AP Literature and Composition
Course Description:
Students in an AP course in English Literature and Composition engage in the careful reading of
literary works. Through such study, you will sharpen your awareness of language and your understanding
of the writer’s craft. You will also develop critical standards for the independent appreciation of any
literary work, and increase your sensitivity to literature as a shared experience. To achieve these goals, you
study the individual work, its language, characters, action, and theme. You consider its structure, meaning,
and value, and its relationship to contemporary experience as well as to the context in which it was written.
AP students in English Literature and Composition are involved in the study and practice of
writing as well as in the study of literature. You should learn to use the modes of discourse and to
recognize the assumptions underlying various rhetorical strategies. Through speaking, listening, and
reading, but chiefly through the experience of your own writing, you should become more aware of the
resources of language: connotation, metaphor, irony, syntax, and tone.
Writing assignments should focus on the critical analysis of literature and should include essays in
exposition and argument. Although much of the writing in the course will be about literature, speaking and
writing about different kinds of subjects should further develop your sense of how style, subject, and
audience are related. Occasionally, assignments in personal narrative and the writing of stories, poems, or
plays may be appropriate. Another major aspect of writing in this course will be the research paper and the
college essay. The desired goals are the honest and effective use of language and the organization of ideas
in a clear, coherent, and persuasive way.
By the end of the course you will have studied works from both the American and English
traditions and from various periods from the sixteenth century to the present. You should read works of
recognized literary merit that are likely to be taught in an introductory college literature course, works that
are worthy of scrutiny because of their richness of thought and language that challenges the reader.
Course Description taken from the AP College Board Course Description.
The Exam
The AP Exam in English Literature and Composition, which is three hours long, consists of two sections:
Section I: 60 minutes long; contains 50-60 multiple-choice questions that test your reading of selected
passages—both prose and poem. This section counts for 45 percent of the total AP grade.
Section II: 120 minutes long; contains 3 free response questions that measure your ability to read and
interpret literature and to use other forms of discourse effectively. Counts for 55 percent of total AP grade.
One question typically will ask you to analyze a poem, one a prose passage, and one a longer work such as
a novel or play.
Scores
Scores are reported on a five-point scale as follows:
5 = extremely well qualified
4 = well qualified
3 = qualified
2 = possibly qualified
1 = no recommendation
Scores are reported the first or second week of July.
General Course Objectives
Reading
*To develop the ability to interpret a literary work -- that is, to perceive in it an idea which can
then be proven by the use of compelling literary evidence.
*To sharpen writing skills in terms of clarity, focus, diction, grammatical usage, punctuation, and
syntax.
*To have a keen awareness of audience and purpose in completing the college essay.
*To be able to research a given topic and correctly document sources by adhering to the correct
MLA style of documentation.
*To analyze critical interpretations of literary works.
*To master good skills of literary discussion -- both in terms of speaking and listening.
*To be able to recognize and discuss significant literary elements in works of literature.
*To be able to understand and appreciate the dramatic and cultural factors in works read
throughout this course.
*To adequately prepare students for the AP IV exam as well as a college-level English class.
Writing
When writing, AP students should be able to
*use and understand a wide-ranging vocabulary with denotative accuracy and connotative
resourcefulness.
*use and understand a variety of sentence structures, including appropriate use of subordinate and
coordinate constructions.
*sharpen organizational and transitional skills in writing.
*research a given topic and correctly document sources by adhering to the correct MLA style of
documentation.
*sharpen writing skills in terms of clarity, focus, diction, grammatical usage, punctuation, and
syntax.
*balance generalizations with specific illustrative details.
*use an effective use of rhetoric, including controlling tone, maintaining a consistent voice, and
achieving emphasis through parallelism and antithesis.
Some course objectives came from the AP College Board Course Description.