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AP Language ExamStudy SessionGeneral Agenda

• Part 1: Ice Breaker, Basic Test Information, and Multiple Choice Sprint 1 & 2 (9-9:50, 1-1:50)• Part 2: Synthesis Essay and Analysis Essay Practice (10-11:40, 2-3:40)• Part 3: Argumentative Essay Practice (11:50-12:30, 3:50-4:30)

Basic Test Information• Score release date: July 8th at 8 A.M.• Section I: Multiple Choice Tips

• Examine passages and begin with easiest to most challenging.

• Do not leave any unanswered questions; there is no penalty for guessing.

• Learn about the passage’s main idea/purpose through the repeated information presented in the questions. Notice a pattern of ideas presented in the questions.

• Section II: Free Response• Examine the prompts and texts provided then begin with the

least challenging to most challenging.• You are free to use the 15-minute reading period to begin

writing your essays. This is not clear in the proctor instructions. When you arrive to your testing site, clarify this issue with the proctor before instructions are given.

• Suggested: Use the 15-minute reading period to plan for the Synthesis Essay. (We’ll practice this with practical steps later!)

Name:AP LANGUAGE & COMPOSITION

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Multiple Choice Question Types

For the multiple-choice section of the test, you will have 1 hour to answer between 45 and 60 questions on four to five texts. There are six question types that you will encounter. The MC questions center on form and content. You are expected to understand meaning, draw inferences, and understand how an author develops his or her ideas.

1. The straightforward question:• The passage is an example of…

A. a compare/contrast essay• The pronoun “it” refers to

A. his guilt2. The question that refers you to specific lines and asks you to draw a conclusion or interpret:

• Lines 25-52 serve toA. reinforce the author’s thesis

3. The ALL… EXCEPT question requires more time, because it demands that you consider every possibility:• The essay develops all of the following themes except

A. ambiguity 4. The question that asks you to make an inference or to abstract a concept not directly stated in the passage:

• In “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” the reader can infer that the speaker isA. religious

5. The roman numeral question:• In the passage, “night” refers to

I. the death of the young womanII.a pun on Sir William’s titleIII.the end of the affair

A. I onlyB. I and IIC. I and IIID. II and IIIE. I, II, and III

6. The footnote question challenge you to analyze the sources of certain information and their credibility:• The purpose of footnote 1 is to inform the reader that the quotation in line 10

A. is from a book written by O’Neil, Carter, and Jackson and published in 1994.

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Preface to the English Dictionary (1755)Samuel Johnson

It is the fate of those who toil at the lower employ-ments of life, to be rather driven by the fear of evil, than attracted by the prospect of good; to be exposedto censure; without hope of praise; to be disgraced bymiscarriage, or punished for neglect, where successwould have been without applause, and diligencewithout reward. Among these unhappy mortals is the writer ofdictionaries; whom mankind have considered, not asthe pupil, but the slave of science, the pionier of litera-ture, doomed only to remove rubbish and clear obstruc-tions from the paths of Learning and Genius, who pressforward to conquest and glory, without bestowing asmile on the humble drudge that facilitates their pro-gress. Every other author may aspire to praise; thelexicographer can only hope to escape reproach, andeven this negative recompense has been yet grantedto very few. I have, notwithstanding this discouragement,attempted a dictionary of the English language, which,while it was employed in the cultivation of every speciesof literature, has itself been hitherto neglected, sufferedto spread, under the direction of chance, into wild exu-berance, resigned to the tyranny of time and fashion,and exposed to the corruptions of ignorance, andcaprices of innovation. …………………………………………………………. In this work, when it shall be found that much isomitted, let it not be forgotten that much likewise isperformed; and though no book was ever spared outof tenderness to the author, and the world is little solici-

tous to know whence proceeded the faults of that whichit condemns; yet it may gratify curiosity to inform it,that the English Dictionary was written with little assis-tance of the learned, and without any patronage of thegreat; not in the soft obscurities of retirement, or underthe shelter of academic bowers, but amidst inconve-nience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow; andit may repress the triumph of malignant criticism toobserve, that if our language is not here fully displayed,I have only failed in an attempt which no human powershave hitherto completed. If the lexicons of ancienttongues, now immutably fixed, and comprised in afew volumes, be yet, after the toil of successive ages,inadequate and delusive; if the aggregated knowledge,and cooperating diligence of the Italian academicians,did not secure them from the censure of Beni, if the em-bodied criticks of France, when fifty year had beenspent upon their work, were obliged to change iteconomy, and give their second edition another form,I may surely be contented without the praise of perfec-tion, which, if I obtain, in this gloom of solitude,what would it avail me? I have protracted my work tillmost of those whim I wished to please have sunk intothe grave, and success and miscarriage are empty sounds:I therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquility, having littleto fear or hope from censure or from praise.

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Multiple Choice “Sprint” 1

Reading RhetoricallyWhat is this text doing?

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5Source: D. Fettrow

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from The End of Education (1995)Neil Postman

It is important to keep in mind that theengineering of learning is very often puffed up,assigned an importance it does not deserve. As an oldsaying goes, There are one and twenty ways to sing triballays, and all of them are correct. So it is with learning.There is no one who can say that this or that is the bestway to know things, to feel things, to see things, toremember things, to apply things, to connect thingsand that no other will do as well. In fact, to makesuch a claim is to trivialize learning, to reduce it to amechanical skill. Of course, there are many learnings that are littleelse but mechanical skill, and in such cases, therewell may be a best way. But to become a differentperson because of something you have learned--toappropriate an insight, a concept, a vision, so thatyour world is altered--that is a different matter. Forthat to happen, you need a reason. And this is the metaphysical problem I speak of. A reason, as I use the word here, is different from amotivation. Within the context of schooling, motivation refers to a temporary psychic event in which curiosityis aroused and attention is focused. I do not mean to disparage it. But it must not be confused with a reasonfor being in a classroom, for listening to a teacher,for taking an examination, for doing homework, forputting up with school even if you are not motivated. This kind of reason is somewhat abstract, notalways present in one’s consciousness, not at all easy todescribe. And yet for all that, without it schooling doesnot work. For school to make sense, the young, their

parents, and their teachers must have a god to serve,or, even better, several gods. If they have none, schoolis pointless. Nietzsche’s famous aphorism is relevanthere: “He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.” This applies as much to learning as to living. To put it simply, there is no surer way to bring anend to schooling than for it to have no end.

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Multiple Choice “Sprint” 2

Reading RhetoricallyHow does this work consistently exist in conversation with itself?

Examine how it “funnels” towards its essential terms and message.

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1. The “engineering of learning” (line 2) most nearly meansA. assessment of content masteryB. development of schoolsC. educational methodologyD. construction of knowledgeE. purpose of education

3. In the context and structure of the excerpt, the first paragraphA. serves to establish the faulty logic of limited teaching

practice B. provides a catalogue rooted in individualismC. criticizes the self-important view held by educatorsD. methodically defines key concepts, such as learning, that

are later elaboratedE. equates formal education to a primal, naturalistic aspect of

human nature

2. The series of infinitives in the initial paragraph emphasizes that the learning process isA. long and tediousB. multifaceted C. active and variedD. difficult and trivialE. mechanical and complicated

4. According to the author, the motivation isA. inconsequentialB. synonymous with reasonC. abstract and fleetingD. momentary and concreteE. metaphysical and enduring

5. Both of the first and third paragraphs containA. aphorisms elegantly unpacked through elaborationB. ironic statements that establish important shifts in the

argumentC. syllogistic reasoning founded on the purpose of learningD. counterarguments from critics of the author’s perspectiveE. notable parallelism that balance the actions of learners

6. In line 32, “god” most nearly meansA. religionB. reasonC. deityD. understandingE. Nietzche

7. The author employs the argument from authority asA. a contrast to his point of viewB. a relevant, concrete exampleC. an apt analogyD. an example of cause and effectE. an illustration of the cruelty in schools

8. The paradox in the final sentence rests onA. different meanings of “end”B. a crass simplificationC. the comparison between schooling and learningD. the innate, unending cycle of human learningE. a new way of bringing schooling to an end

Source: Developed based on material from Cracking the AP English Language and Composition Exam.

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The Synthesis Essay

On the intention of the synthesis essay:1. “This question was intended to elicit students’ performance of several skills in combination: critical reading of the six sources, synthesis of information and

perspectives drawn from three or more of the sources, construction and articulation of a source-informed argument evaluating the worth of college, and accurate citation of sources.”

2. “This question, more than some of the synthesis questions from years past, invited students to augment the sources by drawing from their own experience and observations of college costs, educational and social opportunities, and financial as well as other outcomes.”

3. “In ‘using’ the sources to ‘develop’ their arguments, students were not constrained to use sources only as support. In addition to providing support, for instance, sources could provoke an argument or offer opposing positions that students could consider and respond to in refining their own arguments.”

4. “The prompt also directed students to make their own arguments the focus of their essays. That is, they were expected to use the sources to develop their own arguments, not to summarize or interpret the arguments in the sources as ends in themselves, nor to agree or disagree with one or more of the sources. Because their own arguments were to be central to their essays, students needed to explain their reasoning as they encountered the sources and constructed their arguments.”

The following comments on the 2014 free-response questions for AP® English Language and Composition were written by the Chief Reader, Mary Trachsel, University of Iowa. They give an overview of each free-response question and describe how students performed on the question,including typical student errors.

On low-scoring responses:• “Another type of low-scoring essay offered what the synthesis question leader described as “a long-winded source tour.” These responses were often

lengthened by extensive quotation and paraphrase but took the form of source reports rather than source-based arguments. The student writers of these essays did not synthesize the sources, but rather summarized them individually, offering each summary or quotation as a separate piece of evidence to support a chosen response to the question: Is college worth its costs?”

On successful responses:• “Successful responses to the synthesis prompt were firmly grounded in careful reading and collective interpretation of the sources, and some especially

successful essays coupled reasoned responses to the sources with emotional investment in the argument. • “Students who read well generally do well on the synthesis essay… Students should practice reading rhetorically — asking what intentions motivate the writer

or speaker to produce the text, and reflectively — asking how they themselves respond to the text and why they respond as they do.”

Question 1(Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts for one-third of the total essay section score.)

Many recent college graduates have faced record levels of unemployment. This situation has led people to question what they value about higher education. Some high school students and their parents are wondering if a college education is worth the cost. Others, however, believe that a college education prepares students for more than just a job or career. Carefully read the following six sources, including the introductory information for each source. Then synthesize information from at least three of the sources and incorporate it into a coherent, well-developed essay that evaluates whether college is worth its cost. Your argument should be the focus of your essay. Use the sources to develop your argument and explain the reasoning for it. Avoid merely summarizing the sources. Indicate clearly which sources you are drawing from, whether through direct quotation, paraphrase, or summary. You may cite the sources as Source A, Source B, etc., or by using the descriptions in parentheses.

Source A (Crawford) SourceD (Leonhardt)Source B (Roth) Source E (Wieder)Source C (chart) Source F (Pew)

Question 1 - 2014

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Question 1 - 2014 - Student Example - 8

Reading RhetoricallyHow does the essay convey its view explicitly

as well as implicitly?

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Planning for the Synthesis Essay

When entering into a high-stress situation in which you must perform a complex task, having a methodized way of responding or behaving is essential. The following process is not required for success, but will provide a structured method to help you respond to the synthesis essay prompt.

APPR2

• Audience: What basic background information and definitions does the audience need to know?

• Purpose: What is the purpose of your writing? • Position: What is your position (thesis) that you intend to defend?• Reasoning: How will you logically develop your position? Include at

least 2 lines of reasoning (cause/effect, compare/contrast), or elaborated, concrete examples.

Notes & Quotes • After establishing APPR2, assign numbers to your individual points of

reasoning. • Then, mark information in the texts as you read. This will efficiently

use your reading to develop a bank of usable information ready for the picking when you go to write the essay.

• Create a crude outline, simply listing your individual points of reasoning with your intended sources listed below. This prevents you from having to re-skim through your texts for your evidence during the writing process. You want to interrupt the writing process as little as possible so you can focus on clear, structured writing.

• Ideally, you would do this during the 15-minute reading period.

1. What context did the essay have to provide? 2. Identify the function of each paragraph & how they fit into larger purpose 3. Examine the “freshness of expression” 4. Examine use of sources (how do sources function in the work?)5. Identify the essay’s position & its lines of reasoning

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The following is excerpted from an online editorial in a national newspaper.

It’s time to take . . . a look at how Singapore’s transportation policymakers deal with the tyranny of the automobile. Start with Singapore’s general approach to every policy issue. The overarching premise is that the government intends to run the country with a business-driven perspective. That’s an idea you’d think would appeal to President Bush, America’s first MBA chief executive. . . . So what is it that the Singaporean government has crafted as its comprehensive policy approach to the auto? The first thing you need to know is, if you want to buy a car in Singapore, you first must buy a permit to buy a car. . . . The current price is roughly $10,000 for a midsize car. And here’s the policy kicker: The money goes into supporting an efficient, highly developed mass transit system, which today handles about 4 million rides per day, compared with 3 million daily private auto trips. Taxes are the other energy-conserving measure adopted by the Singaporean government. In particular, car buyers pay an annual tax that specifically punishes high-powered, gas-guzzling engines. But for every stick there’s a carrot: The government awards a lump sum tax rebate of 40% of the price of a vehicle to Singaporeans who opt for hybrids. As any public policy wonk will tell you, tax policy is public policy. In the case of Singapore, the policy message is clear: Gasoline is scarce and expensive—and likely only to become more so. Tax policies that encourage conservation and punish waste just make sense. . . . These are just a few of the thoughtfully aligned policy incentives adopted in Singapore. More important, perhaps, Singapore is only one of many places in the world that is making energy conservation and auto management a priority. Just as globalization has made American companies learn from other businesses around the world, so the opportunity exists for mayors, governors and even members of Congress and White House officials to learn from more advanced, more adventurous nations.

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The following is excerpted from an online article about the United States going green.

The buzzword for the environmentally conscious is "green". Environmentalists want Americans to believe that green is good and that every other way to live will condemn humanity, and indeed all of nature into an existence that makes Hades look like Club Med. At the same time, industrialists are clamoring to get out the word that the earth is so resilient that eating coal dust is essential for a long and healthy life. The answer is likely somewhere in the middle. Moderates understand the value of good stewardship of our natural resources, but they also understand that the conversion process takes time and comes with some hefty price tags. Here are three benefits to the United States choosing to "Go Green" and three drawbacks that must be considered in any plan to do so.

The Good • Learning to use our natural resources with respect to how finite they are will serve future generations and prolong the amount of time that the

earth will continue to sustain life. No matter how you view the world's resources, the one thing everyone can agree on is that natural resources do not exist in limitless supplies.

• Creating new environmentally friendly products and refitting the world with such items will create jobs. Jobs in new technology sectors have traditionally been high paying. Going green is good for workers, and therefore good for the economy.

• Necessity is the mother of invention. When laws limit people, human ingenuity finds its foothold and invention takes the place of convention. With the introduction of new laws that force companies to find green alternatives come up with inventive plans that increase productivity, quality, and in some cases even revolutionize the way we do things.

The Bad • While going green may be good for the long-term economy, companies are the ones who must shoulder the financial burden of unsure

investments. That which looks possible from the outset is often mired in more hoopla and expense than it is in reality. When companies lose money on such investments, workers lose jobs, companies go under, and the economy crumbles.

• Going green eats up time for productivity. In the 1970's nearly every juice bottle, pop can, and newspaper found its way into a landfill. Today, people stop for an extra few seconds or minutes to separate recyclables from true garbage. While it's arguably good for the environment, the fact is that 3 minutes per week over 300 million citizens take up 7,800,000,000 man-hours of time per year. The smallest bits of time taken to go green, when spread out over the whole of the citizenry will adversely affect the gross national product.

• When new industries grab a foothold, old industries will fall by the wayside, causing an avalanche of job loss, financial hardship, and in some cases catastrophic poverty. Imagine if every oil-producing nation was suddenly left without any viable resources because the world suddenly switched to another form of energy. Those people are our trading partners. The world has gone global. To destroy an industry in a developing nation now costs us money and jobs here in the United States.

The Truth In the long term, going green is a Utopian ideal to which we must aspire if life is to continue on this planet. However in doing so we must also leave as small a footprint on humanity as we are able. Incentives for invention are worthwhile. Penalties for overindulgence are worthwhile. It is more important that society train itself in the mindset of good stewardship than it is that the electric car obliterate the need for oil inside of 10 years. The truth of consummation is that humans will always consume natural resources. We do so at a lower rate per capita today than we did in the 1970s and that trend is continuing. It is better that the trend continue than that humans ever find a single solution that allows us to indulge our whims without a requirement of stewardship. May you enjoy a rainbow of environmental possibilities, the color green among them.

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The following is excerpted from an online article in a national newspaper.

Few things are more appealing in politics than something for nothing. As Congress begins considering anti-global- warming legislation, environmentalists hold out precisely that tantalizing prospect: We can conquer global warming at virtually no cost. Here’s a typical claim, from the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF): “For about a dime a day [per person], we can solve climate change, invest in a clean energy future, and save billions in imported oil.” This sounds too good to be true, because it is. . . . The claims of the Environmental Defense Fund and other environmentalists . . . rely on economic simulations by “general equilibrium” models. An Environmental Protection Agency study put the cost as low as $98 per household a year, because high energy prices are partly offset by government rebates. With 2.5 people in the average household, that’s roughly 11 cents a day per person. The trouble is that these models embody wildly unrealistic assumptions: There are no business cycles; the economy is always at “full employment”; strong growth is assumed, based on past growth rates; the economy automatically accommodates major changes—if fossil fuel prices rise (as they would under anti-global-warming laws), consumers quickly use less and new supplies of “clean energy” magically materialize. There’s no problem and costs are low, because the models say so. But the real world, of course, is different. . . . Countless practical difficulties would arise in trying to wean the U.S. economy from today’s fossil fuels. One estimate done by economists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that meeting most transportation needs in 2050 with locally produced biofuels would require “500 million acres of U.S. land—more than the total of current U.S. cropland.” America would have to become a net food importer. . . . The selling of the green economy involves much economic make-believe. Environmentalists not only maximize the dangers of global warming—from rising sea levels to advancing tropical diseases—they also minimize the costs of dealing with it. Actually, no one involved in this debate really knows what the consequences or costs might be. All are inferred from models of uncertain reliability.

The following is excerpted from a book about the need for a green revolution.

America has a problem and the world has a problem. America’s problem is that it has lost its way in recent years— partly because of 9/11 and partly because of the bad habits that we have let build up over the last three decades, bad habits that have weakened our society’s ability and willingness to take on big challenges. The world also has a problem: It is getting hot, flat, and crowded. That is, global warming, the stunning rise of middle classes all over the world, and rapid population growth have converged in a way that could make our planet dangerously unstable. In particular, the convergence of hot, flat, and crowded is tightening energy supplies, intensifying the extinction of plants and animals, deepening energy poverty, strengthening petro-dictatorship, and accelerating climate change. How we address these interwoven global trends will determine a lot about the quality of life on earth in the twenty-first century. I am convinced that the best way for America to solve its big problem—the best way for America to get its “groove” back—is for us to take the lead in solving the world’s big problem. In a world that is getting hot, flat, and crowded, the task of creating the tools, systems, energy sources, and ethics that will allow the planet to grow in cleaner, more sustainable ways is going to be the biggest challenge of our lifetime. But this challenge is actually an opportunity for America. If we take it on, it will revive America at home, reconnect America abroad, and retool America for tomorrow. America is always at its most powerful and most influential when it is combining innovation and inspiration, wealth-building and dignity-building, the quest for big profits and the tackling of big problems. When we do just one, we are less than the sum of our parts. When we do both, we are greater than the sum of our parts—much greater.

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The following is excerpted from a Web site published by the United States Department of Energy.

Did you know that the typical U.S. family spends about $1,900 a year on home utility bills? Unfortunately, a large portion of that energy is wasted. And each year, electricity generated by fossil fuels for a single home puts more carbon dioxide into the air than two average cars. And as for the road, transportation accounts for 67% of all U.S. oil consumption. The good news is that there is a lot you can do to save energy and money at home and in your car. Start making small changes today.

• Install a programmable thermostat to keep your house comfortably warm in the winter and comfortably cool in the summer.

• Use compact fluorescent light bulbs with the ENERGY STAR® label.

• Air dry dishes instead of using your dishwasher’s drying cycle.

• Turn off your computer and monitor when not in use.

• Plug home electronics, such as TVs and DVD players, into power strips; turn the power strips off when the equipment is not in use (TVs and DVDs in standby mode still use several watts of power).

• Lower the thermostat on your hot water heater to 120°F.

• Take short showers instead of baths.

• Wash only full loads of dishes and clothes.

• Drive sensibly. Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration and braking) wastes gasoline.

The following is excerpted from an article on the results of polls on environmental awareness conducted in 2007.

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The Analysis Essay

The following comments on the 2014 free-response questions for AP® English Language and Composition were written by the Chief Reader, Mary Trachsel, University of Iowa. They give an overview of each free-response question and describe how students performed on the question,including typical student errors.

On low-scoring responses:• “Less successful students sometimes attempted a literary analysis of the passage, focusing on it repetitions, metaphors, and allusions without

recognizing the rhetorical purposes behind those structures. This was especially true of the discussion of Adams’ use of the river metaphor.”• “Some students wrote perfectly sound interpretations of what the metaphor meant, yet failed to explain the effect the metaphor might have had on John

Quincy Adams, Abigail’s audience and the object of her attempted persuasion.” • “Other students who had a general grasp of Adams’ rhetorical strategies in the letter turned to a mere listing or description of these strategies without

connecting them to her purpose.”• “Occasionally students presented a full lexicon of clearly described rhetorical terminology without taking the essential next step of analyzing how

those elements functioned as parts of a persuasive strategy in the particular context of Adams’ letter.”• “Finally, some of the least successful students resorted to mere summary of Adams’ assertions.”

On successful responses:• “...many of the best essays didn’t use the terminology of rhetorical tropes, not even the popular ethos, logos, and pathos. Instead, the student writers of

these successful analyses demonstrated and clearly articulated a conceptual understanding of rhetorical strategies used in an effort to bring about a particular effect or purpose on a particular audience in a particular rhetorical situation.”

• “Stronger essays usually demonstrated a more holistic understanding of the letter in its entirety. These essays identified at least three strategies and explained their interaction in the service of Abigail Adams’ larger purpose of reconciling John Quincy Adams to his journey and advising him to embrace it as a means of moral and intellectual growth.”

• “Some very strong essays, however, were able to develop full, cogent analyses focused on just two of the strategies, but those usually chose two that were representative of the larger range and developed their analyses with particular fullness.”

Planning for the Analysis Essay

Just as you need a methodology, some sort of structured approach, for the synthesis essay, the same applies for the analysis essay. See below:

AP MEME• Author: Who? Credibility? Bias?• Purpose: What are they trying to achieve with the writing?• Macro-Execution: How does the author achieve the purpose through holistic structure/organization?

• Look at: purposes of each paragraph, how paragraphs connect/relate, compare/contrast, cause/effect, narrative, etc… • Micro-Execution: Which specific rhetorical strategies/literary devices are used in conjunction with the larger structure to

achieve the purpose? • Look at: how individual devices function within larger structure; certain structures lend themselves to certain devices/

strategies so be on the look out

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Analysis Essay Practice Prompt #1

Reading RhetoricallyConsider how the essay situates its argument and

criticism in the audience’s life experience.

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Analysis Essay Practice Prompt #2

Conducting, like politics, rarely attracts original minds, and the field is more for the making of careers and the exploitation of personalities--another resemblance to politics--than a profession for the application of exact and standardized disciplines. A conductor may actually be less well equipped for his work than his players, but no one except the players need know it, and his career is not dependent on them in any case, but on the society women (including critics) to whom his musical qualities are of secondary importance. The successful conductor can be an incomplete musician, but he must be a compleat angler. His first skill has to be power politics. In such people the incidence of ego disease is naturally high to begin with, and I hardly need add that the disease grows like a tropical weed under the sun of a pandering public. The results are that the conductor is encouraged to impose a purely egotistical, false, and arbitrary authority, and that he is accorded a position out of all proportion to his real value in the musical, as opposed to the music-business, community. He soon becomes a “great” conductor, in fact, or as the press agent of one of them recently wrote me, a “titan of the podium,” and as such is very nearly the worst obstacle to genuine music-making. “Great” conductors, like “great” actors, are unable to play anything but themselves; being unable to adapt themselves to the work, they adapt the work to themselves, to their “style,” their mannerisms. The cult of the “great” conductor also tends to substitute looking for listening, so that to conductor and audience alike (and to reviewers who habitually fall into the trap of describing a

conductor’s appearance rather than the way he makes music sound, and of mistaking the conductor’s gestures for the music’s meaning), the important part of the performance becomes the gesture. If you are incapable of listening, the conductor will show you what to feel. Thus, the film-actor type of conductor will act out a life of Napoleon in “his” Eroica1, wear an expression of noble suffering on the retreat from Moscow (TV having circumvented the comparatively merciful limitation to the dorsal view) and one of ultimate triumph in the last movement, during which he even dances the Victory Ball. If you are unable to listen to the music, you watch the corybantics,2 and if you are able, you had better not go to the concert.

1Beethoven’s Third Symphony, originally dedicated to Napoleon

2Wild, frenzied dancing

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Question 2

In the following passage, the composer Igor Stravinsky discusses orchestra conductors. In a well-organized essay, analyze the language and the rhetorical strategies Stravinsky employs to convey his perspective on orchestra conductors.

Reading RhetoricallyHow does the essay use comparison to achieve

its purpose?

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The Argumentative Essay

The following comments on the 2014 free-response questions for AP® English Language and Composition were written by the Chief Reader, Mary Trachsel, University of Iowa. They give an overview of each free-response question and describe how students performed on the question,including typical student errors.

On low-scoring responses:• “They asserted a position without providing a supporting argument in the form of convincing evidence and a clear line of reasoning.”• “They offered evidence that was inaptly selected (e.g., a personal anecdote was used to illustrate an educational solution to urgent global

problems).”• “They offered evidence that was insufficiently developed (e.g., a glancing reference to teaching-to- the-test pedagogy without an account of

how students experience this pedagogy or how it affects their powers of creativity).”• “They failed to establish a clear, reasoned connection between the evidence they presented and the position they asserted.”

On successful responses:• Three successful forms of support included using a historic example, using personal narrative, and using a fictionalized narrative as

evidence; all three succeed because of the fullness with which they are developed through explanations and because of the steady focus of their reasoning.

• “The Question Leader Report offers the following explanation of the role played by reasoning in successful argument essays: Reasoning might include the following: considering or demonstrating the relevance or aptness of evidence in relation to a claim; being able to qualify a generalization; articulating a series of concessions and weighing the relative merits of each.”

• “A line of reasoning entails establishing a methodical, or step-by-step, approach to laying out the expression, organization, or sequence of ideas.”

• “Important hallmarks of reasoning would include being able to deploy well the logical relationships of cause/effect and contrast, among others.”

• “Another way in which argument essays achieved scores in the upper half of the 9-point scale was to deploy an aptly selected, extended, concrete example.”

Planning for the Argumentative Essay

Hey! Guess what? You’ll need some sort of structured response system for this essay, too. See below:

APPR2

• Audience: What basic background information and definitions does the audience need to know?• Purpose: What is the purpose of your writing? • Position: What is your position (thesis) that you intend to defend?• Reasoning: How will you logically develop your position? Include at least 2 lines of reasoning (cause/effect, compare/

contrast), or elaborated, concrete examples, extended examples.

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Prompt 1The first chapter of Ecclesiastes, a book of the Bible, concludes with these words: “For in much wisdom is much grief, and increase of knowledge is increase of sorrow.”Write a carefully reasoned argument that defends, challenges, or qualifies this assertion. Use evidence from your observation, experience, or reading to develop your position.

The Argumentative Essay “Sprint” Practice

Prompt 2Read carefully the passage below. Then write an essay in which you support, refute, or qualify the claim that a “neutral” stand on race perpetrates racial imbalance.

I am saying that sometimes colorblindness is racism.I know that sounds counterintuitive, but let me go on. Think of society as comprised of lots of differentgroups of people, identified by their race, gender, etc. Neutrality in our society is supposed to be the greatequalizer because we believe that, if we don’t favorany one group, things will work themselves out andbecome more equal. But the thing is this: neutrality hasthis effect only if there is no previous social or historicalcontext. But that’s not how the real world is. There is, infact, a social and historical context for every situation.So if I were being “neutral” and viewing everyone asbeing the same, ignoring personal contexts, I wouldn’tbe promoting equality because I would be ignoring thedifferences that exist and allowing the inequalities to continue to exist, given that I wouldn’t do anything tohelp change them. Identifying problems and activelypromoting solutions are necessary to effect usefulchange; being neutral is consenting to the status quo.

Prompt 3Author Voltaire wrote the satirical novella Candide and, despite controversy during his lifetime, is widely considered one of France's greatest Enlightenment writers. In one of his more famous aphorisms, Voltaire shares a general warning to political dissent: “It is dangerous to be right in matters about which the established authorities are wrong.”Write a carefully reasoned argument that defends, challenges, or qualifies this assertion. Use evidence from your observation, experience, or reading to develop your position.

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Prompt 4In “The Singer Solution to World Poverty,” an article that appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Peter Singer, a professor of bioethics, calls attention to the urgent need for food and medicine in many parts of the world. Singer argues that prosperous people should donate to overseas aid organizations such as UNICEF or Oxfam American all money not needed for the basic requirements of life. “The formula is simple: whatever money you’re spending on luxuries, not necessities, should be given away.” Write an essay in which you evaluate Singer’s argument. Use appropriate evidence as you examine the complexities of this proposal, and indicate your position.

The Argumentative Essay “Sprint” Practice

Prompt 5In his book The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, Ken Robinson presents his perspective on the American education system:

“Public schools were not only created in the interests of industrialism—they were created in the image of industrialism. In many ways, they reflect the factory culture they were designed to support. This is especially true in high schools, where school systems base education on the principles of the assembly line and the efficient division of labor. Schools divide the curriculum into specialist segments: some teachers install math in the students, and others install history. They arrange the day into standard units of time, marked out by the ringing of bells, much like a factory announcing the beginning of the workday and the end of breaks. Students are educated in batches, according to age, as if the most important thing they have in common is their date of manufacture. They are given standardized tests at set points and compared with each other before being sent out onto the market. I realize this isn’t an exact analogy and that it ignores many of the subtleties of the system, but it is close enough.”

Later on in his book, Robinson contrasts this industrialist view of education with an alternative: “We have to move to a model that is based more on principles of agriculture. We have to recognize that human flourishing is not a mechanical process; it's an organic process. And you cannot predict the outcome of human development. All you can do, like a farmer, is create the conditions under which they will begin to flourish.”

Using appropriate evidence from your reading, observation, or experience, write a carefully reasoned essay defending, challenging, or qualifying Robinson’s assertion about the American education system.