ Claims and Evidence – Reading: Identify and describe the
claims and evidence of an argument.
■ Claims and Evidence – Writing: Analyze and select evidence
to develop and refine a claim.
■ Reasoning and Organization – Reading: Describe the
reasoning, organization, and development of an argument.
■ Reasoning and Organization – Writing: Use organization and
commentary to illuminate the line of reasoning in an argument.
■ Style – Reading: Explain how writers’ stylistic choices
contribute to the purpose of an argument.
students should develop during the course:
■ Rhetorical Situation – Reading: Explain how writers’ choices
reflect the components of the rhetorical situation.
■ Rhetorical Situation – Writing: Make strategic choices in a
text to address a rhetorical situation.
■ Claims and Evidence – Reading: Identify and describe the
claims and evidence of an argument.
■ Claims and Evidence – Writing: Analyze and select evidence
to develop and refine a claim.
■ Reasoning and Organization – Reading: Describe the
reasoning, organization, and development of an argument.
■ Reasoning and Organization – Writing: Use organization and
commentary to illuminate the line of reasoning in an argument.
■ Style – Reading: Explain how writers’ stylistic choices
contribute to the purpose of an argument.
Source: Collegeboard