Videos
AP English Language and Composition
Pick a topic to watch.
9 video lessons
6:20
Topic 1
Unit 1: Claims, Evidence, and the Rhetorical Situation
Here is the single most common weak answer in this whole course. "The writer uses a rhetorical question." That sentence earns nothing, and it is what most…
5:54
Topic 2
Unit 2: Audience, Thesis, and Supporting Evidence
Here is a test you can run on your own drafts in about ten seconds. Read one paragraph and ask: would this read identically to a completely different audience?…
5:57
Topic 3
Unit 3: Line of Reasoning and Methods of Development
Unit 3 is where the course stops being about parts and starts being about structure, and here is the test that tells you whether you have any. Take your essay…
5:18
Topic 4
Unit 4: Introductions, Conclusions, and Development
Unit 4 covers the two positions in a text where a writer's choices are most visible — the beginning and the end. And it comes with a warning about your own…
5:41
Topic 5
Unit 5: Organization, Coherence, and Style
The CED's statement of the body paragraph is exact and worth memorising. The body paragraphs of a written argument make claims, support them with evidence, and…
5:21
Topic 6
Unit 6: Evidence, Thesis, and Stylistic Choices
Unit 6 is the synthesis unit, and it contains the single sharpest distinction in the course. A position and a perspective are different. Sources may hold the…
6:19
Topic 7
Unit 7: Qualifying Arguments, Syntax, and Conventions
Most students assume a stronger-sounding claim scores better. The opposite is true, and it is easy to see why. An unqualified claim is easy to defeat with one…
5:44
Topic 8
Unit 8: Audience, Tone, and Sentence Craft
A writer's style is the mix of word choice, syntax and conventions employed by that writer. Style is a composite — which is why "the writer's style is formal"…
4:51
Topic 9
Unit 9: Refining Qualified Arguments
Unit 9 is short, and it is the course's final move: how to handle the arguments that oppose yours. Everything here is directly rewarded on the exam, and the…