AP English Language and Composition
Encyclopedia
Advanced Placement English Language and Composition (or AP English Language and Composition, AP Lang and Comp, AP English III, AP Lang) is a course and examination offered by the College Board
as part of the Advanced Placement Program
.
College writing programs recognize that skill in writing proceeds from students' awareness of their own composing processes: the way they explore ideas, reconsider strategies, and revise their work. This experience of the process of composing is the essence of the first-year writing course, and the AP English Language and Composition course should emphasize this process, asking students to write essays that proceed through several stages or drafts, with revision aided by teacher and peers. Although these extended, revised essays cannot be part of the AP Exam, the experience of writing them will help make students more self-aware and flexible writers and thus may help their performance on the exam itself.
As well as engaging in varied writing tasks, students become acquainted with a wide variety of prose styles from many disciplines and historical periods, and gain understanding of the connections between writing and interpretive skill in reading. Concurrently, to reflect the increasing importance of graphics and visual images in texts published in print and electronic media, students are asked to analyze how such images both relate to written texts and serve as alternative forms of texts themselves.
In addition, the informed use of research materials and the ability to synthesize varied sources (to evaluate, use, and cite sources) are integral parts of this course. Students move past assignments that allow for the uncritical citation of sources and, instead, take up projects that call on them to evaluate the legitimacy and purpose of sources used.
One way to help students synthesize and evaluate their sources is the researched argument paper. Researched argument papers remind students that they must sort through disparate interpretations to analyze, reflect upon, and write about a topic. When students are asked to bring the experience and opinions of others into their essays in this way, they enter into conversations with other writers and thinkers. The results of such conversations are essays that use citations for substance rather than show, for dialogue rather than diatribe.
The College Board's suggested curriculum for the course places a strong emphasis on the development of proficient reading and writing skills. In particular, thorough, efficient reading and contextual understanding of difficult historical material, and the ability to spontaneously write an organized and developed essay that demonstrates a strong stylistic and expressive command over the English language.
Beginning in 2007, with the addition of the synthesis prompt, CollegeBoard decided that an additional fifteen minutes should be added to the exam time to allow students to read and annotate the three prompts as well as the passages and sources provided. Students may write notes in the prompt booklet about the material during that 15 minutes, but may not write in the essay booklets during this time. As the prompt booklets are not collected, any writing in the prompt booklet does not count when scoring the essays.
The analysis prompt typically asks students to read a short (less than 1 page) passage, which may be from any point in time, as long as it was originally written in modern English. After reading the passage, students are asked to write an essay in which they analyze and discuss various techniques the author uses in the passage. The techniques differ from prompt to prompt, but may ask about strategies, argumentative techniques, motivations, or other rhetorical elements of the passage, and how such techniques effectively contribute to the overall purpose of the passage. The prompt may mention specific techniques or purposes, but some leeway of discussion is left to the student. The essay is scored on the 1-9 scale.
The argument prompt typically gives a position in the form of an assertion from a documented source. Students are asked to consider the assertion, and then form an argument that defends, challenges, or qualifies the assertion using supporting evidence from their own knowledge or reading. The essay is scored on the 1-9 scale.
The synthesis prompt typically requires students to consider a scenario, then formulate a response to a specific element of the scenario using at least three of the accompanying sources for support. While a total of six or seven sources accompany the prompt, using information from all of the sources is not necessary (or perhaps desirable). The source material used must be cited in the essay in order to be considered legitimate. The essay is scored on the 1-9 scale.
The free-response section is scored individually by hundreds of educators each June. Each essay is read by at least two readers and assigned a score from 1-9, 9 being the best score possible. Scoring is holistic, meaning that specific elements of the essay are not judged, rather each essay is scored in its entirety.
The scores from the three essays are added and integrated with the adjusted multiple-choice score (using the appropriate percentages of each section) to generate a composite score. The composite is then converted into an AP score of 1-5 using a scale for that year's exam..
Students generally receive their scores by mail in mid-July of the year they took the test. Alternately, they can receive their scores by phone as early as July 1 for a fee. Sub-scores are not available for students, for the English Language and Composition Exam.
AP instructors receive a score sheet showing the individual score for each of their students, as well as detailed score information for the test compared to the national averages.
Grade distribution in recent years has been:
-type questions found on many AP history exams, asks students to form an argument using at least three of the provided documents, to support their argument. It differs from AP history questions, however, in that students are only required to address three out of six provided sources.
The introduction of the synthesis question resulted in a slight change in the test's format to include a 15-minute reading period at the beginning of the free response portion of the test, during which students may read the prompts and examine the documents. They may use this time to make notes, but not to write the essays.
Also in 2007, there was a change in the multiple choice portion of the exam. It was requested to include questions about documentation
and citation
. These questions will be based on at least one passage which is a published work including footnotes or a bibliography.
College Board
The College Board is a membership association in the United States that was formed in 1900 as the College Entrance Examination Board . It is composed of more than 5,900 schools, colleges, universities and other educational organizations. It sells standardized tests used by academically oriented...
as part of the Advanced Placement Program
Advanced Placement Program
The Advanced Placement program is a curriculum in the United States and Canada sponsored by the College Board which offers standardized courses to high school students that are generally recognized to be equivalent to undergraduate courses in college...
.
The course
AP English Language and Composition is a course in the study of rhetoric taken in high school and often followed by the AP English Literature and Composition course. It has been suggested by the College Board that it would be more prudent to have students take AP English Literature and Composition their junior year as they have been analyzing literature their entire academic careers. AP English Language is better suited for seniors as it prepares them to write on nonliterary topics. This makes it a more suitable preparation for their transition into college, in contrast to AP English Literature which continues to focus on literature and poetry.The primary purpose
"The goals of an AP English Language and Composition course are diverse because the college composition course is one of the most varied in the curriculum. The college course provides students with opportunities to write about a variety of subjects and to demonstrate an awareness of audience and purpose. But the overarching objective in most first-year writing courses is to enable students to write effectively and confidently in their college courses across the curriculum and in their professional and personal lives. Therefore, most composition courses emphasize 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 ability to write in any context. In addition, most composition courses teach students that the expository, analytical, and argumentative writing they must do in college is based on reading texts from various disciplines and periods as well as personal experience and observation. Composition courses, therefore, teach students to read primary and secondary sources carefully, to synthesize materials from these texts in their own compositions, and to cite sources using conventions recommended by professional organizations such as the Modern Language Association (MLA), the University of Chicago Press (The Chicago Manual of Style), and the American Psychological Association (APA)."Emphasized skills
As in the college course, the purpose of the AP English Language and Composition course 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. An AP English Language and Composition course should help students move beyond such programmatic responses as the five-paragraph essay that provides an introduction with a thesis and three reasons, body paragraphs on each reason, and a conclusion that restates the thesis. Although such formulaic approaches may provide minimal organization, they often encourage unnecessary repetition and fail to engage the reader. Students should be encouraged to place their emphasis on content, purpose, and audience and to allow this focus to guide the organization of their writing.College writing programs recognize that skill in writing proceeds from students' awareness of their own composing processes: the way they explore ideas, reconsider strategies, and revise their work. This experience of the process of composing is the essence of the first-year writing course, and the AP English Language and Composition course should emphasize this process, asking students to write essays that proceed through several stages or drafts, with revision aided by teacher and peers. Although these extended, revised essays cannot be part of the AP Exam, the experience of writing them will help make students more self-aware and flexible writers and thus may help their performance on the exam itself.
As well as engaging in varied writing tasks, students become acquainted with a wide variety of prose styles from many disciplines and historical periods, and gain understanding of the connections between writing and interpretive skill in reading. Concurrently, to reflect the increasing importance of graphics and visual images in texts published in print and electronic media, students are asked to analyze how such images both relate to written texts and serve as alternative forms of texts themselves.
In addition, the informed use of research materials and the ability to synthesize varied sources (to evaluate, use, and cite sources) are integral parts of this course. Students move past assignments that allow for the uncritical citation of sources and, instead, take up projects that call on them to evaluate the legitimacy and purpose of sources used.
One way to help students synthesize and evaluate their sources is the researched argument paper. Researched argument papers remind students that they must sort through disparate interpretations to analyze, reflect upon, and write about a topic. When students are asked to bring the experience and opinions of others into their essays in this way, they enter into conversations with other writers and thinkers. The results of such conversations are essays that use citations for substance rather than show, for dialogue rather than diatribe.
The College Board's suggested curriculum for the course places a strong emphasis on the development of proficient reading and writing skills. In particular, thorough, efficient reading and contextual understanding of difficult historical material, and the ability to spontaneously write an organized and developed essay that demonstrates a strong stylistic and expressive command over the English language.
Format
The AP English Language and Composition exam consists of two sections, a one-hour multiple-choice section, and a two-hour and fifteen-minute free-response section. The exam is further divided as follows:| |
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120 minutes (writing portion) |
Section I: Multiple-Choice
The multiple-choice section of the test is approximately 55 questions, with the exact number of questions varying with each test administration. There are typically 5 passages divided between Pre-20th Century non-fiction prose, and 20th and 21st Century non-fiction prose. The questions typically focus on identifying rhetorical devices and structures from the passage, as well as their general function, purpose in a passage, and/or the relationships between them. Beginning in 2007, questions were added that ask about citation information included in the passages. These citation questions are not designed to test knowledge about MLA, APA, Chicago Style, or any other particular citation format, but instead focus on how the citations reference and enhance information from the passage. Students have exactly 60 minutes to answer all 55 questions.Section 2: Free-Response Reading Portion
The Free-Response section of the test consists of three prompts, each of a different type: passage analysis, argument, and synthesis.Beginning in 2007, with the addition of the synthesis prompt, CollegeBoard decided that an additional fifteen minutes should be added to the exam time to allow students to read and annotate the three prompts as well as the passages and sources provided. Students may write notes in the prompt booklet about the material during that 15 minutes, but may not write in the essay booklets during this time. As the prompt booklets are not collected, any writing in the prompt booklet does not count when scoring the essays.
The analysis prompt typically asks students to read a short (less than 1 page) passage, which may be from any point in time, as long as it was originally written in modern English. After reading the passage, students are asked to write an essay in which they analyze and discuss various techniques the author uses in the passage. The techniques differ from prompt to prompt, but may ask about strategies, argumentative techniques, motivations, or other rhetorical elements of the passage, and how such techniques effectively contribute to the overall purpose of the passage. The prompt may mention specific techniques or purposes, but some leeway of discussion is left to the student. The essay is scored on the 1-9 scale.
The argument prompt typically gives a position in the form of an assertion from a documented source. Students are asked to consider the assertion, and then form an argument that defends, challenges, or qualifies the assertion using supporting evidence from their own knowledge or reading. The essay is scored on the 1-9 scale.
The synthesis prompt typically requires students to consider a scenario, then formulate a response to a specific element of the scenario using at least three of the accompanying sources for support. While a total of six or seven sources accompany the prompt, using information from all of the sources is not necessary (or perhaps desirable). The source material used must be cited in the essay in order to be considered legitimate. The essay is scored on the 1-9 scale.
Scoring
The multiple-choice section is scored by computer. Formerly, the test was scored by awarding 1 point for correct answers, while taking off a 1/4 point for incorrect answers. No points were taken away for blank answers. However the College Board has announced that they will discontinue the policy for all AP Exams starting in 2011, where they will only award 1 point for each correct answer (no 1/4 point deductions).The free-response section is scored individually by hundreds of educators each June. Each essay is read by at least two readers and assigned a score from 1-9, 9 being the best score possible. Scoring is holistic, meaning that specific elements of the essay are not judged, rather each essay is scored in its entirety.
The scores from the three essays are added and integrated with the adjusted multiple-choice score (using the appropriate percentages of each section) to generate a composite score. The composite is then converted into an AP score of 1-5 using a scale for that year's exam..
Students generally receive their scores by mail in mid-July of the year they took the test. Alternately, they can receive their scores by phone as early as July 1 for a fee. Sub-scores are not available for students, for the English Language and Composition Exam.
AP instructors receive a score sheet showing the individual score for each of their students, as well as detailed score information for the test compared to the national averages.
Grade distributions
In the 2009 administration 337,441 students took the exam. The mean score was a 2.88. This was the second-most widely taken AP exam after AP U.S. History.Grade distribution in recent years has been:
| Year | Score percentages | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| 2009 | 10.5% | 19.0% | 30.2% | 28.4% | 11.9% |
| 2008 | 8.7% | 18.2% | 31.4% | 30.5% | 11.3% |
Composite Score Range
The College Board has released information on the composite score range (out of 150) required to obtain each grade: This score table is not absolute, and the ranges vary with each administration of the test. With the addition of the synthesis essay in 2007, the scoring tables were revised to account for the new essay type in Section II of the test.| Final Score | Range (2001) | Range (2002) |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 108-150 | 113-150 |
| 4 | 93-107 | 96-112 |
| 3 | 72-92 | 76-95 |
| 2 | 43-71 | 48-75 |
| 1 | 0-42 | 0-47 |
Recent changes
In 2007, a new type of essay prompt, the "synthesis" essay, was introduced to the exam. This question, somewhat like the DBQDocument-based question
A document-based question , also known as data-based question, is an essay or series of short-answer questions that is constructed by students using one's own knowledge combined with support from several provided sources...
-type questions found on many AP history exams, asks students to form an argument using at least three of the provided documents, to support their argument. It differs from AP history questions, however, in that students are only required to address three out of six provided sources.
The introduction of the synthesis question resulted in a slight change in the test's format to include a 15-minute reading period at the beginning of the free response portion of the test, during which students may read the prompts and examine the documents. They may use this time to make notes, but not to write the essays.
Also in 2007, there was a change in the multiple choice portion of the exam. It was requested to include questions about documentation
Documentation
Documentation is a term used in several different ways. Generally, documentation refers to the process of providing evidence.Modules of Documentation are Helpful...
and citation
Citation
Broadly, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source . More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression Broadly, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source (not always the original source). More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated...
. These questions will be based on at least one passage which is a published work including footnotes or a bibliography.