What Are the Best Quizlet Decks for AP English Language?

UNIT 1: Foundations of Rhetoric: Analysis of the Rhetorical Situation and Claims

• Author’s purpose - what the author wants to see happen after the audience reads the text
• Exigence - the motivation and reasoning of why the author decided to write the text
• Audience - a group of people who share certain beliefs, values, needs, and backgrounds
• Claims - positions that the writer takes that are defensible, backed up by concrete evidence (anecdotes, facts, analogies, etc.)

UNIT 2: Foundations of Argument: Analysis of an Author’s Choices in Appeals and Evidence

• Rhetorical choices - writers make certain choices in rhetoric to try and relate to an audience’s emotions and values to achieve their purpose
• Modes of persuasion - author’s techniques of persuading or motivating action in the audience through the use of appeals
• Ethos - an appeal to credibility [9 out of 10 dentists recommend this toothpaste]
• Logos - an appeal to logic or reasoning, often using statistics
• Pathos - an appeal to the audience’s emotions
• Thesis - a main claim that a writer wants to defend or prove, using reasoning supported by evidence
• Thesis statement - the direct expression of a thesis by a writer

UNIT 3: Confluence: Synthesis of Multiple Sources in Argumentation

• Synthesis - the consideration, explanation, and integration of other sources and arguments into your own argument
• Line of Reasoning - the organization of an argument in which claims are supported by multiple pieces of evidence with accompanying commentary that connects the evidence to the claim; revealed by the sequence of paragraphs
• Commentary - the significance and relevance of evidence and its relationship with the line of reasoning
• Methods of Development - approaches writers use to develop and organize an argument’s reasoning, providing an audience with the ability to find the writer’s reasoning in an argument. Examples include narration, cause-effect, comparison-contrast, definition, and description

UNIT 4: Reasoning: Analysis of Argument from Introduction to Conclusion

• Introduction - the way that a subject and/or writer is presented initially by the argument, which often includes a thesis
• Conclusion - the unified closing of an argument that can explain the broader context, making connections, create a call to action, etc.
• Methods of Development - approaches writers to use to develop and organize an argument’s reasoning, providing an audience with the ability to find the writer’s reasoning in an argument. Examples include narration, cause-effect, comparison-contrast, definition, and description.
• Comparison-Contrast - Writers examine the similarities and/or differences between the objects of comparison
• Description or Definition - writers use examples or illustrations to relate the characteristics, features, or sensory details of an object or idea

UNIT 5: Commentary and Analysis: Analysis of Complex Argument and Intentional Rhetoric

• Coherent organization - your essays should have ideas link to the next idea
• Transitional elements - words or elements that assist with coherence among paragraphs, sentences, or sections by demonstrating relationships among ideas; introducing evidence or indicating relationship to other ideas/evidence in the text as a whole
• Descriptive words - Adjectives and adverbs that convey a perspective and qualify/modify the things they describe

UNIT 6: Rhetorical Risks: Analysis of Multiple Perspectives, Bias, and Shifts with New Evidence

• Source - something that provides information for an argument, with some degree of reliability and credibility
• Position - what the source is arguing
• Perspective - the background, interests, and expertise of that source
• Limitations in argumentation - analyzing biases and flaws of sources and including those limitations in reasoning
• Tone - writer’s attitude or feeling about a subject, implied through word choice and style of writing

UNIT 7: Complex Argumentation

• Effective arguments - arguments that typically avoid expressing claims, reasoning, or evidence in absolute terms
• Purpose of punctuation - advancing a writer’s purpose by clarifying, organizing, emphasizing, indicating purpose, or contributing to tone
• Refutation - Responding to the counterargument of a writer’s argument

UNIT 8: Style

• Style - The word choice, syntax, and conventions that a writer uses
• Irony - something that emerges from the differences between an author’s argument and the readers’ values or expectations
• Modifiers - words, phrases, or clauses that specifically clarify, specify, or modify information about the thing they’re associated with
• Purpose of comparisons - similes, metaphors, anecdotes, or analogies that are used to help relate to an audience

UNIT 9: Craft

• Purpose of evidence/sources - to support, complement, or contradict the thesis, or main claim, of a writer’s argument
• Credibility - the way that an author is portrayed in the audience, built by refutations, rebuttals, or concessions of opposing arguments and contradictory evidence
• Concession - accepting all or a portion of a competing position or claim as correct, agreeing it’s correct in a different set of circumstances, or acknowledging the specific limitations of their own argument
• Rebuttal - creating a contrasting perspective on an argument and its evidence to show that the competing position/claim is not valid