AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION
Instructor: Hector A. Peña
Room J-204
School Phone: (956) 548-7700
E-mail: hecapena@bisd.us
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The AP English Language and Composition course engages students in becoming skilled readers of
prose written in a variety of periods, disciplines, and rhetorical contexts and in becoming skilled writers
who compose for a variety of purposes. The writing and reading completed in this course makes
students aware of the interactions among a writer’s purposes, audience expectations, and subjects as
well as the way generic conventions and the resources of language contribute to effectiveness in
writing.
It is the assumption of this course that students already understand and use standard English grammar.
The intense concentration on language used in this program of study will enhance the student’s ability
to use grammatical conventions both appropriately and with sophistication as well as to develop
stylistic maturity in writing. Stylistic development is nurtured by emphasizing a wide-ranging
vocabulary; a variety of sentence structures; a logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques to
increase coherence; a balance of generalization and specific illustrative detail; and an effective rhetoric,
including controlling tone and establishing and maintaining voice.
Being equivalent to a first-year college writing course, AP English Language and Composition
emphasizes the expository, analytical, and argumentative writing that forms the basis of academic and
professional communication as well as the personal and reflective writing that fosters the development
of writing facility in any context. As in the college course, the purpose of AP English Language and
Composition is to enable students to read complex texts with understanding and to write prose of
sufficient richness and complexity to communicate effectively with mature readers.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
Upon successful completion of the AP English Language and Composition course, students will be able
to do the following:
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analyze and interpret samples of good writing, identifying and explaining an author’s use of
rhetorical strategies and techniques.
apply effective strategies and techniques in their writing.
create and sustain argument based on readings, research, and/or personal experience.
demonstrate understanding and mastery of standard written English as well as stylistic maturity
in their own writings.
write for a variety of purposes.
produce expository, analytical, and argumentative compositions that introduce a complex idea
and develop it with appropriate evidence drawn from primary and/or secondary source material,
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cogent explanations, and clear transitions.
demonstrate understanding of the conventions of citing primary and secondary source material.
move effectively through the stages of the writing process, with careful attention to inquiry and
research, drafting, revising, editing, and review.
write thoughtfully about their own process of composition.
revise a work to make it suitable for a different audience.
analyze image as text.
evaluate and incorporate reference documents into researched papers.
REQUIREMENTS
Attendance and Participation
Students are expected to arrive on time to class and be prepared to participate in discussion and
activities related to reading and writing assignments. Excessive absences and/or tardies will result in a
loss of credit for the course. Explicit BISD tardy and absence policies are also included in the school
district’s handbook.
Assignments
Students are expected to thoughtfully complete all assignments, projects and other associated classwork
in a timely manner. Some assignments are specifically geared toward sharpening a skill or to prepare
students for a larger assessment—these assignments may not be graded. Students absent on the due
date of an assignment are responsible for submitting the work. Late work will be heavily penalized.
In the best interest of presenting a coherent curriculum, the readings, multimedia works, and
assignments listed on this syllabus are subject to change.
In any case, students should assume considerable responsibility for the amount of reading and
writing they do.
Class Supplies
Students are expected to bring all appropriate texts to class each day. Additionally, students will keep a
binder detailing their progress throughout the year. This binder will contain all graded assignments and
reading materials. Students are also expected to bring their mainstay supplies—pens, paper,
highlighters, etc.—to class each day.
Advanced Placement Examination
Each AP course has a corresponding exam that participating schools worldwide administer in May. AP
Exams represent the culmination of AP courses and are thus an integral part of the AP program. As a
result, students enrolled in AP English Language and Composition are expected to take the
corresponding exam scheduled this year for 8 a.m. Friday, May 10, 2013.
Each student and parent/guardian must sign the Student Performance Contract acknowledging the
rigorous and purposeful expectations of student behavior in AP English Language and Composition.
Grading and Evaluation
Minor Assessments (daily work):
Major Assessments (exams):
TOTAL:
33%
67%
100%
COURSE OUTLINE
First Six Weeks--August 27 to October 5, 2012 (30 days)
Readings
Arthur Miller
The Crucible
“Are You Now or Were You Ever?”
Anne Bradstreet
“To My Dear and Loving Husband”
“Upon the Burning of Our House, July, 10, 1666”
“The Author to Her Book” from Religious Experiences
Nathaniel Hawthorne “Young Goodman Brown”
excerpt from The Scarlet Letter
John Steinbeck
“On Arthur Miller's Imprisonment”
Jonathan Edwards
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Interactive Reader (p. 13)
J. Ronald Oakley
“The Great Fear: McCarthy and the 'Witch-Hunt' of the 50s”
Ellen Goodman
“Putting in a Good Word for Guilt”, Readings for Writers (p. 462)
James Joyce
“Hell”, Readings for Writers (p. 34)
Image Grammar
“The Artists Rhythms: The Music of Parallel Structures”
(Chapter 3)
Patterns for College Writing
What Is Argumentation? (pp. 555-80)
Writing: A Guide for College and Beyond
Writing a Position Argument (p. 426)
How to Write a Position Argument (p. 460)
Everything's An Argument
Everything Is an Argument (pp. 3-42)
Arguments Based on Character--Ethos (pp. 40-62)
Multimedia
The Crucible (1996) dir. Nicholas Hynter
Assessments
 Four (4) SAT vocabulary quizzes
 Seven (7) assertion short writes: brief agreements/disagreements to statements made by
famous authors/speakers
 One (1) assertion essay, incorporating statements from famous writers in different time
periods
 Sentence and paragraph imitation exercises
 Rhetorical analysis exercises (visual and prose text)
 Two (2) timed writings: argumentative essays
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Rhetoric and style exam (multiple choice with essay questions)
Practice multiple-choice exercises (AP exam passages—pre-twentieth century prose)
Second Six Weeks--October 8 to November 16, 2012 (30 days)
Readings
Richard Matheson
I Am Legend
Edgar Allan Poe
“The Raven”
Stephen King
excerpt from Danse Macabre
Max Brooks
“LaMOEs” excerpt from World War Z
Norimitsu Onishi
“In the Heart of Africa, Darkness”
Albert Camus
“The Myth of Sisyphus”
Daniel Defoe
excerpt from Journal of the Plague Year
Image Grammar
“The Artist’s Special Effects: The Grammar-Meaning Connection”
(Chapter 5)
The Language of Composition
Synthesizing Source: Entering the Conversation (pp. 61-84)
Five Steps to a Five Synthesis” (pp. 189-204)
Everything's An Argument
Documenting Sources (pp. 549-81)
What Counts as Evidence (pp. 469-89)
Everyday Use
Rhetoric at Work and the Three Appeals (p. 34)
Systematic Invention Strategy III: The Enthymeme (p. 42)
Multimedia
The Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror: The Raven” (1990) dir. David Silverman
I Am Legend (2007) dir. Francis Lawrence
The Last Man on Earth (1964) dir. Unbaldo Ragona
Nosferatu (1927) dir. F.W. Murnau
I Am Legend (IDW Publishing, 1991)
Assessments
 Forty (40) dialectical journal entries
 Five (5) SAT vocabulary quizzes
 One (1) timed writing: argumentative essay
 Three (3) timed writings: synthesis essays
 Sentence and paragraph imitation exercises
 Rhetorical and contextual analysis exercises (prose text)
Third Six Weeks--November 26, 2012 to December 21, 2012 (20 days)
Readings
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby
“Winter Dreams”
H. L. Mencken
“The Great Gatsby”
Malcolm Cowley
“The Romance of Money”
John Henry Raleigh “F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby: Legendary Bases and
Allegorical Significances”
Jamieson Spencer
“The Greatness of The Great Gatsby”
David F. Trask
“The End of the American Dream”
Victor A. Doyno
“Patterns in The Great Gatsby”
Daniel J. Schneider
“Color-Symbolism in The Great Gatsby”
Cracking the AP English Language and Composition Exam
“Here's How It's Done” (p. 42)
“Giving It Another Try” (p. 48)
Writing: A Guide for College and Beyond
Writing a Rhetorical Analysis (p. 236)
Everything's An Argument
Thinking Rhetorically (pp. 102-35)
Style in Arguments (pp. 369-91)
Multimedia
The Great Gatsby (1974) dir. Jack Clayton
The Sheik (1921) dir. George Melford
It (1927) dir. Clarence Badger
Assessments
 Five (5) SAT vocabulary quizzes
 Forty (40) dialectical journal entries
 Two (2) timed writings: rhetorical essays
 Three (3) assertion short writes
 Contextual analysis discussions
 Sentence and paragraph imitation exercises
 One (1) timed writing: synthesis essay
 One (1) timed writing: argumentative essay
 Practice multiple-choice exercises (AP exam passages)
Fourth Six Weeks—January 8 to February 22, 2013 (34 days)
Readings
Zora Neale Hurston Their Eyes Were Watching God
Marjane Satrapi
Persepolis
bell hooks
“The Significance of Feminist Movement”
Christine de Pizan
“Epistle to the God of Love”
Judy Brady
“I Want a Wife”
Simone de Beauvoir “Woman: Myth and Reality”
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
“Pernicious Effects Which Arise from the Unnatural Distinctions
Established in Society”
Edna St. Vincent Millay
“I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed”
Virginia Woolf
“Shakespeare's Sister”
Katha Pollitt
“Why Boys Don't Play With Dolls”
Scott Russell Sanders “The Men We Carry in Our Minds”
Geoffrey Chaucer
“The Wife of Bath's Tale”
Jamaica Kincaid
“Girl” Seeing and Writing 3 (p. 340)
Kathleen Ann Gonzalez
“That Was Living”
Sojourner Truth
“And Ain't I a Woman?”
Anna Quindlen
“Between the Sexes, A Great Divide”
Everything's An Argument
Arguments of Definition (pp. 217-40)
Arguments of Fact (pp. 174-210)
The Prentice Hall Reader
Argument and Persuasion (pp. 473-93)
Gathering and Using Evidence (pp. 61-77)
Multimedia
Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005) dir. Darnell Martin
Persepolis (2007) dir. Vincent Paronnaud
Assessments
 Three (3) SAT vocabulary quizzes
 Five (5) assertion short writes
 Fifty (50) dialectical journal entries
 Two (2) timed writings: rhetorical essays
 Sentence and paragraph imitation exercises
 Two (2) timed writings: argumentative essays
 Two (2) timed writings: synthesis essays (visual and prose texts)
 Practice multiple-choice exercises (AP exam passages)
 One (1) complete AP English Language and Composition practice exam
Fifth Six Weeks—February 25 to April 19, 2013 (33 days)
Readings
Yann Martel
Life of Pi
Mark Twain
excerpt from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
Søren Kierkegaard excerpt from The Sickness Unto Death
the Holy Qu'ran
“The Night Journey”
The Vedas
Katha Upanishad
Kena Upanishad
Isa Upanishad
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
“Clothes”
John Donne
“No Man Is an Island”
F. Scott Fitzgerald
“The Crack-Up”
Junichio Tanizaki
“In Praise of Shadows”
Ted Koppel
“Take My Privacy, Please!” (Writing: A Guide for College and
Beyond, p. 430)
Everything's An Argument
Arguments from the Heart--Pathos (pp. 45-58)
Arguments Based on Facts and Logic--Logos (pp. 78-100)
Visual Arguments (pp. 411-38)
Multimedia
Cast Away (2000) dir. Robert Zemeckis
“Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite” from 2001: A Space Odyssey (dir. Stanley Kubrick)
“Echoes” (Waters/Mason/Gilmour/Wright)
“In Limbo” (Yorke)
Assessments
 Fifty (50) dialectical journal entries
 Two (2) rhetorical essays
 Two (2) synthesis essays
 Two (2) argumentative essays
 Contextual analysis discussions
 Sentence and paragraph imitation exercises
 Practice multiple-choice exercises (AP exam passages)
 Two (2) complete AP English Language and Composition practice exam
Sixth Six Weeks –April 22 to June, 5. 2013
Readings
Antoine de Saint-Éxupery
The Little Prince
Aristotle
“The Aim of Man”
Stephen Jay Gould “Nonmoral Nature”
Mark Twain
“The Story of the Good Little Boy”
St. Augustine
excerpts from The Confessions of St. Augustine
The Bedford Introduction to Literature
Literary History Criticism (p. 2040)
New Historicist Criticism (p. 2042)
Cultural Criticism (p. 2043)
Gay and Lesbian Criticism (p. 2045)
Deconstructionist Strategies (p. 2050)
Strategies for Writing Essay Exams (p. 2118)
Everything's An Argument
Causal Arguments (pp. 285-323)
Evaluations (pp. 250-281)
Multimedia
K-PAX (2001) dir. Iain Softley
The Little Prince (1974) dir. Stanley Donen
Assessments
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Fifty (50) dialectical journal entries
Five (5) assertion short writes
Two (2) rhetorical essays and two (2) synthesis essays
Contextual analysis discussions
Two (2) argumentative essays
Sentence and paragraph imitation exercises
Critical Thinking Concepts for AP Language & Composition
Remember
Close Reading
Reading Strategies
annotation
determining Audience
determining Author’s Purpose
determining Fact and Opinion
determining Main Idea
generalization
inference
paraphrase
prediction
seminar/discussion
summary
Literary Elements
archetype
character
journey of the hero
setting
character
antagonist/protagonist
dynamic/static
epiphany
flat/round
foil
motivation
stock
detail
diction
connotation
denotation
dialect
euphemism
idiom
vocabulary
imagery
mood
plot
conflict
flashback
foreshadowing
suspense
point of view
person
perspective
shift
rhetorical shift
setting
style
theme
tone
(tone determined through:
diction, imagery, detail,
point of view, and syntax)
tone shift
multiple tones
vocabulary associated with tone
Understand
Apply
Analyze
Grammar
Mechanics
capitalization
punctuation
spelling
Usage
direct/indirect objects
predicate nominatives/adjectives
pronoun/antecedent agreement
subject/verb agreement
use of subjective and objective
pronouns
Phrases
absolute
appositive
gerund
infinitive
participial
prepositional
Clauses
dependent/subordinate
independent
Sentences
purpose
declarative
exclamatory
imperative
interrogative
structure
antithetical
balanced
complex
compound
compound-complex
loose/cumulative
periodic
simple
Syntax Techniques
anthimeria
antithesis
asyndeton
juxtaposition
litote
omission
asyndeton
ellipsis
parallelism
polysyndeton
repetition
anadiplosis
anaphora
epanalepsis
Evaluate
Create
Composition
Types (modes)
descriptive
expository
analytical
cause/effect
classification
comparison/contrast
definition
illustration
process
research-based
documentation
narrative
persuasive (argumentation)
challenge
deductive/inductive reasoning
defend
persuasive appeals
emotional
ethical
logical
qualify
request
Multiple Mode
expressive
imaginative
personal
Process of Composition
Prewriting
consideration of audience
determination of purpose
generation of ideas
organization of ideas
selection of topic
Drafting
extended time
timed
Revision of Multiple Drafts
concision
content
organization
precise diction
sentence variety
usage
Editing
mechanics
sentence structure
usage
Structural Elements
Introduction
thesis
verisimilitude
Figures of Speech (Figurative
Language)
apostrophe
metaphor
extended/controlling
metonymy
oxymoron
paradox
personification
pun (paronomasia)
simile
epic (Homeric)
synecdoche
Sound Devices
alliteration
assonance
consonance
meter
onomatopoeia
rhyme
rhythm
Literary Techniques
allusion
historical
literary
mythological
antithesis
argumentation
cause/effect
classification
comparison/contrast
deductive/inductive
reasoning
emotional appeals
ethical appeals
logical appeals
characterization
direct
indirect
dialogue
hyperbole
irony
dramatic
situational
verbal
sarcasm
motif
satire
symbolism
understatement
Literary Forms
drama
Aristotle’s rules for tragedy
catharsis
dramatic unities
epistophe
antanaclasis
reversal
antimetabole
chiasmus
inverted order (inversion)
anastrophe
rhetorical fragment
rhetorical question
zeugma
Analysis of a Text
meaning and effect related to
parts of speech, phrases,
clauses, sentences, and
syntax
rhetorical analysis focused on
syntax
Body
Incorporation of quotes
topic sentence
use of commentary
use of evidence
Conclusion
Organization
patterns (spatial, order of importance,
chronological, etc.)
transitions
Style/Voice
active/passive voice
conscious manipulation of sentence
patterns
coordination/subordination
deliberate manipulation ofpoint of view
experimentation with original forms
and structures
experimentation with sentence variety
imitation of stylistic models
(beyond sentences)
less/no formulaic writing
selection of detail
selection of vocabulary
tone shifts
use of figures of speech (figurative
language)
use of literary elements
use of literary techniques
use of sound devices
use of various sentence openings
Use of Technology
word processing/typing
presentation software
multimedia presentation creation
video/audio creator
Elements of Research
ethics of research
evaluation of sources
reading of introductory level
literary criticism
use of print sources
use of the internet
hamartia (character weakness)
hubris
recognition
reversal
fiction
nonfiction
verse