AP-ELANG
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AP® English Language and Composition
The AP-ELANG exam assesses mastery of rhetorical situation, claim development, evidence evaluation, logical reasoning, organization, style, and synthesis, preparing students for college‑level English composition and critical analysis.
195
Minutes
48
Questions
3/5
Passing Score
$98
Exam Cost
Who Should Take This
High‑school juniors and seniors who intend to pursue humanities or social‑science majors, as well as community‑college students seeking credit for advanced composition, benefit from this exam. They have foundational writing experience, aim to demonstrate precise rhetorical terminology, and plan to excel in college‑level analytical essays.
What's Covered
1
All nine units of the AP English Language and Composition course framework (College Board, effective 2019-present): Unit 1 Claims and Evidence
2
, Unit 2 Organizing Evidence
3
, Unit 3 Perspectives and Argument
4
, Unit 4 Research and Inquiry
5
, Unit 5 Reasoning and Organization
6
, Unit 6 Evidence and Commentary
7
, Unit 7 Style and Conventions
8
, Unit 8 Synthesis of Sources
9
, Unit 9 Exam Preparation
What's Included in AccelaStudy® AI
Adaptive Knowledge Graph
Practice Questions
Lesson Modules
Console Simulator Labs
Exam Tips & Strategy
20 Activity Formats
Course Outline
67 learning goals
1
Rhetorical Situation and Claims
3 topics
Components of the Rhetorical Situation
- Identify the components of the rhetorical situation—exigence, audience, purpose, context, and speaker—and describe how each shapes the communicative choices a writer or speaker makes.
- Describe the three classical rhetorical appeals—ethos, logos, and pathos—and identify specific textual evidence of each appeal in nonfiction prose passages.
- Explain how a writer's purpose and intended audience influence the selection of rhetorical appeals, tone, and level of formality in a given nonfiction text.
- Analyze how a writer strategically constructs ethos through self-presentation, credential references, concessions, and tone to establish credibility and authority with a specific audience.
Claims, Thesis, and Lines of Reasoning
- Identify and distinguish among claims of fact, value, and policy in nonfiction texts, and describe the type of evidence each claim requires for support.
- Explain how a thesis statement functions as a defensible claim that unifies an argument and how supporting claims relate to the thesis through a coherent line of reasoning.
- Analyze the logical structure of an argument by mapping its claims, sub-claims, evidence, and warrants, and evaluate whether the line of reasoning adequately supports the thesis.
- Construct a defensible thesis that responds to a complex prompt and develop a line of reasoning with logically sequenced supporting claims that advance the argument.
Tone, Attitude, and Audience Awareness
- Identify the tone and attitude of a nonfiction passage by citing specific diction, imagery, and syntactic choices that convey the writer's stance toward the subject.
- Explain how shifts in tone within a passage serve rhetorical purposes such as building complexity, signaling qualification, or reframing the reader's perception of the subject.
- Analyze how a writer adjusts rhetorical strategies when addressing a hostile, neutral, or sympathetic audience, evaluating the effectiveness of these adjustments in context.
2
Evidence, Reasoning, and Logical Fallacies
3 topics
Types and Evaluation of Evidence
- Identify and categorize types of evidence used in nonfiction arguments—including statistics, expert testimony, anecdotes, historical examples, and analogies—and describe the rhetorical effect of each type.
- Explain how the specificity, relevance, and sufficiency of evidence determine the strength of a claim, distinguishing between evidence that merely illustrates and evidence that substantively proves.
- Evaluate the credibility, bias, and limitations of evidence sources in a complex argument, assessing whether the evidence adequately supports the writer's claims.
Reasoning Strategies
- Identify inductive, deductive, and analogical reasoning patterns in nonfiction prose and describe how each pattern structures the relationship between evidence and conclusion.
- Explain how commentary—the writer's interpretation and analysis of evidence—bridges evidence and claims to establish the significance of supporting material within the argument.
- Analyze how a writer employs comparison-contrast, cause-effect, or problem-solution reasoning structures to advance an argument, evaluating the effectiveness of the chosen structure for the rhetorical situation.
- Construct an argument that strategically integrates multiple reasoning patterns—such as cause-effect and analogy—selecting the most effective structure for the given prompt and audience.
Logical Fallacies and Counterargument
- Identify common logical fallacies—including straw man, ad hominem, false dilemma, slippery slope, hasty generalization, and red herring—in argumentative nonfiction texts.
- Explain how concession, rebuttal, and qualification strengthen an argument by acknowledging and addressing counterarguments rather than ignoring opposing viewpoints.
- Analyze how an author's strategic use of concession and rebuttal shapes the reader's perception of fairness and logical rigor, evaluating whether the counterargument treatment strengthens or weakens the overall argument.
- Construct an argument that anticipates and refutes the strongest counterargument, using strategic concession and qualification to enhance the persuasive force of the original claim.
3
Organization, Structure, and Coherence
2 topics
Organizational Strategies in Nonfiction
- Identify common organizational patterns in nonfiction prose—including chronological, spatial, cause-effect, comparison-contrast, problem-solution, and order of importance—and describe how each structures information for the reader.
- Explain how an introduction establishes the rhetorical context and how a conclusion reinforces or extends the central argument, and describe how the body paragraphs develop the line of reasoning.
- Analyze how a writer's choice of organizational structure creates emphasis, controls pacing, and guides the reader through a complex argument, evaluating whether the structure effectively serves the rhetorical purpose.
Transitions and Coherence
- Identify transitional words, phrases, and sentences that signal logical relationships—addition, contrast, causation, exemplification, and conclusion—between ideas within and across paragraphs.
- Explain how strategic placement and variety of transitional devices contribute to the coherence and flow of an argument, preventing logical gaps between claims.
- Construct well-organized essays with purposeful paragraph sequencing, effective transitions, and a coherent line of reasoning that guides the reader from introduction through conclusion.
4
Style, Diction, and Syntax
3 topics
Diction and Word Choice
- Identify how denotation, connotation, and register affect meaning and tone in nonfiction prose, and describe the distinction between formal, informal, colloquial, and technical diction.
- Explain how a writer's diction choices—including abstract versus concrete language, euphemism, loaded language, and jargon—create specific rhetorical effects and shape the reader's response.
- Analyze how patterns of diction across a passage create a sustained tone or reveal shifts in the writer's attitude, and evaluate the effectiveness of word choice for the intended audience.
Syntax and Sentence Structure
- Identify syntactic structures—including simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences—and describe how sentence length, type, and arrangement affect pacing and emphasis.
- Explain how rhetorical techniques at the sentence level—including parallelism, antithesis, anaphora, asyndeton, and polysyndeton—create rhythm, emphasis, and persuasive force.
- Analyze how a writer manipulates sentence structure—including periodic and cumulative sentences, strategic fragments, and syntactic inversions—to control the reader's attention and emotional response.
- Compose prose that demonstrates purposeful sentence variety, using coordination, subordination, parallelism, and strategic sentence length variation to achieve a specific rhetorical effect.
Figurative Language and Imagery
- Identify figurative language devices—including metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, understatement, allusion, and irony—in nonfiction prose and describe their literal versus figurative meanings.
- Explain how figurative language in nonfiction creates vivid imagery, strengthens arguments, and engages the reader's emotions and imagination in ways that literal language cannot.
- Analyze how extended metaphor, irony, or allusion functions as a structural and persuasive device across a passage, evaluating how the figurative framework shapes the reader's understanding of the argument.
5
Synthesis and Source Integration
3 topics
Reading and Evaluating Multiple Sources
- Describe the purpose and format of the AP synthesis essay prompt, including how to read and annotate six to seven provided sources comprising textual and visual materials on a single topic.
- Explain how to evaluate source credibility, identify authorial bias, and assess the relevance of each source to a given synthesis prompt before selecting sources for integration.
- Analyze areas of agreement, disagreement, and qualification among multiple sources on a topic, mapping the range of perspectives to identify potential lines of argument.
Source Integration and Attribution
- Identify techniques for integrating source material—direct quotation, paraphrase, and summary—and describe when each technique is most effective for supporting an argument.
- Explain how to attribute source material clearly and how to embed quoted or paraphrased evidence within one's own argument so that the source supports rather than replaces the writer's analysis.
- Construct a synthesis essay that integrates evidence from at least three sources to develop and support a defensible thesis, using strategic source selection, proper attribution, and original commentary.
Visual and Quantitative Source Analysis
- Identify how visual sources—including charts, graphs, photographs, political cartoons, and infographics—convey information and rhetorical messages relevant to an argumentative topic.
- Explain how to interpret quantitative data presented in tables, charts, and graphs, extracting relevant trends and using them as evidence to support or challenge a written argument.
- Analyze how visual and quantitative sources interact with textual sources in a synthesis prompt, evaluating the relative persuasive value of different source types for a given argument.
6
Rhetorical Analysis Essay
2 topics
Analyzing Rhetorical Choices in Published Texts
- Describe the purpose and structure of the AP rhetorical analysis essay, including how to read the prompt, identify the rhetorical situation, and develop a thesis about the writer's choices.
- Explain how to select and group rhetorical choices—appeals, diction, syntax, structure, tone—into meaningful categories that support a coherent rhetorical analysis thesis.
- Analyze how a published writer's rhetorical choices work together to achieve a specific purpose with a specific audience, moving beyond identification to evaluation of effectiveness.
- Compose a complete rhetorical analysis essay that presents a defensible thesis about an author's rhetorical choices and develops the argument with specific textual evidence and insightful commentary.
Rhetorical Strategies in Speeches and Public Discourse
- Identify how speeches and public addresses employ oral rhetorical conventions—including repetition, direct address, rhetorical questions, and cadence—that differ from written prose strategies.
- Explain how historical and political context shapes the rhetorical situation of a speech, affecting the speaker's available appeals and the audience's expectations and receptivity.
- Analyze how a historically significant speech—such as those by Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Sojourner Truth, or Martin Luther King Jr.—employs rhetorical strategies that respond to the specific exigence and audience of the moment.
7
Argument Essay and Persuasive Writing
2 topics
Argument Essay Construction
- Describe the purpose and structure of the AP argument essay, including how to interpret the prompt, take a defensible position, and plan an argument using personal knowledge and experience as evidence.
- Explain how to develop body paragraphs that present a claim, provide relevant evidence from reading, observation, or experience, and offer commentary that connects the evidence to the thesis.
- Analyze how the most effective AP argument essays demonstrate sophistication through nuanced thesis statements, strategic counterargument treatment, and stylistic choices that enhance persuasion.
- Compose a complete AP argument essay that takes a nuanced, defensible position on a complex issue, supports it with well-chosen evidence and insightful commentary, addresses a counterargument, and demonstrates stylistic sophistication.
Revision and Stylistic Sophistication
- Identify common sentence-level errors—including comma splices, fragments, run-ons, pronoun reference errors, and subject-verb disagreement—that undermine clarity and credibility in academic writing.
- Explain how revision at the sentence level—including combining sentences, varying syntax, eliminating redundancy, and choosing precise diction—improves the clarity, concision, and rhetorical force of an essay.
- Evaluate a draft essay's effectiveness by assessing the strength of the thesis, the sufficiency and relevance of evidence, the coherence of the line of reasoning, and the sophistication of style, identifying specific revisions to improve the argument.
8
Nonfiction Genre and Mode Analysis
2 topics
Nonfiction Modes and Purposes
- Identify the major modes of nonfiction prose—narration, description, exposition, and argumentation—and describe the conventions and purposes associated with each mode.
- Explain how nonfiction genres—including essays, speeches, memoirs, journalism, and satire—employ different combinations of modes to achieve their rhetorical purposes.
- Analyze how a writer blends narrative and argumentative modes in a single nonfiction text, evaluating how the narrative elements serve the persuasive purpose rather than functioning merely as storytelling.
Satire, Irony, and Indirect Argument
- Identify the techniques of satire—including irony, exaggeration, understatement, parody, and juxtaposition—and describe how satirists use humor to critique social, political, or cultural issues.
- Explain how verbal, situational, and dramatic irony function differently in nonfiction prose, and describe how irony creates distance between stated meaning and intended meaning to achieve rhetorical effects.
- Analyze how a satirical nonfiction text—such as Swift's 'A Modest Proposal' or a contemporary editorial—constructs its argument indirectly, evaluating how the satirical framework shapes the audience's interpretation.
Scope
Included Topics
- All nine units of the AP English Language and Composition course framework (College Board, effective 2019-present): Unit 1 Claims and Evidence (13-14%), Unit 2 Organizing Evidence (13-14%), Unit 3 Perspectives and Argument (13-14%), Unit 4 Research and Inquiry (4-6%), Unit 5 Reasoning and Organization (13-14%), Unit 6 Evidence and Commentary (13-14%), Unit 7 Style and Conventions (13-14%), Unit 8 Synthesis of Sources (4-6%), Unit 9 Exam Preparation (4-6%).
- Rhetorical analysis skills: identifying and analyzing claims, reasoning, and evidence in nonfiction texts; recognizing and explaining rhetorical choices including appeals (ethos, logos, pathos), tone, diction, syntax, imagery, figurative language, and organizational strategies.
- Argumentation skills: developing thesis statements, constructing lines of reasoning, selecting and integrating evidence from sources, employing strategic concession and rebuttal, and maintaining logical coherence across an extended argument.
- Synthesis skills: reading and evaluating multiple sources on a single topic, identifying areas of agreement and disagreement, integrating textual and visual sources into a coherent argument with proper attribution and citation.
- Prose style and writing conventions: sentence-level revision for clarity, concision, and rhetorical effect; paragraph-level organization and transitions; strategic use of syntax variety, parallelism, subordination, and coordination.
- Exam-aligned content including 45 multiple-choice questions on five nonfiction passages and three free-response essays: synthesis, rhetorical analysis, and argument.
Not Covered
- Literary fiction, drama, and poetry analysis covered by the separate AP English Literature and Composition exam.
- Formal research paper methodology, MLA/APA formatting conventions, and extended research projects beyond the scope of the AP Language exam.
- Creative writing, personal narrative composition, and fiction writing techniques not assessed on the AP Language exam.
- Linguistics, grammar theory, and prescriptive grammar rules beyond what is tested through sentence-level revision and style questions.
Official Exam Page
Learn more at College Board
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