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AP English Language and Composition

One lesson for each of the course’s 72 topics, in the order the course teaches them. The first 3 units are free for everyone; the rest come with the AP English Language and Composition plan. Read a lesson, try its quick checks, then practice the topic with exam-style questions.

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Rhetorical Situation, Claims, and Evidence

Unit 1Free8 lessons
  1. 1.1Rhetorical Situation: ReadingIdentify and describe a text's rhetorical situation (writer, exigence, purpose, audience, context, message) using evidence from the passage itself.
  2. 1.2Rhetorical Situation: WritingMake writing choices that fit your own rhetorical situation, and answer revision questions about which change best serves a stated audience or goal.
  3. 1.3Claims and Evidence: ReadingPick out an argument's claims, name the kinds of evidence behind them, explain how each piece supports a claim, and tell the writer's views from the ones quoted.
  4. 1.4Claims and Evidence: WritingWrite a body paragraph built on a claim that needs defending, choose evidence that proves it, and work quotations, paraphrases, and summaries into your own sentences.
  5. 1.5Reasoning and Organization: ReadingExplain what each part of an argument does, from claim to anecdote to concession, and trace how the order of those parts leads a reader to the writer's point.
  6. 1.6Reasoning and Organization: WritingWrite commentary that explains how your evidence proves your claim, and order sentences and paragraphs so a reader can follow your reasoning to the thesis.
  7. 1.7Style: ReadingInfer a writer's tone from word choice, comparisons, and sentence structure, and explain how those style choices shape what readers think and feel.
  8. 1.8Style: WritingChoose words, comparisons, and sentences whose connotations fit your purpose and audience, and keep your tone consistent so readers trust your argument.

Audience and the Thesis

Unit 2Free8 lessons
  1. 2.1Rhetorical Situation: ReadingExplain how a writer's choices reveal what they assume the audience believes, values, and needs, and how ethos, pathos, and logos work on that audience.
  2. 2.2Rhetorical Situation: WritingWrite and revise arguments for a particular audience, choosing appeals, evidence, and tone that answer what those readers believe, value, and need.
  3. 2.3Claims and Evidence: ReadingExplain what each piece of evidence does in an argument, judge whether the evidence is enough, and find a writer's thesis even when it is never stated outright.
  4. 2.4Claims and Evidence: WritingTurn a collection of evidence into a defensible thesis, and write paragraphs that pair each claim with evidence chosen to be strong and sufficient for it.
  5. 2.5Reasoning and Organization: ReadingExplain why a writer arranges an argument the way they do for a particular audience, and what openings, analogies, questions and endings do in the reasoning.
  6. 2.6Reasoning and Organization: WritingTurn a pile of evidence into an ordered argument for a specific audience, build body paragraphs in a logical order, and decide what a draft should keep, cut, or move.
  7. 2.7Style: ReadingExplain how a writer's word choice, details, imagery and comparisons reveal an attitude and work on the audience's feelings and values, and name a tone precisely.
  8. 2.8Style: WritingChoose words, details, and comparisons that reach your audience's values and keep your credibility, and answer revision questions about diction, detail, and tone.

Lines of Reasoning and Methods of Development

Unit 3Free8 lessons
  1. 3.1Rhetorical Situation: ReadingExplain how a writer's audience and purpose decide where the claim appears and which method of development carries the argument, and answer purpose questions.
  2. 3.2Rhetorical Situation: WritingChoose where your claim goes and which method of development carries it based on who will read it, and answer revision questions about a draft's purpose and audience.
  3. 3.3Claims and Evidence: ReadingExplain how a writer's commentary links evidence to a claim, how a writer frames and uses other people's arguments, and why attribution matters to a reader.
  4. 3.4Claims and Evidence: WritingWrite body paragraphs whose commentary makes the link between evidence and claim explicit, and integrate and cite several sources as a synthesis essay requires.
  5. 3.5Reasoning and Organization: ReadingRecognize narration, cause-effect, and other methods of development, explain what each does for an argument, and find the step where a line of reasoning fails.
  6. 3.6Reasoning and Organization: WritingChoose the method of development your claim needs, write narration and cause-effect that actually argue, and use commentary to carry each paragraph's point to the thesis.
  7. 3.7Style: ReadingExplain how word choice, comparisons, and sentence shape make a narrative, a cause-effect argument, or an extended comparison persuasive, and name the tone they create.
  8. 3.8Style: WritingChoose the details, verbs, and comparisons that make your narration and cause-effect reasoning persuasive, and mark the shift from story to reflection clearly.

Introductions, Conclusions, and Thesis Statements

Unit 4With the plan8 lessons
  1. 4.1Rhetorical Situation: ReadingExplain what an argument's introduction and conclusion do for its audience, from the opening's hook and thesis placement to the ending's final move.
  2. 4.2Rhetorical Situation: WritingWrite introductions and conclusions that fit your reader and purpose, for timed AP essays and for draft questions about how a passage should open or end.
  3. 4.3Claims and Evidence: ReadingIdentify an argument's overarching thesis, describe it precisely, and read what its wording reveals about how the rest of the argument will unfold.
  4. 4.4Claims and Evidence: WritingWrite a thesis that needs proving, and decide whether and how it should preview your line of reasoning in argument, synthesis, and rhetorical analysis essays.
  5. 4.5Reasoning and Organization: ReadingRecognize when a writer argues by comparison-contrast, definition or description, and explain what that method lets the reader see and why it suits the purpose.
  6. 4.6Reasoning and Organization: WritingDevelop an argument through comparison-contrast, definition or description, building fair comparisons, definitions a reader accepts, and details that prove a claim.
  7. 4.7Style: ReadingExplain how a writer's similes, metaphors, analogies and images carry an attitude to the reader, especially in the openings and endings of arguments.
  8. 4.8Style: WritingUse comparisons and images in your own arguments to set a tone, frame an opening and an ending, and revise out figures that blur your point.

Organization, Transitions, and Tone

Unit 5With the plan8 lessons
  1. 5.1Rhetorical Situation: ReadingWork out the purpose of a paragraph from its place in the argument, and read a writer's perspective, persona, and intended readers off precise, descriptive words.
  2. 5.2Rhetorical Situation: WritingRevise a draft for its reader: pick the word that is accurate and fits your purpose, write openings and endings that tie the piece together, and pitch your signposting.
  3. 5.3Claims and Evidence: ReadingTrack what each pronoun and renaming refers to, read the signals that introduce evidence, and explain why a writer chose the examples behind a claim.
  4. 5.4Claims and Evidence: WritingBuild body paragraphs whose evidence is introduced with the right signal, referred to without confusion, and explained in terms of the essay's thesis.
  5. 5.5Reasoning and Organization: ReadingTrace how body paragraphs, transitions, repeated words, pronouns and parallel structure hold an argument together, and judge whether its reasoning reaches the thesis.
  6. 5.6Reasoning and Organization: WritingWrite body paragraphs whose commentary carries your line of reasoning, and use transitions, repeated key terms and clear pronouns to lead a reader from claim to claim.
  7. 5.7Style: ReadingExplain exactly how a writer's denotations, connotations, descriptive words and precise terms reveal a perspective, and build that explanation into analysis.
  8. 5.8Style: WritingChoose words whose exact meaning and connotation fit your claim and audience, use modifiers and precise terms that carry evidence, and keep an argument's tone steady.

Evidence, Bias, and Word Choice

Unit 6With the plan8 lessons
  1. 6.1Rhetorical Situation: ReadingTell a source's position from its perspective, read a writer's background, stake, and expertise off the text, and explain how a writer treats other views.
  2. 6.2Rhetorical Situation: WritingIntroduce each source by the part of its perspective your claim needs, represent opposing views as their holders would, and use your own perspective honestly.
  3. 6.3Claims and Evidence: ReadingJudge how far a source can be trusted on a given claim, measure its bias by how it handles other positions, and spot what its evidence cannot show.
  4. 6.4Claims and Evidence: WritingPick the most relevant, specific material from several sources for each claim, and account for each source's bias and limits inside your own reasoning.
  5. 6.5Reasoning and Organization: ReadingRead how an argument's thesis and line of reasoning bend around evidence that pushes back, and judge whether a writer accounts for a limitation or only mentions it.
  6. 6.6Reasoning and Organization: WritingTest a working thesis against every source, revise it when new evidence pushes back, and rebuild your line of reasoning so each paragraph fits the claim you can defend.
  7. 6.7Style: ReadingName a writer's tone precisely from the connotations of their words and sentences, and explain what a shift in tone says about how the writer's view is changing.
  8. 6.8Style: WritingChoose the tone your audience and evidence call for, build it from connotation, comparison and sentence shape, and shift it on purpose when you concede or qualify.

Qualifying Claims, Syntax, and Conventions

Unit 7With the plan8 lessons
  1. 7.1Rhetorical Situation: ReadingRead an argument's opening and ending for its situation, find the exigence and thesis there, and explain how the ending sets the claim's final reach.
  2. 7.2Rhetorical Situation: WritingWrite an introduction that sets up a qualified thesis from the claim you are answering, and a conclusion that states what your argument covers and what follows.
  3. 7.3Claims and Evidence: ReadingExplain how writers qualify claims with limiting words, phrases and clauses, counterarguments, and other perspectives, and what each limit leaves out of the claim.
  4. 7.4Claims and Evidence: WritingQualify your own claims with modifiers, conditions, concessions and other perspectives, so your thesis fits your evidence and still takes a position.
  5. 7.5Reasoning and Organization: ReadingExplain how the arrangement of sentences and paragraphs weights ideas, implies relationships it never states, and organizes an argument around several perspectives.
  6. 7.6Reasoning and Organization: WritingArrange your own arguments so the point lands in the stress position, concessions lead into answers, and other perspectives sharpen the claim instead of muddying it.
  7. 7.7Style: ReadingExplain how a writer's clauses, sentence order, punctuation, and italics show how ideas relate, which idea a sentence ranks highest, and what attitude the writer takes.
  8. 7.8Style: WritingWrite sentences that put your claim in the main clause, join ideas with the connector that names their relationship, and punctuate so your reasoning is clear.

Style and Audience

Unit 8With the plan8 lessons
  1. 8.1Rhetorical Situation: ReadingExplain how a writer's comparisons, diction, syntax, and evidence fit a particular audience, and how word choice and tone win or lose that audience's trust.
  2. 8.2Rhetorical Situation: WritingChoose comparisons, words, sentences, evidence, and order that fit a particular audience, so readers trust you and accept your argument.
  3. 8.3Claims and Evidence: ReadingJudge analogies and anecdotes as evidence, explain why a writer chose a kind of evidence for a particular audience, and check how much of a claim it covers.
  4. 8.4Claims and Evidence: WritingChoose evidence that supports your exact claim for your reader, use analogies and anecdotes without overreaching, and qualify only what your evidence can't reach.
  5. 8.5Reasoning and Organization: ReadingExplain how a writer shapes an argument's comparisons, concessions, and order for a particular audience, and name what each sentence or paragraph does in that reasoning.
  6. 8.6Reasoning and Organization: WritingChoose and order evidence for your actual readers, answer their strongest objection in the right place, and give background without breaking your reasoning.
  7. 8.7Style: ReadingDescribe a style from its word choice, syntax, and conventions, explain how it shapes readers' view of the writer, and read irony, modifiers, and asides precisely.
  8. 8.8Style: WritingChoose words, comparisons, and sentences that give your argument the right voice for its readers, place modifiers so they say what you mean, and use asides on purpose.

Entering the Conversation

Unit 9With the plan8 lessons
  1. 9.1Rhetorical Situation: ReadingRead an argument as one turn in an ongoing debate, recover the positions it answers, see which listeners it works on, and explain why it engages or skips the other side.
  2. 9.2Rhetorical Situation: WritingJoin an ongoing debate in your own writing: map the positions already taken, decide which ones your reader needs answered, and open by placing your claim among them.
  3. 9.3Claims and Evidence: ReadingTell a concession from a rebuttal from a refutation, read the transitions that bring in the other side, and explain how each move qualifies a writer's claim.
  4. 9.4Claims and Evidence: WritingAnswer the strongest objection to your claim by conceding, rebutting, or refuting it, signal each move, and end on a claim the objection has sharpened.
  5. 9.5Reasoning and Organization: ReadingRead an argument as a reply in an ongoing debate, tell whose voice each sentence carries, and explain where and why the writer handles other positions.
  6. 9.6Reasoning and Organization: WritingDecide where an opposing view belongs in your argument, introduce it with the right transition, answer it, and connect the answer back to your thesis.
  7. 9.7Style: ReadingExplain how word choice, comparisons, and sentence structure reveal a writer's attitude toward opposing views and shape the writer's credibility.
  8. 9.8Style: WritingDescribe opposing views in words their holders would accept, write clear sentences that concede and answer, and keep your tone steady through a disagreement.

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