The Language of Composition
Third Edition ©2018 Renee Shea; Lawrence Scanlon; Robin Dissin Aufses; Megan Harowitz Pankiewicz
Authors
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Renee Shea
Renée H. Shea was professor of English and Modern Languages and director of freshman composition at Bowie State University in Maryland, where she taught graduate seminars in rhetoric. A College Board faculty consultant for more than thirty years in AP® Language and Literature, and Pre-AP® English, she has been a reader and question leader for both AP® English exams. Renée served as a member on many committees for the College Board, including the AP® Language and Composition Development Committee, the English Academic Advisory Committee, and the SAT Critical Reading Test Development Committee. She is co-author of Literature & Composition, American Literature & Rhetoric, Conversations in American Literature, Advanced Language & Literature, and Foundations of Language & Literature, as well as volumes on Amy Tan and Zora Neale Hurston for the NCTE High School Literature Series. Renée continues to write about contemporary authors for publications such as World Literature Today, Poets & Writers, and Kenyon Review. Her recent publications focused on Celeste Ng, Imbolo Mbue, Namwali Serpell, Manuel Muñoz, and Ohio’s 2020–2024 poet laureate, Kari Gunter-Seymour.
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Lawrence Scanlon
Lawrence Scanlon taught at Brewster High School for more than thirty years and then for another ten years at Iona College in New York. For twenty-five years, he was a Reader and Question Leader for the AP® Language and Composition Exam. As a College Board consultant over that same period of time, he has conducted AP® workshops in both AP® English Language and AP® English Literature throughout the United States and in South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. He has also provided professional development as a private consultant for many school districts. He served on the PSAT Review Committee and the AP® English Language Test Development Committee. Larry is co-author of Literature & Composition, American Literature & Rhetoric, and Conversations in American Literature and has published articles on curriculum and method for the College Board and elsewhere.
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Robin Aufses
Robin Dissin Aufses is director of English Studies at Lycée Français de New York, where she teaches AP® English Language and Composition. Previous to this position, Robin was the English department chair and a teacher at John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore, New York, and prior to that she taught English at Paul D. Schreiber High School in Port Washington, New York. She taught AP® English Literature and AP® English Language at both schools. She is co-author of Literature & Composition, American Literature & Rhetoric, and Conversations in American Literature and has published articles for the College Board on novelist Chang-rae Lee and the novel All the King’s Men.
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Megan M. Harowitz
Megan M. Harowitz is a National Board Certified Teacher with over ten years of experience in the secondary English Language Arts classroom. She has received distinctions including the National Council of Teachers of English High School Teacher of Excellence (FL) She has served as President and Executive Director of the Florida Council of Teachers of English. Megan currently works at Rockville High School (MD) as the Staff Development teacher, AP® Coordinator, and AP® Language teacher. She is also a co-author of The Language of Composition, 3rd edition.
Table of Contents
Preface
1 Introducing Rhetoric: Using the “Available Means”
Activity Understanding Civil Discourse
The Rhetorical Situation
Lou Gehrig, Farewell Speech
Occasion, Context, and Purpose
Activity Analyzing a Rhetorical Situation
The Rhetorical Triangle
Activity Mina Shahinfar, First Person
ANALYZING VISUAL TEXTS
Recognizing Rhetoric
Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait on the Borderline between Mexico and the United States (painting)
Activity Newell Convers Wyeth, Covered Wagons Heading West (painting)
Appeals to Ethos, Logos, and Pathos
Ethos
Automatic Ethos
King George VI, The King’s Speech (September 3, 1939)
Building Ethos
J. D. Vance, from Hillbilly Elegy
Activity Establishing Ethos
Logos
Conceding and Refuting
Alice Waters, from Slow Food Nation
Activity Tim Wu, from Mother Nature Is Brought to You By…
Pathos
Richard Nixon, from The Checkers Speech
Activity Dwight D. Eisenhower, Order of the Day
Combining Ethos, Logos, and Pathos
Benjamin Banneker, from Letter to Thomas Jefferson
Activity Appealing to Ethos, Logos, and Pathos
ANALYZING VISUAL TEXTS
Identifying Rhetorical Appeals
Tom Toles, Rosa Parks (cartoon)
Activity Nate Beeler, Government Is Watching (cartoon)
Taking Rhetorical Risks
Anne Applebaum, If the Japanese Cant Build a Safe Reactor, Who Can?
Activity Using Effective Rhetoric on Social Media
Humor and Satire in Rhetoric
Alexandra Petri, Barbie Is Past Saving
Broti Gupta, The Rules of United Airlines Fight or Flight Club
Activity The Onion, Girl Moved to Tears by "Of Mice and Men" Cliff’s Notes
ANALYZING VISUAL TEXTS
Taking Rhetorical Risks
Rolling Stone magazine, The Bomber (magazine cover)
Activity Taking Rhetorical Risks
Culminating Activity Helen Keller, Letter to Mark
2 Close Reading: The Art and Craft of Rhetorical Analysis
Analyzing Rhetorical Strategies
A Model Analysis
Queen Elizabeth I, Speech to the Troops at Tilbury
Activity Looking at Rhetoric and Style
Activity Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Restoring Black History
Talking with the Text
Asking Questions
Geoffrey Nunberg, from The Decline of Grammar
Activity Geoffrey Nunberg, from The Decline of Grammar
Annotating
Florence Kelley, Speech on Child Labor
Using a Graphic Organizer
From Close Reading to Rhetorical Analysis
Activity Winston Churchill, Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat
ANALYZING VISUAL TEXTS
Close Reading
Dodge, It’s a Big Fat Juicy Cheeseburger in a Land of Tofu (advertisement)
Activity Coach 1941, Spring 2016 (advertisement)
From Analysis to Essay: Writing a Rhetorical Analysis Essay
Shirley Chisholm, from People and Peace, Not Profits and War
Preparing to Write
Developing a Thesis Statement
Organizing a Rhetorical Analysis Essay
Integrating Quotations
Documenting Sources
A Sample Rhetorical Analysis Essay
Culminating Activity Hillary Clinton, 2016 Concession Speech
3 Analyzing Arguments: From Reading to Writing
What Is Argument?
Tom Toles, Crazed Rhetoric (cartoon)
Amy Domini, Why Investing in Fast Food May Be a Good Thing
Activity Finding Common Ground
Staking a Claim
Activity Identifying Arguable Statements
Types of Claims
Claims of Fact
Claims of Value
Roger Ebert, Star Wars
Activity Analyzing a Review
Claims of Policy
Anna Quindlen, from The C Word in the Hallways
Activity New York Times Editorial Board, Felons and the Right to Vote
ANALYZING VISUAL TEXTS
Identifying Claims
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, Information is Ammunition (advertisement)
Activity World Wildlife Fund, Tarzan (advertisement)
From Claim to Thesis
Closed Thesis Statements
Open Thesis Statements
Counterargument Thesis Statements
Presenting Evidence
Relevant, Accurate, and Sufficient Evidence
Logical Fallacies
Fallacies of Relevance
Fallacies of Accuracy
Fallacies of Insufficiency
Activity Francine Prose, from I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read
ANALYZING VISUAL TEXTS
Identifying Fallacies
PETA, You Wouldn’t Let Your Child Smoke (advertisement)
Heap Analytics, Same Data, Different Y-Axis (graphs)
Activity Omega Watch, George Clooney’s Choice (advertisement)
U.S. Department of Education, High School Graduation Rate (graph)
First-Hand Evidence
Personal Experience
Jennifer Oladipo, Why Can’t Environmentalism Be Colorblind?
Anecdotes
Fabiola Santiago, In College, These American Citizens Are Not Created Equal
Current Events
Charles Camosy, from Trump Won Because College-Educated Americans Are Out of Touch
Second-Hand Evidence
Historical Information
Expert Opinion
Quantitative Evidence
Activity Nicholas Kristof, Do You Care More About a Dog Than a Refugee?
Shaping Argument
Classical Oration
Sandra Day O’Connor and Roy Romer, Not by Math Alone
Induction and Deduction
Induction
Malcolm Gladwell, from Outliers
Deduction
Combining Induction and Deduction
Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence
Using Rogerian Argument
Using the Toulmin Model
Activity Using Argument Templates
Analyzing Assumptions
Activity Identifying Assumptions
Activity Michael Bloomberg, Ground Zero Mosque Speech
ANALYZING VISUAL TEXTS
Examining Arguments
Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother (photograph)
Activity The New Yorker, July 11 & 18, 2016 (magazine cover)
ANALYZING VISUAL TEXTS
Evaluating Arguments
Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother (photograph)
Activity The New Yorker, July 11 & 18, 2016 (magazine cover)
Activity Michael Bloomberg, Ground Zero Mosque Speech
From Reading to Writing: The Argumentative Essay
Preparing to Write
Establishing a Position
Considering Questions of Fact, Value, and Policy
Crafting a Thesis
Activity Developing Thesis Statements
Organizing Your Argument
Introducing Your Argument
Informing Your Audience
Supporting Your Argument
Acknowledging and Refuting the Counterargument
Concluding Your Argument
A Sample Argumentative Essay
Culminating Activity Writing an Argumentative Essay
4 Synthesizing Sources: Entering the Conversation
What Is Synthesis?
Approaching Sources
Activity Playing the Believing Game
Using Sources to Inform an Argument
Laura Hillenbrand, from Seabiscuit
Activity Gerald L. Early, from A Level Playing Field
Using Sources to Appeal to an Audience
Steven Pinker, from Words Don’t Mean What They Mean
Steven Pinker, from The Stuff of Thought
Steven Pinker, from The Evolutionary Social Psychology of Off-Record Indirect Speech Acts
Activity Examining a Columnist
Conversation Is Technology Making Us Dumber?
Activity Establishing a Position
1. Mark Bauerlein, from The Dumbest Generation
Activity Mark Bauerlein, from The Dumbest Generation
2. Alison Gopnik, Is “Screen Time” Dangerous for Children?
Activity Examining Two Sources: Bauerlein and Gopnik
3. R. Smith Simpson, from Are We Getting Our Share of the Best?
4. Jacqueline Howard, This Is How the Internet Is Rewiring Your Brain
Activity Examining Two Sources: Simpson and Howard
5. Nicholas Carr, The Illusion of Knowledge
6. Michael Agger, from Interview with Clive Thompsons Smarter Than You Think
Activity Finding Common Ground
7. Sherry Turkle, from Stop Googling. Let’s Talk.
Activity Sherry Turkle, from Stop Googling. Let’s Talk.
8. Pew Research Center, Americans Cell Phone Use During Social Activity (graph)
Activity Identifying Key Conversation Issues
Writing a Synthesis Essay
Identifying the Issues: Recognizing Complexity
Formulating Your Position
Activity Supporting a Thesis
Framing Quotations
Integrating Quotations
Activity Using Sources Effectively
Citing Sources
A Sample Synthesis Essay
Culminating Conversation Mandatory Community Service
1. Barack Obama, from Commencement Address at Wesleyan University
2. Frank Bruni, from To Get to Harvard, Go to Haiti?
3. Lily Lou, The Downside of School Volunteer Requirements
4. Corporation for National and Community Service, Volunteering: A Pathway to Employment (infographic)
6. Detroit News, Volunteering Opens Teen’s Eyes to Nursing
7. Eliza McGraw, from With a Homeless Center on Campus, Students Have an Unusual Chance to Serve
5 Education
To what extent do our schools serve the goals of a true education?
Central Essay
Fareed Zakaria, from In Defense of a Liberal Education
Classic Essay
Frederick Douglass, The Blessings of Liberty and Education
Other Voices
Ralph Waldo Emerson, from Education
James Baldwin, A Talk to Teachers
Lori Arviso Alvord, Walking the Path Between Worlds
Francine Prose, I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read
David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day
Barbara Oakley, Why Virtual Classes Can Be Better Than Real Ones
Nicholas Kristof, My Friend, the Former Muslim Extremist
Danielle Allen, What Is Education For?
Nikole Hannah-Jones, Have We Lost Sight of the Promise of Public Schools?
Visual Texts
Cyril Edward Power, The Exam Room (linocut)
Roz Chast, What I Learned: A Sentimental Education from Nursery School through Twelfth Grade (cartoon)
Conversation The Future of High School
1. Horace Mann, from Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education
2. Leon Botstein, Let Teenagers Try Adulthood
3. Meditation in Schools across America (infographic)
4. Nicholas Wyman, Why We Desperately Need to Bring Back Vocational Training In Schools
5. Amanda Ripley, What America Can Learn from Smart Schools in Other Countries
6. Leslie Nguyen-Okwu, How High Schools Are Demolishing the Classroom
7. Brentin Mock, from We Will Pay High School Students to Go to School. And We Will Like It.
8. Amy Rolph, This High School Wants to Revolutionize Learning with Technology
AP®-Style Multiple-Choice Questions
Fareed Zakaria, from In Defense of a Liberal Education
Frederick Douglass, from The Blessings of Liberty and Education
Suggestions for Writing
Education
6 Popular Culture
To what extent does pop culture reflect our society’s values?
Central Essay
James McBride, Hip Hop Planet
Classic Essay
Mark Twain, Corn-Pone Opinions
Other Voices
Ray Bradbury, The Affluence of Despair
David Denby, High-School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies
Emily Nussbaum, The Price Is Right: What Advertising Does to TV
Troy Patterson, How the Motorcycle Jacket Lost Its Cool and Found It Again
Hua Hsu, How to Listen to Music
Angelica Jade Bastién, Have Superheroes Killed the Movie Star?
Mark Greif, Get Off the Treadmill: The Art of Living Well in the Age of Plenty
Justin Peters, The Ballad of Balloon Boy
Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize Banquet Speech
Visual Texts
John Singer Sargent, Mrs. Carl Meyer and Her Children (painting)
Andy Warhol, Myths (painting)
from Formation (photograph)
Conversation The Value of Celebrity Activism
1. C. Wright Mills, from The Power Elite
2. Dave Gilson, Dr. Clooney, I Presume? (illustration)
3. Brad Knickerbocker, West Memphis Three: Internet Campaign, Hollywood Drove Their Release
4. Andres Jimenez, Why Celebrity Activism Does More Harm Than Good
5. Jeffrey Kluger, Jim Carrey, Please Shut Up about Vaccines
6. Georgia Cole, Ben Radley, and Jean-Benoit Falîsse, Who Really Benefits from Celebrity Activism?
7. Joshua Ostroff, Beyoncé and Why Celebrity Activists Matter
8. Jay Caspian Kang, Should Athletes Stick to Sports?
AP®-Style Multiple-Choice Questions
James McBride, from Hip-Hop Planet
Mark Twain, from Corn Pone Opinions
Suggestions for Writing
Popular Culture
7 The Environment
What is our responsibility to the natural environment?
Central Essay
Rachel Carson, from Silent Spring
Classic Essay
Ralph Waldo Emerson, from Nature
Other Voices
Aldo Leopold, from The Land Ethic
Lewis Thomas, Natural Man
Terry Tempest Williams, The Clan of One-Breasted Women
Wangari Maathai, Nobel Prize Lecture
Bill McKibben, A Moral Atmosphere
Barry Yeoman, From Billions to None
Joel Achenbach, Why Science Is So Hard to Believe
Sarah Zhang, Save the Galapagos with GMO Rats. What Could Go Wrong?
E. O. Wilson, A Biologist’s Manifesto for Preserving Life on Earth
John Mooallem, Our Climate Future Is Actually Our Climate Present
Visual Texts
Robert Crumb, A Short History of America (cartoon)
Royal Dutch/Shell, Let’s Go (advertisement)
Conversation Sustainable Eating
1. Michael Pollan, from Unhappy Meals
2. James McWilliams, The Locavore Myth
3. Nicolette Hahn Niman, The Carnivore’s Dilemma
4. Jonathan Safran Foer, Let Them Eat Dog: A Modest Proposal for Tossing Fido in the Oven
5. Will Allen, A Good Food Manifesto for America
6. Aliza Eliazarov, from Waste Not (visual essay)
7. Emily Anthes, from Could Insects Be the Wonder Food of the Future?
8. Bahar Gholipour, Lab-Grown Meat May Save a Lot More Than Farm Animals’ Lives
AP®-Style Multiple-Choice Questions
Rachel Carson, from Silent Spring
Ralph Waldo Emerson, from Nature
Suggestions for Writing
The Environment
8 Community
What is the relationship of the individual to the community?
Central Essay
Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail
Classic Essay
Henry David Thoreau, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
Other Voices
Oliver Goldsmith, National Prejudices
Robert D. Putnam, Health and Happiness
Amy Tan, Mother Tongue
Rebecca Solnit, from A Paradise Built in Hell
Malcolm Gladwell, Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted
Lee Smith, Raised to Leave: Some Thoughts on "Culture"
David Brooks, How Covenants Make Us
Sebastian Junger, from Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging
J. D. Vance, Why I’m Moving Home
Ted Closson, A GoFundMe Campaign Is Not Health Insurance (graphic essay)
Visual Texts
Norman Rockwell, Freedom from Want (painting)
Nissan Motor Company, The Black Experience Is Everywhere (advertisement)
Conversation Building Online Communities
1. Laura Hudson, from Curbing Online Abuse Isn’t Impossible. Heres Where We Start.
2. Pew Research Center, Online Harassment (graphs)
3. Emma Sterland, Online Forums Are a Lifeline for Isolated Parents of Disabled Children
4. Sven Birkerts, from Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age
5. Dex Torricke-Barton, from How the Internet Is Uniting the World
6. Mallory Ortberg, from The Companions of My Heart: On Making Friends on the Internet
7. Jenna Wortham, from Is Social Media Disconnecting Us from the Big Picture?
8. Emerson Csorba, The Constant Sharing Is Making Us Competitive and Depressed
AP®-Style Multiple-Choice Questions
Martin Luther King, Jr., from Letter from Birmingham Jail
Henry David Thoreau, from Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
Suggestions for Writing
Community
9 Sports
How do the values of sports affect the way we see ourselves?
Central Essay
Gay Talese, The Silent Season of a Hero
Classic Essay
Frances Willard, from How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle: Reflection of an Influential Nineteenth-Century Woman
Other Voices
Theodore Roosevelt, The Proper Place for Sports
William Faulkner, An Innocent at Rinkside
Joyce Carol Oates, The Cruelest Sport
Jane Smiley, Barbaro, The Heart in the Winner’s Circle
Malcolm Gladwell, Man and Superman
Claudia Rankine, The Meaning of Serena Williams
Michael Powell, Uprooted to Brooklyn, and Nourished by Cricket
Rahawa Haile, How Black Books Lit My Way Along the Appalachian Trail
Visual Texts
New York World, The Twelfth Player in Every Football Game (cartoon)
Sports Illustrated, Yes! (magazine cover)
Conversation Paying College Athletes
1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, from College Athletes of the World, Unite
2. Rosalyn R. Ross, Paying Student Athletes Is More Than Just a Question of Compensation
3. Ekow N. Yankah, Why N.C.A.A. Athletes Shouldn’t Be Paid
4. Joe Nocera, A Way to Start Paying College Athletes
5. John R. Thelin, Here’s Why We Shouldn’t Pay College Athletes
6. Nigel Hayes, Broke College Athlete (photograph)
7. Shane Battier, from Let Athletes Be Students
8. Patrick Hruby, from Does Racial Resentment Fuel Opposition to Paying College Athletes?
AP®-Style Multiple-Choice Questions
Gay Talese, from The Silent Season of a Hero
Frances Willard, from How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle
Suggestions for Writing
Sports
10 Money
What is the role of money in our everyday lives?
Central Essay
Barbara Ehrenreich, from Serving in Florida
Classic Essay
Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal
Other Voices
Andre Carnegie, from The Gospel of Wealth
Booker T. Washington, The Atlanta Exposition Address
Lars Eighner, On Dumpster Diving
Eric Schlosser, from In the Strawberry Fields
Peter Singer, The Singer Solution to World Poverty
Carmen Maria Machado, Luxury Shopping, from the Other Side of the Register
Charles Murray, A Guaranteed Income for Every American
Jia Tolentino, The Gig Economy Celebrates Working Yourself to Death
Matthew Desmond, from House Rules: How Homeownership Became the Engine of American Inequality
Visual Texts
Diego Rivera, Night of the Rich (mural)
Hazel Florez, Panama Papers (collage)
Conversation The Cost of College
1. Sara Goldrick-Rab and Nancy Kendall, Make the First Two Years of College Free
2. Matt Bruenig, The Case against Free College
3. Gallup, The Relationship between Student Debt, Experiences and Perceptions of College Worth (graphs)
4. Bernie Sanders, Make College Free for All
5. Keith Ellison, The Argument for Tuition-Free College
6. Thomas Sowell, No Way That Going to College Can, or Should Be, Free
7. Anya Kamenetz, Is Free College Really Free?
AP®-Style Multiple-Choice Questions
Barbara Ehrenreich, from Serving in Florida
Jonathan Swift, from A Modest Proposal
Suggestions for Writing
Money
11 Gender
What is the impact of the gender roles that society creates and enforces?
Central Essay
Alice Walker, In Search of Our Mothers Gardens
Classic Essay
Virginia Woolf, Professions for Women
Other Voices
John and Abigail Adams, Letters
Charlotte Brontë, Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell
Judy Brady, I Want a Wife
Stephen Jay Gould, Women’s Brains
Brent Staples, Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space
Jimmy Carter, Losing My Religion for Equality
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Why Can’t a Smart Woman Love Fashion?
Jessa Crispin, from Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto
Cristina Henríquez, Doubly Denied
Zoe Williams, Why Wonder Woman Is a Masterpiece of Subversive Feminism
Visual Texts
Charles Le Brun, Chancellor Séguier at the Entry of Louis XIV into Paris in 1660 (painting) & Kehinde Wiley, The Chancellor Séguier on Horseback (painting)
J. Howard Miller, We Can Do It! (poster) & Abigail Gray Swartz, The March (magazine cover)
Conversation Defining Masculinity
1. Leonard McCombe, Marlboro Man (photo)
2. Paul Theroux, Being a Man
3. Stephanie Coontz, from The Myth of Male Decline
4. Kali Holloway, from Toxic Masculinity Is Killing Men
5. Roberto A. Ferdman, The Perils of Being Manly
6. Frank Miniter, The Hard, Adrenaline-Soaked Truth about “Toxic Masculinity”
7. Emily Bobrow, from The Man Trap
8. Andrew Reiner, Talking to Boys the Way We Talk to Girls
AP®-Style Multiple-Choice Questions
Alice Walker, from In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens
Virginia Woolf, from Professions for Women
Suggestions for Writing
Gender
12 Justice
To what extent do our laws and politics reflect the values of a just society?
Central Essay
Ta-Nehisi Coates, from Between the World and Me
Classic Essay
Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
Other Voices
Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address
Emmeline Pankhurst, from Freedom or Death
George Orwell, Politics and the English Language
Earl Warren, A Home for American Jurisprudence
John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address
Ronald Reagan, Statement on United States Immigration and Refugee Policy
Robert C. Solomon, from Justice and the Passion for Vengeance
Naomi Shihab Nye, To Any Would-Be Terrorists
Atul Gawande, from Hellhole
Barack Obama, Remarks by the President at the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery Marches
Jennifer Lackey, The Irrationality of Natural Life Sentences
Mitch Landrieu, Truth: Remarks on the Removal of Confederate Monuments in New Orleans
Bryan Stevenson, A Presumption of Guilt
Patrick Radden Keefe, Why Corrupt Bankers Avoid Jail
Visual Texts
George Biddle, Society Freed through Justice (mural)
Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People (painting) & Sandow Birk, Injustice Leading Greed and Opportunity (painting)
Conversation The Limits of Free Speech
1. Thane Rosenbaum, Should Neo-Nazis Be Allowed Free Speech?
2. Eugene Volokh, No, There’s No “Hate Speech” Exception to the First Amendment
3. Sean Stevens and Nick Phillips, Free Speech is the Most Effective Antidote to Hate Speech
4. Lata Nott, Free Speech Isn’t Always Valuable. That’s Not the Point.
5. Laura Beth Nielsen, The Case for Restricting Hate Speech
6. Signe Wilkinson, Free Speech (cartoon)
AP®-Style Multiple-Choice Questions
Ta-Nehisi Coates, from Between the World and Me
Henry David Thoreau, from The Duty of Civil Disobedience
Suggestions for Writing
Justice
Appendix A: Grammar as Rhetoric and Style
Part 1 Diction and Syntax
1. Appositives
2. Modifiers
3. Pronouns
4. Direct, Precise, and Active Verbs
5. Concise Diction
Part 2 Syntax and Structure
6. Parallel Structures
7. Short Simple Sentences and Fragments
8. Cumulative, Periodic, and Inverted Sentences
9. Subordination in Complex Sentences
Appendix B: Argument Strategies
Rogerian Argument
E. O. Wilson, from Letter to a Southern Baptist Pastor
Activity Mitch Landrieu, from Truth: Remarks on the Removal of
Confederate Monuments in New Orleans
Appendix C: Practice AP® English Language and Composition Exam
Appendix D: MLA Guidelines for a List of Works Cited
Glossary
Acknowledgments
Index
Product Updates
Our opening four chapters provide the reading and the writing support your students need to succeed in the AP® English Language course and on the exam. Chapter 1 lays the groundwork for understanding rhetoric, and Chapters 2-4 walk students through how to write effective, insightful rhetorical analysis essays, argument essays, and synthesis essays.
Full-Color Design, and Emphasis on Visual Analysis.
The world is full of visual information and arguments, and students need to be equipped with critical skills to understand and analyze. In this Third Edition of The Language of Composition, we are putting a greater emphasis on understanding how visual arguments work, with Analyzing Visual Texts sections in the opening chapters, and engaging full-color photos, fine art, posters, infographics, charts, and graphs throughout the book, paired with probing analysis questions.
Analyzing visuals isn’t on the exam, but we believe that it can help bring a text to life, foster creative analysis, and be a springboard to textual analysis for visually-oriented students. In this edition of The Language of Composition, we have made the book full color so that these visuals can be included in their original format right alongside the texts they inform. These visuals are never mere decoration; each image is accompanied with an analytical question connecting back to the text.
New Chapter on Justice. This eternal idea is becoming increasingly vital in today’s world. In this new chapter on justice, we address timeless topics such as free speech, civil rights, vengeance, and guilt versus innocence. With readings that span the nineteenth century through the present day, this chapter will be sure to capture your students’ attention and spark dynamic class discussion.
Five new conversations — on timely issues like the limits of free speech, whether college should be free, and the value of celebrity activism — feature questions that help students transition from comparison to synthesis.
130 new pieces of nonfiction include high-interest contemporary essays by writers such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Bob Dylan, Atul Gawande, Sebastian Junger, Nicholas Kristof, Naomi Shihab Nye, Claudia Rankine, Rebecca Solnit, Amy Tan, J. D. Vance, and Fareed Zakaria.
AP®-Style Exam Practice Right in the Book
This edition puts two sets of AP®-style multiple-choice at the end of each thematic chapter, and a sample exam at the end of the book to give all students a chance to encounter AP®-style items, and grow accustomed to both what is asked, and how it is asked. Multiple-choice, found in each thematic chapter, can also be good opportunities for formative assessment, class discussion, group work, and other in-class activities.
New Wrap-Around Teacher’s Edition. Forget everything you think you know about Teacher’s Editions. This invaluable tool, written by experienced AP® teachers is like an on-going workshop right in the margins of your book. With planning tools, lesson plans, just-in-time teaching ideas, and more, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.
Authors
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Renee Shea
Renée H. Shea was professor of English and Modern Languages and director of freshman composition at Bowie State University in Maryland, where she taught graduate seminars in rhetoric. A College Board faculty consultant for more than thirty years in AP® Language and Literature, and Pre-AP® English, she has been a reader and question leader for both AP® English exams. Renée served as a member on many committees for the College Board, including the AP® Language and Composition Development Committee, the English Academic Advisory Committee, and the SAT Critical Reading Test Development Committee. She is co-author of Literature & Composition, American Literature & Rhetoric, Conversations in American Literature, Advanced Language & Literature, and Foundations of Language & Literature, as well as volumes on Amy Tan and Zora Neale Hurston for the NCTE High School Literature Series. Renée continues to write about contemporary authors for publications such as World Literature Today, Poets & Writers, and Kenyon Review. Her recent publications focused on Celeste Ng, Imbolo Mbue, Namwali Serpell, Manuel Muñoz, and Ohio’s 2020–2024 poet laureate, Kari Gunter-Seymour.
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Lawrence Scanlon
Lawrence Scanlon taught at Brewster High School for more than thirty years and then for another ten years at Iona College in New York. For twenty-five years, he was a Reader and Question Leader for the AP® Language and Composition Exam. As a College Board consultant over that same period of time, he has conducted AP® workshops in both AP® English Language and AP® English Literature throughout the United States and in South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. He has also provided professional development as a private consultant for many school districts. He served on the PSAT Review Committee and the AP® English Language Test Development Committee. Larry is co-author of Literature & Composition, American Literature & Rhetoric, and Conversations in American Literature and has published articles on curriculum and method for the College Board and elsewhere.
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Robin Aufses
Robin Dissin Aufses is director of English Studies at Lycée Français de New York, where she teaches AP® English Language and Composition. Previous to this position, Robin was the English department chair and a teacher at John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore, New York, and prior to that she taught English at Paul D. Schreiber High School in Port Washington, New York. She taught AP® English Literature and AP® English Language at both schools. She is co-author of Literature & Composition, American Literature & Rhetoric, and Conversations in American Literature and has published articles for the College Board on novelist Chang-rae Lee and the novel All the King’s Men.
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Megan M. Harowitz
Megan M. Harowitz is a National Board Certified Teacher with over ten years of experience in the secondary English Language Arts classroom. She has received distinctions including the National Council of Teachers of English High School Teacher of Excellence (FL) She has served as President and Executive Director of the Florida Council of Teachers of English. Megan currently works at Rockville High School (MD) as the Staff Development teacher, AP® Coordinator, and AP® Language teacher. She is also a co-author of The Language of Composition, 3rd edition.
Table of Contents
Preface
1 Introducing Rhetoric: Using the “Available Means”
Activity Understanding Civil Discourse
The Rhetorical Situation
Lou Gehrig, Farewell Speech
Occasion, Context, and Purpose
Activity Analyzing a Rhetorical Situation
The Rhetorical Triangle
Activity Mina Shahinfar, First Person
ANALYZING VISUAL TEXTS
Recognizing Rhetoric
Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait on the Borderline between Mexico and the United States (painting)
Activity Newell Convers Wyeth, Covered Wagons Heading West (painting)
Appeals to Ethos, Logos, and Pathos
Ethos
Automatic Ethos
King George VI, The King’s Speech (September 3, 1939)
Building Ethos
J. D. Vance, from Hillbilly Elegy
Activity Establishing Ethos
Logos
Conceding and Refuting
Alice Waters, from Slow Food Nation
Activity Tim Wu, from Mother Nature Is Brought to You By…
Pathos
Richard Nixon, from The Checkers Speech
Activity Dwight D. Eisenhower, Order of the Day
Combining Ethos, Logos, and Pathos
Benjamin Banneker, from Letter to Thomas Jefferson
Activity Appealing to Ethos, Logos, and Pathos
ANALYZING VISUAL TEXTS
Identifying Rhetorical Appeals
Tom Toles, Rosa Parks (cartoon)
Activity Nate Beeler, Government Is Watching (cartoon)
Taking Rhetorical Risks
Anne Applebaum, If the Japanese Cant Build a Safe Reactor, Who Can?
Activity Using Effective Rhetoric on Social Media
Humor and Satire in Rhetoric
Alexandra Petri, Barbie Is Past Saving
Broti Gupta, The Rules of United Airlines Fight or Flight Club
Activity The Onion, Girl Moved to Tears by "Of Mice and Men" Cliff’s Notes
ANALYZING VISUAL TEXTS
Taking Rhetorical Risks
Rolling Stone magazine, The Bomber (magazine cover)
Activity Taking Rhetorical Risks
Culminating Activity Helen Keller, Letter to Mark
2 Close Reading: The Art and Craft of Rhetorical Analysis
Analyzing Rhetorical Strategies
A Model Analysis
Queen Elizabeth I, Speech to the Troops at Tilbury
Activity Looking at Rhetoric and Style
Activity Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Restoring Black History
Talking with the Text
Asking Questions
Geoffrey Nunberg, from The Decline of Grammar
Activity Geoffrey Nunberg, from The Decline of Grammar
Annotating
Florence Kelley, Speech on Child Labor
Using a Graphic Organizer
From Close Reading to Rhetorical Analysis
Activity Winston Churchill, Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat
ANALYZING VISUAL TEXTS
Close Reading
Dodge, It’s a Big Fat Juicy Cheeseburger in a Land of Tofu (advertisement)
Activity Coach 1941, Spring 2016 (advertisement)
From Analysis to Essay: Writing a Rhetorical Analysis Essay
Shirley Chisholm, from People and Peace, Not Profits and War
Preparing to Write
Developing a Thesis Statement
Organizing a Rhetorical Analysis Essay
Integrating Quotations
Documenting Sources
A Sample Rhetorical Analysis Essay
Culminating Activity Hillary Clinton, 2016 Concession Speech
3 Analyzing Arguments: From Reading to Writing
What Is Argument?
Tom Toles, Crazed Rhetoric (cartoon)
Amy Domini, Why Investing in Fast Food May Be a Good Thing
Activity Finding Common Ground
Staking a Claim
Activity Identifying Arguable Statements
Types of Claims
Claims of Fact
Claims of Value
Roger Ebert, Star Wars
Activity Analyzing a Review
Claims of Policy
Anna Quindlen, from The C Word in the Hallways
Activity New York Times Editorial Board, Felons and the Right to Vote
ANALYZING VISUAL TEXTS
Identifying Claims
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, Information is Ammunition (advertisement)
Activity World Wildlife Fund, Tarzan (advertisement)
From Claim to Thesis
Closed Thesis Statements
Open Thesis Statements
Counterargument Thesis Statements
Presenting Evidence
Relevant, Accurate, and Sufficient Evidence
Logical Fallacies
Fallacies of Relevance
Fallacies of Accuracy
Fallacies of Insufficiency
Activity Francine Prose, from I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read
ANALYZING VISUAL TEXTS
Identifying Fallacies
PETA, You Wouldn’t Let Your Child Smoke (advertisement)
Heap Analytics, Same Data, Different Y-Axis (graphs)
Activity Omega Watch, George Clooney’s Choice (advertisement)
U.S. Department of Education, High School Graduation Rate (graph)
First-Hand Evidence
Personal Experience
Jennifer Oladipo, Why Can’t Environmentalism Be Colorblind?
Anecdotes
Fabiola Santiago, In College, These American Citizens Are Not Created Equal
Current Events
Charles Camosy, from Trump Won Because College-Educated Americans Are Out of Touch
Second-Hand Evidence
Historical Information
Expert Opinion
Quantitative Evidence
Activity Nicholas Kristof, Do You Care More About a Dog Than a Refugee?
Shaping Argument
Classical Oration
Sandra Day O’Connor and Roy Romer, Not by Math Alone
Induction and Deduction
Induction
Malcolm Gladwell, from Outliers
Deduction
Combining Induction and Deduction
Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence
Using Rogerian Argument
Using the Toulmin Model
Activity Using Argument Templates
Analyzing Assumptions
Activity Identifying Assumptions
Activity Michael Bloomberg, Ground Zero Mosque Speech
ANALYZING VISUAL TEXTS
Examining Arguments
Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother (photograph)
Activity The New Yorker, July 11 & 18, 2016 (magazine cover)
ANALYZING VISUAL TEXTS
Evaluating Arguments
Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother (photograph)
Activity The New Yorker, July 11 & 18, 2016 (magazine cover)
Activity Michael Bloomberg, Ground Zero Mosque Speech
From Reading to Writing: The Argumentative Essay
Preparing to Write
Establishing a Position
Considering Questions of Fact, Value, and Policy
Crafting a Thesis
Activity Developing Thesis Statements
Organizing Your Argument
Introducing Your Argument
Informing Your Audience
Supporting Your Argument
Acknowledging and Refuting the Counterargument
Concluding Your Argument
A Sample Argumentative Essay
Culminating Activity Writing an Argumentative Essay
4 Synthesizing Sources: Entering the Conversation
What Is Synthesis?
Approaching Sources
Activity Playing the Believing Game
Using Sources to Inform an Argument
Laura Hillenbrand, from Seabiscuit
Activity Gerald L. Early, from A Level Playing Field
Using Sources to Appeal to an Audience
Steven Pinker, from Words Don’t Mean What They Mean
Steven Pinker, from The Stuff of Thought
Steven Pinker, from The Evolutionary Social Psychology of Off-Record Indirect Speech Acts
Activity Examining a Columnist
Conversation Is Technology Making Us Dumber?
Activity Establishing a Position
1. Mark Bauerlein, from The Dumbest Generation
Activity Mark Bauerlein, from The Dumbest Generation
2. Alison Gopnik, Is “Screen Time” Dangerous for Children?
Activity Examining Two Sources: Bauerlein and Gopnik
3. R. Smith Simpson, from Are We Getting Our Share of the Best?
4. Jacqueline Howard, This Is How the Internet Is Rewiring Your Brain
Activity Examining Two Sources: Simpson and Howard
5. Nicholas Carr, The Illusion of Knowledge
6. Michael Agger, from Interview with Clive Thompsons Smarter Than You Think
Activity Finding Common Ground
7. Sherry Turkle, from Stop Googling. Let’s Talk.
Activity Sherry Turkle, from Stop Googling. Let’s Talk.
8. Pew Research Center, Americans Cell Phone Use During Social Activity (graph)
Activity Identifying Key Conversation Issues
Writing a Synthesis Essay
Identifying the Issues: Recognizing Complexity
Formulating Your Position
Activity Supporting a Thesis
Framing Quotations
Integrating Quotations
Activity Using Sources Effectively
Citing Sources
A Sample Synthesis Essay
Culminating Conversation Mandatory Community Service
1. Barack Obama, from Commencement Address at Wesleyan University
2. Frank Bruni, from To Get to Harvard, Go to Haiti?
3. Lily Lou, The Downside of School Volunteer Requirements
4. Corporation for National and Community Service, Volunteering: A Pathway to Employment (infographic)
6. Detroit News, Volunteering Opens Teen’s Eyes to Nursing
7. Eliza McGraw, from With a Homeless Center on Campus, Students Have an Unusual Chance to Serve
5 Education
To what extent do our schools serve the goals of a true education?
Central Essay
Fareed Zakaria, from In Defense of a Liberal Education
Classic Essay
Frederick Douglass, The Blessings of Liberty and Education
Other Voices
Ralph Waldo Emerson, from Education
James Baldwin, A Talk to Teachers
Lori Arviso Alvord, Walking the Path Between Worlds
Francine Prose, I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read
David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day
Barbara Oakley, Why Virtual Classes Can Be Better Than Real Ones
Nicholas Kristof, My Friend, the Former Muslim Extremist
Danielle Allen, What Is Education For?
Nikole Hannah-Jones, Have We Lost Sight of the Promise of Public Schools?
Visual Texts
Cyril Edward Power, The Exam Room (linocut)
Roz Chast, What I Learned: A Sentimental Education from Nursery School through Twelfth Grade (cartoon)
Conversation The Future of High School
1. Horace Mann, from Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education
2. Leon Botstein, Let Teenagers Try Adulthood
3. Meditation in Schools across America (infographic)
4. Nicholas Wyman, Why We Desperately Need to Bring Back Vocational Training In Schools
5. Amanda Ripley, What America Can Learn from Smart Schools in Other Countries
6. Leslie Nguyen-Okwu, How High Schools Are Demolishing the Classroom
7. Brentin Mock, from We Will Pay High School Students to Go to School. And We Will Like It.
8. Amy Rolph, This High School Wants to Revolutionize Learning with Technology
AP®-Style Multiple-Choice Questions
Fareed Zakaria, from In Defense of a Liberal Education
Frederick Douglass, from The Blessings of Liberty and Education
Suggestions for Writing
Education
6 Popular Culture
To what extent does pop culture reflect our society’s values?
Central Essay
James McBride, Hip Hop Planet
Classic Essay
Mark Twain, Corn-Pone Opinions
Other Voices
Ray Bradbury, The Affluence of Despair
David Denby, High-School Confidential: Notes on Teen Movies
Emily Nussbaum, The Price Is Right: What Advertising Does to TV
Troy Patterson, How the Motorcycle Jacket Lost Its Cool and Found It Again
Hua Hsu, How to Listen to Music
Angelica Jade Bastién, Have Superheroes Killed the Movie Star?
Mark Greif, Get Off the Treadmill: The Art of Living Well in the Age of Plenty
Justin Peters, The Ballad of Balloon Boy
Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize Banquet Speech
Visual Texts
John Singer Sargent, Mrs. Carl Meyer and Her Children (painting)
Andy Warhol, Myths (painting)
from Formation (photograph)
Conversation The Value of Celebrity Activism
1. C. Wright Mills, from The Power Elite
2. Dave Gilson, Dr. Clooney, I Presume? (illustration)
3. Brad Knickerbocker, West Memphis Three: Internet Campaign, Hollywood Drove Their Release
4. Andres Jimenez, Why Celebrity Activism Does More Harm Than Good
5. Jeffrey Kluger, Jim Carrey, Please Shut Up about Vaccines
6. Georgia Cole, Ben Radley, and Jean-Benoit Falîsse, Who Really Benefits from Celebrity Activism?
7. Joshua Ostroff, Beyoncé and Why Celebrity Activists Matter
8. Jay Caspian Kang, Should Athletes Stick to Sports?
AP®-Style Multiple-Choice Questions
James McBride, from Hip-Hop Planet
Mark Twain, from Corn Pone Opinions
Suggestions for Writing
Popular Culture
7 The Environment
What is our responsibility to the natural environment?
Central Essay
Rachel Carson, from Silent Spring
Classic Essay
Ralph Waldo Emerson, from Nature
Other Voices
Aldo Leopold, from The Land Ethic
Lewis Thomas, Natural Man
Terry Tempest Williams, The Clan of One-Breasted Women
Wangari Maathai, Nobel Prize Lecture
Bill McKibben, A Moral Atmosphere
Barry Yeoman, From Billions to None
Joel Achenbach, Why Science Is So Hard to Believe
Sarah Zhang, Save the Galapagos with GMO Rats. What Could Go Wrong?
E. O. Wilson, A Biologist’s Manifesto for Preserving Life on Earth
John Mooallem, Our Climate Future Is Actually Our Climate Present
Visual Texts
Robert Crumb, A Short History of America (cartoon)
Royal Dutch/Shell, Let’s Go (advertisement)
Conversation Sustainable Eating
1. Michael Pollan, from Unhappy Meals
2. James McWilliams, The Locavore Myth
3. Nicolette Hahn Niman, The Carnivore’s Dilemma
4. Jonathan Safran Foer, Let Them Eat Dog: A Modest Proposal for Tossing Fido in the Oven
5. Will Allen, A Good Food Manifesto for America
6. Aliza Eliazarov, from Waste Not (visual essay)
7. Emily Anthes, from Could Insects Be the Wonder Food of the Future?
8. Bahar Gholipour, Lab-Grown Meat May Save a Lot More Than Farm Animals’ Lives
AP®-Style Multiple-Choice Questions
Rachel Carson, from Silent Spring
Ralph Waldo Emerson, from Nature
Suggestions for Writing
The Environment
8 Community
What is the relationship of the individual to the community?
Central Essay
Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail
Classic Essay
Henry David Thoreau, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
Other Voices
Oliver Goldsmith, National Prejudices
Robert D. Putnam, Health and Happiness
Amy Tan, Mother Tongue
Rebecca Solnit, from A Paradise Built in Hell
Malcolm Gladwell, Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted
Lee Smith, Raised to Leave: Some Thoughts on "Culture"
David Brooks, How Covenants Make Us
Sebastian Junger, from Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging
J. D. Vance, Why I’m Moving Home
Ted Closson, A GoFundMe Campaign Is Not Health Insurance (graphic essay)
Visual Texts
Norman Rockwell, Freedom from Want (painting)
Nissan Motor Company, The Black Experience Is Everywhere (advertisement)
Conversation Building Online Communities
1. Laura Hudson, from Curbing Online Abuse Isn’t Impossible. Heres Where We Start.
2. Pew Research Center, Online Harassment (graphs)
3. Emma Sterland, Online Forums Are a Lifeline for Isolated Parents of Disabled Children
4. Sven Birkerts, from Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age
5. Dex Torricke-Barton, from How the Internet Is Uniting the World
6. Mallory Ortberg, from The Companions of My Heart: On Making Friends on the Internet
7. Jenna Wortham, from Is Social Media Disconnecting Us from the Big Picture?
8. Emerson Csorba, The Constant Sharing Is Making Us Competitive and Depressed
AP®-Style Multiple-Choice Questions
Martin Luther King, Jr., from Letter from Birmingham Jail
Henry David Thoreau, from Where I Lived, and What I Lived For
Suggestions for Writing
Community
9 Sports
How do the values of sports affect the way we see ourselves?
Central Essay
Gay Talese, The Silent Season of a Hero
Classic Essay
Frances Willard, from How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle: Reflection of an Influential Nineteenth-Century Woman
Other Voices
Theodore Roosevelt, The Proper Place for Sports
William Faulkner, An Innocent at Rinkside
Joyce Carol Oates, The Cruelest Sport
Jane Smiley, Barbaro, The Heart in the Winner’s Circle
Malcolm Gladwell, Man and Superman
Claudia Rankine, The Meaning of Serena Williams
Michael Powell, Uprooted to Brooklyn, and Nourished by Cricket
Rahawa Haile, How Black Books Lit My Way Along the Appalachian Trail
Visual Texts
New York World, The Twelfth Player in Every Football Game (cartoon)
Sports Illustrated, Yes! (magazine cover)
Conversation Paying College Athletes
1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, from College Athletes of the World, Unite
2. Rosalyn R. Ross, Paying Student Athletes Is More Than Just a Question of Compensation
3. Ekow N. Yankah, Why N.C.A.A. Athletes Shouldn’t Be Paid
4. Joe Nocera, A Way to Start Paying College Athletes
5. John R. Thelin, Here’s Why We Shouldn’t Pay College Athletes
6. Nigel Hayes, Broke College Athlete (photograph)
7. Shane Battier, from Let Athletes Be Students
8. Patrick Hruby, from Does Racial Resentment Fuel Opposition to Paying College Athletes?
AP®-Style Multiple-Choice Questions
Gay Talese, from The Silent Season of a Hero
Frances Willard, from How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle
Suggestions for Writing
Sports
10 Money
What is the role of money in our everyday lives?
Central Essay
Barbara Ehrenreich, from Serving in Florida
Classic Essay
Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal
Other Voices
Andre Carnegie, from The Gospel of Wealth
Booker T. Washington, The Atlanta Exposition Address
Lars Eighner, On Dumpster Diving
Eric Schlosser, from In the Strawberry Fields
Peter Singer, The Singer Solution to World Poverty
Carmen Maria Machado, Luxury Shopping, from the Other Side of the Register
Charles Murray, A Guaranteed Income for Every American
Jia Tolentino, The Gig Economy Celebrates Working Yourself to Death
Matthew Desmond, from House Rules: How Homeownership Became the Engine of American Inequality
Visual Texts
Diego Rivera, Night of the Rich (mural)
Hazel Florez, Panama Papers (collage)
Conversation The Cost of College
1. Sara Goldrick-Rab and Nancy Kendall, Make the First Two Years of College Free
2. Matt Bruenig, The Case against Free College
3. Gallup, The Relationship between Student Debt, Experiences and Perceptions of College Worth (graphs)
4. Bernie Sanders, Make College Free for All
5. Keith Ellison, The Argument for Tuition-Free College
6. Thomas Sowell, No Way That Going to College Can, or Should Be, Free
7. Anya Kamenetz, Is Free College Really Free?
AP®-Style Multiple-Choice Questions
Barbara Ehrenreich, from Serving in Florida
Jonathan Swift, from A Modest Proposal
Suggestions for Writing
Money
11 Gender
What is the impact of the gender roles that society creates and enforces?
Central Essay
Alice Walker, In Search of Our Mothers Gardens
Classic Essay
Virginia Woolf, Professions for Women
Other Voices
John and Abigail Adams, Letters
Charlotte Brontë, Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell
Judy Brady, I Want a Wife
Stephen Jay Gould, Women’s Brains
Brent Staples, Just Walk on By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space
Jimmy Carter, Losing My Religion for Equality
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Why Can’t a Smart Woman Love Fashion?
Jessa Crispin, from Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto
Cristina Henríquez, Doubly Denied
Zoe Williams, Why Wonder Woman Is a Masterpiece of Subversive Feminism
Visual Texts
Charles Le Brun, Chancellor Séguier at the Entry of Louis XIV into Paris in 1660 (painting) & Kehinde Wiley, The Chancellor Séguier on Horseback (painting)
J. Howard Miller, We Can Do It! (poster) & Abigail Gray Swartz, The March (magazine cover)
Conversation Defining Masculinity
1. Leonard McCombe, Marlboro Man (photo)
2. Paul Theroux, Being a Man
3. Stephanie Coontz, from The Myth of Male Decline
4. Kali Holloway, from Toxic Masculinity Is Killing Men
5. Roberto A. Ferdman, The Perils of Being Manly
6. Frank Miniter, The Hard, Adrenaline-Soaked Truth about “Toxic Masculinity”
7. Emily Bobrow, from The Man Trap
8. Andrew Reiner, Talking to Boys the Way We Talk to Girls
AP®-Style Multiple-Choice Questions
Alice Walker, from In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens
Virginia Woolf, from Professions for Women
Suggestions for Writing
Gender
12 Justice
To what extent do our laws and politics reflect the values of a just society?
Central Essay
Ta-Nehisi Coates, from Between the World and Me
Classic Essay
Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
Other Voices
Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address
Emmeline Pankhurst, from Freedom or Death
George Orwell, Politics and the English Language
Earl Warren, A Home for American Jurisprudence
John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address
Ronald Reagan, Statement on United States Immigration and Refugee Policy
Robert C. Solomon, from Justice and the Passion for Vengeance
Naomi Shihab Nye, To Any Would-Be Terrorists
Atul Gawande, from Hellhole
Barack Obama, Remarks by the President at the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery Marches
Jennifer Lackey, The Irrationality of Natural Life Sentences
Mitch Landrieu, Truth: Remarks on the Removal of Confederate Monuments in New Orleans
Bryan Stevenson, A Presumption of Guilt
Patrick Radden Keefe, Why Corrupt Bankers Avoid Jail
Visual Texts
George Biddle, Society Freed through Justice (mural)
Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People (painting) & Sandow Birk, Injustice Leading Greed and Opportunity (painting)
Conversation The Limits of Free Speech
1. Thane Rosenbaum, Should Neo-Nazis Be Allowed Free Speech?
2. Eugene Volokh, No, There’s No “Hate Speech” Exception to the First Amendment
3. Sean Stevens and Nick Phillips, Free Speech is the Most Effective Antidote to Hate Speech
4. Lata Nott, Free Speech Isn’t Always Valuable. That’s Not the Point.
5. Laura Beth Nielsen, The Case for Restricting Hate Speech
6. Signe Wilkinson, Free Speech (cartoon)
AP®-Style Multiple-Choice Questions
Ta-Nehisi Coates, from Between the World and Me
Henry David Thoreau, from The Duty of Civil Disobedience
Suggestions for Writing
Justice
Appendix A: Grammar as Rhetoric and Style
Part 1 Diction and Syntax
1. Appositives
2. Modifiers
3. Pronouns
4. Direct, Precise, and Active Verbs
5. Concise Diction
Part 2 Syntax and Structure
6. Parallel Structures
7. Short Simple Sentences and Fragments
8. Cumulative, Periodic, and Inverted Sentences
9. Subordination in Complex Sentences
Appendix B: Argument Strategies
Rogerian Argument
E. O. Wilson, from Letter to a Southern Baptist Pastor
Activity Mitch Landrieu, from Truth: Remarks on the Removal of
Confederate Monuments in New Orleans
Appendix C: Practice AP® English Language and Composition Exam
Appendix D: MLA Guidelines for a List of Works Cited
Glossary
Acknowledgments
Index
Product Updates
Our opening four chapters provide the reading and the writing support your students need to succeed in the AP® English Language course and on the exam. Chapter 1 lays the groundwork for understanding rhetoric, and Chapters 2-4 walk students through how to write effective, insightful rhetorical analysis essays, argument essays, and synthesis essays.
Full-Color Design, and Emphasis on Visual Analysis.
The world is full of visual information and arguments, and students need to be equipped with critical skills to understand and analyze. In this Third Edition of The Language of Composition, we are putting a greater emphasis on understanding how visual arguments work, with Analyzing Visual Texts sections in the opening chapters, and engaging full-color photos, fine art, posters, infographics, charts, and graphs throughout the book, paired with probing analysis questions.
Analyzing visuals isn’t on the exam, but we believe that it can help bring a text to life, foster creative analysis, and be a springboard to textual analysis for visually-oriented students. In this edition of The Language of Composition, we have made the book full color so that these visuals can be included in their original format right alongside the texts they inform. These visuals are never mere decoration; each image is accompanied with an analytical question connecting back to the text.
New Chapter on Justice. This eternal idea is becoming increasingly vital in today’s world. In this new chapter on justice, we address timeless topics such as free speech, civil rights, vengeance, and guilt versus innocence. With readings that span the nineteenth century through the present day, this chapter will be sure to capture your students’ attention and spark dynamic class discussion.
Five new conversations — on timely issues like the limits of free speech, whether college should be free, and the value of celebrity activism — feature questions that help students transition from comparison to synthesis.
130 new pieces of nonfiction include high-interest contemporary essays by writers such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Bob Dylan, Atul Gawande, Sebastian Junger, Nicholas Kristof, Naomi Shihab Nye, Claudia Rankine, Rebecca Solnit, Amy Tan, J. D. Vance, and Fareed Zakaria.
AP®-Style Exam Practice Right in the Book
This edition puts two sets of AP®-style multiple-choice at the end of each thematic chapter, and a sample exam at the end of the book to give all students a chance to encounter AP®-style items, and grow accustomed to both what is asked, and how it is asked. Multiple-choice, found in each thematic chapter, can also be good opportunities for formative assessment, class discussion, group work, and other in-class activities.
New Wrap-Around Teacher’s Edition. Forget everything you think you know about Teacher’s Editions. This invaluable tool, written by experienced AP® teachers is like an on-going workshop right in the margins of your book. With planning tools, lesson plans, just-in-time teaching ideas, and more, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.
The only book created specifically for the AP® English Language course.
For over a decade, The Language of Composition has been the most successful textbook written for the AP® English Language and Composition Course. Now, its esteemed author team is back, giving practical instruction geared toward training students to read and write at the college level. The textbook is organized in two parts: opening chapters that develop key rhetoric, argument, and synthesis skills; followed by thematic chapters comprised of the finest classic and contemporary nonfiction and visual texts. With engaging readings and reliable instruction, The Language of Composition gives every student the opportunity for success in AP® English Language.
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Integrate Macmillan courses with Canvas
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If you’re a verified instructor, you can request a free sample of our courseware, e-book, or print textbook to consider for use in your courses. Only registered and verified instructors can receive free print and digital samples, and they should not be sold to bookstores or book resellers. If you don't yet have an existing account with Macmillan Learning, it can take up to two business days to verify your status as an instructor. You can request a free sample from the right side of this product page by clicking on the "Request Instructor Sample" button or by contacting your rep. Learn more.
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Sometimes also referred to as a spiral-bound or binder-ready textbook, loose-leaf textbooks are available to purchase. This three-hole punched, unbound version of the book costs less than a hardcover or paperback book.
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We can help! Contact your representative to discuss your specific needs for your course. If our off-the-shelf course materials don’t quite hit the mark, we also offer custom solutions made to fit your needs.
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FAQs
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Are you a campus bookstore looking for ordering information?
MPS Order Search Tool (MOST) is a web-based purchase order tracking program that allows customers to view and track their purchases. No registration or special codes needed! Just enter your BILL-TO ACCT # and your ZIP CODE to track orders.
Canadian Stores: Please use only the first five digits/letters in your zip code on MOST.
Visit MOST, our online ordering system for booksellers: https://tracking.mpsvirginia.com/Login.aspx
Learn more about our Bookstore programs here: https://www.macmillanlearning.com/college/us/contact-us/booksellers
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Our courses currently integrate with Canvas, Blackboard (Learn and Ultra), Brightspace, D2L, and Moodle. Click on the support documentation below to find out more details about the integration with each LMS.
Integrate Macmillan courses with Blackboard
Integrate Macmillan courses with Canvas
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-
-
If you’re a verified instructor, you can request a free sample of our courseware, e-book, or print textbook to consider for use in your courses. Only registered and verified instructors can receive free print and digital samples, and they should not be sold to bookstores or book resellers. If you don't yet have an existing account with Macmillan Learning, it can take up to two business days to verify your status as an instructor. You can request a free sample from the right side of this product page by clicking on the "Request Instructor Sample" button or by contacting your rep. Learn more.
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-
-
Sometimes also referred to as a spiral-bound or binder-ready textbook, loose-leaf textbooks are available to purchase. This three-hole punched, unbound version of the book costs less than a hardcover or paperback book.
-
-
-
We can help! Contact your representative to discuss your specific needs for your course. If our off-the-shelf course materials don’t quite hit the mark, we also offer custom solutions made to fit your needs.
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The Language of Composition
For over a decade, The Language of Composition has been the most successful textbook written for the AP® English Language and Composition Course. Now, its esteemed author team is back, giving practical instruction geared toward training students to read and write at the college level. The textbook is organized in two parts: opening chapters that develop key rhetoric, argument, and synthesis skills; followed by thematic chapters comprised of the finest classic and contemporary nonfiction and visual texts. With engaging readings and reliable instruction, The Language of Composition gives every student the opportunity for success in AP® English Language.
These materials are owned by Macmillan Learning or its licensors and are protected by United States copyright law. They are being provided solely for evaluation purposes only by instructors who are considering adopting Macmillan Learning's textbooks or online products for use by students in their courses. These materials may not be copied, distributed, sold, shared, posted online, or used, in print or electronic format, except in the limited circumstances set forth in the Macmillan Learning Terms of Use and any other reproduction or distribution is illegal. These materials may not be made publicly available under any circumstances. All other rights reserved. © 2020 Macmillan Learning.
BY CLICKING ON THE SAMPLE CHAPTER LINK BELOW, YOU ARE AGREEING TO USE THESE MATERIALS ONLY IN ACCORDANCE WITH MACMILLAN LEARNING'S TERMS OF USE.
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