Rule #5 Pretend You Think Vocab Is Cool

Or at least until you actually begin to appreciate the usefulness and value of vocab.

“Losing is not in my vocabulary.”
 -Ruud van Nistelrooy

 

(The image above was found on staff.rockwood.k12.mo.us)

 

Vocab is a crucial aspect of AP Lang. It not only furthers your understanding of rhetoric and argumentation, but it is one of the building blocks of the class itself. However, AP Lang vocab isn’t the same as a vocab word like “procrastination” or “catastrophe”. This vocab is comprised of  diction and tone words, rhetorical structures, modes,  and strategies, appeals, and fallacies.

Below, you will find a valuable document containing an abundance of AP Lang vocabulary terms, courtesy of Mrs. Blankenship.

MONSTER VOCAB HANDOUT 2011 2012- THE VOCABULARY OF RHETORIC AND ARGUMENTATION

Learning vocab is important to AP Lang because it allows you to understand an author’s main idea and how a text is developed. This vocab furthers your understanding of rhetoric which can increase your writing and argumentation ability.

If you don’t know the ins and outs of AP Lang vocabulary, writing research papers, analytical essays and completing mulitiple choice tests will become increasingly difficult. One foolproth vocabulary study method  is making flash cards. Not only do you have to list the term and definition, but one or two exapmles utilizing the rhetorical device can be immensely helpful as well. Running through the cards  a few times and jotting down a few examples yourself will increase your understanding of the vocabulary.

Below are three examples of sample vocabulary cards (all examples are of my own creation and all definitions are from the Vocabulary Packet noted above):