Northside College Prep HS AP English Language and Composition & AP English Literature and Composition: Some Fundamental Questions and Answers

“What would I learn in AP English Language and Composition?” As a reader, you will learn how and why nonfiction writers make the deliberate, sophisticated choices they make, given each writer’s audience and purpose. As a writer, you will learn how to make sophisticated, deliberate choices, given your mode, audience, and purpose.

“What would I learn in AP English Literature and Composition?” You will be engaged in the careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature. Through the close reading and critical analysis of imaginative texts of literary merit from a variety of historical and literary periods, you will gain a deeper understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers. As you become a more mature and sophisticated reader, you will be better able to consider a work’s structure, style, and themes as well as such smaller-scale elements as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone.

“How would I learn in AP English Language and Composition?” Close analysis of a nonfiction writer’s sophisticated, deliberate choices — and reflection on your own choices as a writer — paces the course meditatively. Rather than quick reads of many books, this careful, disciplined approach examines deeply and richly fewer texts.

“How would I learn in AP English Literature and Composition?” You will deliberately and thoroughly take time to understand a work’s complexity, to absorb its richness of meaning, and to analyze how that meaning is embodied in literary form. Careful attention to both textual detail and historical context will provide a foundation for interpretation for whatever critical perspectives are brought to bear on the literary works studied.

“What genres will AP English Language and Composition focus on?” The AP English Language exam in May emphasizes nonfiction (e.g., letters, biographies, speeches, columns, personal narrative).

“What genres will AP English Literature and Composition focus on?” The course and exam insist on the in-depth reading of works drawn from several genres and periods—from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. The concentration is on works of recognized literary merit. The works of fiction, drama, poetry, and nonfiction will invite and gratify rereading.

“How is AP English Language and Composition different from AP English Literature and Composition?” The difference is a matter of emphasis. The emphases within AP English Language and AP English Literature differ in three significant ways: (1) AP English Language emphasizes rhetorical analysis [i.e., especially within the mode of argumentation/ persuasion, what is the role of audience as it influences a writer’s techniques and purpose?] and AP English Literature emphasizes literary analysis; (2) the exam for AP English Language stresses nonfiction and the exam for AP English Literature concentrates on fiction and poetry; and (3) in both the AP English Language and the AP English Literature courses your development as a writer is as important as your development as a reader.

“May I take both AP English courses simultaneously?” No.

“During my junior year, may I take two English courses, and then eliminate my need to take an English course during my senior year?” No. You must take an English course each of your four years in high school.

“Will colleges and universities accept scores from both AP English courses?” Check the websites of colleges and/or universities in which you are interested. Examine variables such as how much credit you will receive for your AP exam score (i.e., 1-5) and how the college and/or university may use the score to place you in any one of variously leveled English courses. Understand that taking one AP English course, or both, strengthens your candidacy at nearly every college and/or university.