“The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.”
~Aristotle
It’s the first day of school, and consequently your first day of Advanced Placement Language and Composition. The terrible rumors from your friends, designed specifically to scare you, are haunting your every thought as you choose a seat farthest from the front. The teacher walks in. All is silent, save for a few pens clicking nervously. Your teacher begins an overview of the syllabus. Everything sounds so confusing, complicated, and daunting.
Throughout the first couple of weeks, you hear strange new words being tossed around like a basketball: chiasmus, rhetorical analysis, pathos, non sequitur, metonymy, rhetorical strategies, rhetorical devices, rhetorical modes, and rhetoric, just to name a few. Rhetoric. “What is rhetoric,” you wonder to yourself silently, hoping someone else would ask this seemingly stupid question.
But guess what? You’ll soon find out that rhetoric is what this class is about.
Fast forward to the start of Second Semester. Now, when you walk into class, it’s not with a grimace but a slight smile. Of course, AP Lang is still filled with obstacles, such as timed writings and vocabulary quizzes. But now that you’ve cleared your first road block, surviving first semester, you wish you could have told your past self a few things.
Thankfully, you stumbled upon this blog. As an AP Lang student currently wrapping up first semester, I have copious amounts of tips and tricks that can lead you to success in your AP Lang future! These are all tips I wish I knew when I started this class last September.
I hope you gain something from this blog. Preferably, that AP Lang isn’t as scary as it seems. In fact, it sometimes teaches you worthwhile and valuable lessons you will use later in your life, mainly in college. Think of AP Lang as an exciting journey around the world of rhetoric, writing, and reading. Once you understand the world of AP Lang and all of the possibilities of argumentation, it will be smooth sailing from here on out along the sea of rhetoric
(Above image found on carrilion-beach.com)
words of wisdom 