AP English Language & Composition Exam Prompts (1981 to 2017) YEAR Question 1 (Synthesis) Question 2 (Rhetorical Analysis) Question 3 (Argumentative) 1981 “The Rattler”- analyze effect on reader – George Bernard Shaw letter – describe Thomas Szasz – argue for or against his consider organization, point of view, writer’s attitude toward mother & her position on the struggle for definition. Use language, detail. cremation – diction and detail readings, study, or experience. 1982 A reading on happiness – summarize his Analyze the strategies or devices Describe a place, conveying feeling reasons for his opinion and explain why (organization, diction, tone, detail) that through concrete and specific detail. you agree or not with his opinion make Gov. Stevenson’s Cat Veto argument effective. 1983 A quote on change - Select a change for the Excerpt from Thomas Carlyle’s Past and Agree or disagree with the position in the better that has occurred or that you want to Present – define Carlyle’s attitude toward passage on living in an era of language occur; analyze its desirable and undesirable work and analyze how he uses language inflation by considering the ethical and effects to convince…. social consequences of language inflation. 1984 Explain the nature and importance of two Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Milton – A passage on a boxing match between or three means by which you keep track of two very short quotes on freedom – Benny Paret, a Cuban, and Emile Griffith – time and discuss how these means reveal describe the concept of freedom in each; Analyze how diction, syntax, imagery, and your person. (Hint given about “inner discuss the differences. tome produce an effect on the reader. clocks.”) 1985 Contrast stylistic and rhetorical differences Discuss the probable reasons for an Defend a position or one or more issues between two passages on the Soviet Launch anonymous writer’s additions and raised in the passage about the state of of the first space satellite deletions and the ways in which those television in the United States. revisions change the effect of the paragraph. Two drafts that record the writer’s thoughts on how the experience of war affected his attitude toward language. 1986 Explain how the two passages below by N. Choose one or more pairs of words from a Evaluate the truth of the assertion in the Scott Momaday and Dee Brown, which list and discuss and elaborate on the quotation that human nature wants describe similar landscapes, reveal the distinctions between the paired words. patterns, standards, and structures of differences in the authors’ purposes. Consider how, when, why, and by whom behavior. Consider diction, syntax, imagery, and tone. each word might be used. YEAR Question 1 (Synthesis) Question 2 (Rhetorical Analysis) Question 3 (Argumentative) 1987 Agree or disagree with E. M. Forster’s view Analyze how Zora Neale Hurston enriches Describe some major features of the that personal relations are more important our sense of her childhood world through language used in one specific group – than causes or patriotism. her diction and manipulation of point of occupational, ethnic, social, or age, etc. view. Indicate the purpose these features serve or what influences they reflect. 1988 Evaluate Alexis De Tocqueville’s assertions Analyze Frederick Douglass’ language, Pretend to contribute to a magazine or about democracy and aristocracy and his especially the figures of speech and newspaper; write an article describing a assertion that democracy “throws [man] syntax, to convey his states of mind upon place you know well that might be of back forever upon himself alone.” escaping slavery and arriving in New interest to readers. Define the York in 1838. significance, use descriptive detail to make attitude clear. 1989 Argue for or against the validity of the Describe the rhetorical purpose of Martin Missing implied criticism of a church bulletin [text Luther King’s Why We Can’t Wait. Analyze given] reprinted without other comment in its stylistic, narrative, and persuasive a magazine under the heading “The devices. Religious Life.” 1990 From an autobiography of a professional Analyze stylistic and rhetorical Vividly and concretely describe one woman pilot in Africa, analyze how the differences between two nineteenth person seen at two different times or in author’s juxtaposition of ideas, choice of century descriptions of the Galapagos two different situations so readers details, and other aspects of style reveal her Islands understand the difference in your personality. attitude, thus proving perceptions of people differ according to people’s attitudes and circumstances 1991 Analyze the language and rhetorical devices Analyze how Richard Rodriquez’s Write a persuasive essay that defends, Igor Stravinsky uses to convey his point of presentation of the events in the passage challenges, or qualifies the assertion that view about orchestra conductors. suggests his attitude toward his family “For in much wisdom is much grief, and and himself. Consider narrative structure, increase of knowledge is increase of detail, manipulation of language, and sorrow” (Ecclesiastes). tone. 1992 Analyze Queen Elizabeth I’s diction, Using your observation, experience, or Considering the choice of the word imagery, and sentence structure to achieve reading, defend, challenge, or qualify “cripple” and other rhetorical features, her purpose in her speech to her troops at Joseph Addison’s assertion that men use such as tone, word choice, and rhetorical Tilbury, 1588. ridicule to “laugh men out of virtue and structure, analyze how Nancy Mairs, who good sense.” has multiple sclerosis, presents herself. YEAR Question 1 (Synthesis) Question 2 (Rhetorical Analysis) Question 3 (Argumentative) 1993 Compare the rhetorical strategies – such as Defend, challenge, or qualify H. L. Read the paragraph for E. M. Forster’s arguments, assumptions, attitudes, diction Mencken’s views about the artist’s 1936 essay “My Wood.” Define Forster’s – used by characters from Jane Austen relation to society. Refer to particular attitude toward the experience of owning (1813) and Charles Dickens (1865). writers, composers, or other artists. property and analyze that attitude; Comment on both intended and probable consider Forster’s word choice, effects of the proposals on the women being manipulation of sentences, and use of addressed Biblical Allusions 1994 From an excerpt of Sir George Savile’s essay Defend, challenge, or qualify Barbara Characterize and analyze Joan Didion’s about King Charles II (1630 – 1685), define Tuchman’s claim that “wooden- view of the Santa Ana winds. Consider her the attitude Savile would like us to adopt headedness plays a remarkably large role stylistic elements, such as diction, about Charles II and analyze the rhetorical … in human affairs.” Use evidence and/or imagery, syntax, structure, tone, and strategies employed to promote that your observations. (From The March of selection of detail. attitude. Folly) 1995 In 1860, John Ruskin argued for giving Analyze the rhetorical techniques Ellen After reading his paragraph, defend, precedence to the soldier rather than to the Goodman uses to convey her attitude challenge, or qualify James Baldwin’s merchant or manufacturer. Evaluate his toward Phil, the subject of her piece, “The ideas about the importance of language as argument. (Excerpt included) Company Man.” a “key to identity” and social acceptance. Use your observation, experience, or readings. 1996 Read the passage from Lady Mary Wortley Read the passage from A Summer Life and Using your own knowledge and Montague’s letter to her daughter. Analyze analyze some of the ways in which Gary experience, defend, challenge, or qualify how Lady Mary (1689 – 1762) uses Soto recreates the experience of his guilty Lewis Lapham’s view of “the American rhetorical strategies and stylistic devices to six-year old self. Consider such devices as faith in money” from Money and Class in convey her views about the role knowledge contrast, reputation, pacing, diction, and America. (25 line excerpt included.) played in the lives of women of her time. imagery. 1997 Read the passage from Meena Alexander’s Read the passage from the 1845 Using your own critical understanding of Fault Lines and analyze how Alexander uses Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, contemporary society, agree or disagree language to explore and represent her an American Slave, noting such elements with Neil Postman’s assertion that Aldous fractured identity. as syntax, figurative language, and Huxley’s vision of society in Brave New selection of detail. Write an essay in World is more relevant today than is which you identify stylistic elements that George Orwell’s in 1984. distinguish third paragraph from the rest of the passage and discuss how that difference is significant YEAR Question 1 (Synthesis) Question 2 (Rhetorical Analysis) Question 3 (Argumentative) 1998 Paying particular attention to tone, analyze From Henry James’s novel The Portrait of After reading the two letters between an the techniques Charles Lamb uses to a Lady, read the conversation between executive of the Coca-Cola company and a decline William Wordsworth’s invitation to Madame Merle and Isabel Archer, noting representative of Grove Press, analyze the visit him in the country. their conflicting views about what rhetorical strategies each writer uses to constitutes the self. In a persuasive essay, achieve his purpose and explain which demonstrate which of the two letter offers the more persuasive case. conceptions of the self has greater validity. Use specific evidence from your observation, experience or reading. 1999 After reading two passages about Florida’s After reading the [3 columns long] After thinking about the implications of Okefenokee Swamp, analyze how the opening from Jamaica Kincaid’s essay, the excerpt from Antigone, explore the distinctive style of each reveals the purpose “On Seeing England for the First Time,” validity of the assertion that “The only / of its writer. analyze the rhetorical strategies Kincaid Crime is pride.” Use examples from your employs to convey her attitude toward reading, observation, or experience.