AP English Literature Notes

Dan Parker
20 - 24 September 2010

1 The Rhetorical Situation or How to Write the AP Essay

rhetoric: the art of communication
rhetorical situation: the circumstances surrounding your act of communication
- why should we study this?
- so that we can develop new ways of communicating effectively as we find ourselves in new real-life
situations
- in other words, we won’t always have a teacher telling us what they want on an assignment
- indeed, there may be no authority figure dictating a strict format at all

1.1 The Process

- evaluate elements of the situations
- determine how to respond

1.2 Elements
1.2.1 Subject: what’s your topic?
- how broad?
- what ideas?
- what details, examples, or explanations do you want to include?
- is research or an information-gathering step necessary before starting?

1.2.2 Purpose: what’s the desired effect of this communication?

- example include:
- to entertain, arousing emotion or imagination
- to reflect, presenting a personal response to the world
- to inform, telling facts
- to persuade, attempting to change the behavior or thoughts of the audience
- multiple purposes are almost always used simultaneously

1.2.3 Audience: who will receive the communication?

- what is their age group?
- do they have comprehension limits, such as vocabulary? (obviously, you shouldn’t address a
crowd of literature professors in the same way a teacher talks to first graders)
- might the audience have a social, political, religious, or other cultural bias or prejudice about
what you are saying?
- what is the audience’s educational background?
- what does the audience expect from you?

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 1.2.4 Speaker/Persona: how do you want to appear, as a person, to the audience?
- do you want to act as yourself, or as an alter ego
- perhaps select certain characteristics of your personality so as to connect well with the audience
- you might want to project a certain attitude
- we will generally focus on persuasive writing, or the format known as

1.3 Argument
- there are three ways to argue
logos: an appeal to logic
ethos: an appeal to ethics and morality
pathos: an appeal to emotion
- all three of these are from the greek
- to use argument we start from undisputed facts and build from these to our conclusion, with
each step being a small and very well supported jump
cause and effect arguments: arguments that show how small pieces can add up to a grand
literary effect; the type of argument we will be using most often
necessary: parts of the argument that cannot be left out
sufficient: when the argument is enough to accomplish its purpose

1.4 Part of an Argument

- the methods of logic are used to accomplish this, starting with a hypothesis and ending with a
conclusion
- of course we don’t call them that

1.4.1 thesis
- the conclusion of the argument
- this is what you are trying to show

1.4.2 claim
- an assertion or idea that is not a simple fact
- a series of these subparts supports a thesis
- they make good topic sentences
- roughly equivalent to a non-trivial lemma

1.4.3 warrants
- shows how evidence supports the claim
- gives good reasons why the claim is true

1.4.4 evidence
- facts
- equivalent to the hypothesis

2 Terms and Vocabulary

- there is a very large amount of vocabulary that is used on the APE exam
- it is impractical to learn every term that might be mentioned, so we must select the most used subset
- look on quizlet for vocab lists
- pick many different sets
ca: this is so you can get many definitions, there is rarely one strict correct definition

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3 Figurative Language
figurative language: language using figures of speech; it should not be taken literall
figure of speech: any way of saying something other than the usual way
simile: comparison where the comparison is expressed by some word or phrase, e.g.:like, as, then,
similar to, resembles, seems
metaphor: unexpressed comparison; instead a figurative term is substituted for or identified with a
literal term
- four types of metaphor
- literal term can be named or implied
- figurative term can also be both
personification: giving the attributes of a human to an animal, object, or concept
- really a type of metaphor where the figurative term is a human
synecdoche: using a part of something to refer to the whole things
metonymy: substituting something closely related for an object, animal, or concept
symbol: something that means more than what it is
- obviously, this is a gross over-simplification, symbols can be very complex
allegory: a narrative or description that has a second meaning beneath the surface
- often produced with a chain of linked symbols
- very popular in medieval and Renaissance writing
- often about religion (or some aspect of one) or politics
paradox: an apparent contradiction that is nevertheless somehow true
overstatement/hyperbole: “exaggeration in the service of truth”
understatement: saying less than one means
- both overstatement and understatement can be used effectively for emphasis

3.1 irony
verbal irony: saying the opposite of what one means
sarcasm: bitter or cutting speech intended to wound the feelings
satire: ridicule of human folly or vice, with the purpose of bringing about reform or preventing these
follies or vices
- be careful not to confuse these, they are often quite similar
dramatic irony: when the audience knows something about the situation that the characters do not
situational irony: when there is a discrepancy between the actual circumstances and what seems
appropriate
- e.g. “Water, water everywhere” but “not a drop to drink”