Skip to content

Interdisciplinary CurriculumCurriculum

Your learning stays with you.

Support Independent Learning

© 2026 Commensurate Ventures. All rights reserved.

Interdisciplinary CurriculumCurriculum

AP English Language & Composition

College-level rhetoric and writing covering rhetorical analysis, argumentation, and synthesis. Aligned to the College Board AP English Language & Composition Course and Exam Description. Develops the analytical reading and persuasive writing skills essential for college success.

14 Units

45-60 minutes per unit

What You Will Learn

College Board Aligned

Covers all AP English Language CED units — from rhetorical situation through argumentation and synthesis.

Essay Practice

Rhetorical analysis, argument, and synthesis essay strategies aligned to AP exam rubrics.

College Credit Potential

A qualifying AP exam score can earn 3-6 college credits (Freshman Composition equivalent) at most universities.

All Units

The Rhetorical Situation

Understand the SOAPS framework and how writer, audience, purpose, context, exigence, and message interact in any act of communication.

•Identify the speaker, occasion, audience, purpose, subject, and tone in a nonfiction text
•Explain how exigence motivates a writer to communicate
•Analyze how context shapes rhetorical choices
+1 more objectives

Claims and Evidence

Learn to identify and evaluate types of claims, marshal evidence effectively, reason soundly, and recognize the logical fallacies that undermine arguments.

•Distinguish among claims of fact, value, policy, and definition
•Evaluate evidence for relevance, sufficiency, and accuracy
•Trace the logical connections between claims, evidence, and reasoning
+1 more objectives

Rhetorical Strategies: Ethos, Pathos, Logos

Analyze how writers deploy ethos, pathos, and logos — and the full range of rhetorical strategies — to achieve their purposes with specific audiences.

•Define and distinguish ethos, pathos, and logos as rhetorical appeals
•Analyze how writers build credibility, evoke emotion, and construct logical arguments
•Identify rhetorical strategies including analogy, anaphora, antithesis, and extended metaphor
+1 more objectives

Language and Style

Study how diction, syntax, tone, figurative language, and voice operate as tools of meaning — and learn to deploy them with intention in your own writing.

•Analyze how diction choices — connotation, denotation, register — shape meaning and tone
•Examine how sentence structure and syntax create rhythm, emphasis, and clarity
•Identify and interpret figurative language including metaphor, simile, personification, and irony
+1 more objectives

Structure and Organization

Examine how writers choose methods of development, sequence ideas, use transitions, and create coherence — and apply these principles to your own arguments.

•Identify and distinguish common methods of development in nonfiction prose
•Analyze how organizational structure serves a writer's purpose
•Use transitions effectively to create coherence within and between paragraphs
+1 more objectives

Reading Nonfiction Closely

Develop systematic close reading strategies for nonfiction prose — annotation techniques, identifying purpose, evaluating credibility, and reading between the lines.

•Apply active annotation strategies to identify claims, evidence, and rhetorical moves
•Distinguish between a text's explicit argument and its implicit assumptions
•Evaluate a writer's credibility, bias, and reliability
+1 more objectives

The Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Master the AP rhetorical analysis essay — structure, thesis construction, body paragraph development, and the rubric criteria that determine your score.

•Write a defensible thesis that identifies a specific rhetorical choice and connects it to an effect or purpose
•Select and analyze evidence from a source text to support a rhetorical analysis
•Develop commentary that explains how and why rhetorical choices create specific effects
+1 more objectives

Build complete, complex arguments — constructing clear positions, anticipating opposition, using concession and refutation, and achieving the nuance that distinguishes great argumentative writing.

•Construct arguments with a defensible thesis, relevant evidence, and sound reasoning
•Differentiate between concession (acknowledging counterarguments) and refutation (dismantling them)
•Use the Toulmin model to identify and strengthen the warrant connecting evidence to claims
+1 more objectives

The Argument Essay

Master the AP argument essay — crafting defensible theses, developing lines of reasoning, integrating evidence types, and meeting the rubric criteria for a high-scoring response.

•Write a defensible, specific thesis that responds to an argument prompt without simply restating it
•Develop a multi-step line of reasoning that connects evidence to claim through explicit warrants
•Select and integrate evidence that is relevant, sufficient, and connected to commentary
+1 more objectives

Synthesis Skills

Learn to work across multiple sources — evaluating credibility, identifying agreements and tensions, and integrating source material into a coherent argument without losing your own voice.

•Evaluate multiple sources for credibility, bias, and relevance to a central question
•Identify agreements, contradictions, and gaps across a set of sources
•Integrate source material through accurate attribution, paraphrase, and quotation
+1 more objectives

The Synthesis Essay

Master the AP synthesis essay — developing a position from multiple sources, structuring a coherent argument, incorporating sources with attribution, and meeting rubric criteria.

•Develop a defensible thesis in response to a synthesis prompt that goes beyond summary
•Selectively use at least three provided sources to support, complicate, or qualify the argument
•Integrate source material accurately with proper attribution and connected commentary
+1 more objectives

Satire and Irony

Analyze satirical techniques and irony types in nonfiction, political writing, and essays — understanding how writers use indirection, humor, and exaggeration to make arguments.

•Distinguish among verbal, situational, and dramatic irony and explain their rhetorical effects
•Identify satirical techniques including exaggeration, incongruity, parody, and reversal
•Analyze how satire functions as argument — what claims satire makes and how it makes them
+1 more objectives

Visual Rhetoric

Analyze how images, advertisements, political cartoons, and infographics make arguments through composition, symbol, color, framing, and juxtaposition.

•Apply rhetorical analysis to visual texts including photographs, advertisements, cartoons, and data visualizations
•Identify how visual elements — composition, color, framing, symbol — create meaning and argument
•Evaluate the persuasive strategies of advertising and propaganda images
+1 more objectives

AP Exam Preparation

Consolidate skills for the AP English Language exam — multiple-choice strategies, time management across three free-response questions, and a complete review of rubric criteria.

•Navigate the AP multiple-choice section efficiently using elimination, annotation, and evidence-based selection
•Allocate time effectively across all three free-response questions given their equal point value
•Identify the specific rubric criteria for each free-response question type and self-assess accordingly
+1 more objectives

AP English Language & Composition. College-level course aligned to College Board CED. Replaces English I/III.