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3. Rhetorical Situation / Reasoning and Organization. How does Tan’s facility with English 4
reverse the traditional power dynamic of parent and child?
4. Rhetorical Situation / Claims and Evidence. What does Tan mean when she says, “I think
my mother’s English almost had an effect on limiting my possibilities in life as well” (par. 15)? chapter 4
5. Rhetorical Situation. What is the “associative situation” (par. 17) that Tan claims accounts
for her high performance on math tests but not on English tests — specifically, analogies? Central Essay / Amy Tan
6. Rhetorical Situation / Claims and Evidence. Why does Tan believe that envisioning a
reader — specifically, her mother — enabled her to write more authentically?
7. Claims and Evidence. What are some of the class and cultural distinctions that people
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encounter because of their inability to use standardized English, according to Tan?
Analyzing Language, Style, and Structure

1. Vocabulary in Context. You probably know the meaning of the word “impeccable” in
paragraph 13, but consider its use here to describe “broken English.” What does that
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oxymoron convey about Tan’s mother? How does it deepen Tan’s argument about language? DIFFERENTIA TION
DIFFERENTIATION
2. Rhetorical Situation. In paragraph 1, Tan opens her essay by stating, “I am not a scholar of
English or literature,” but in paragraph 2 she states, “I am a writer.” What is the difference Scaffolding
Scaffolding
between them, according to Tan? How does she establish ethos through this juxtaposition? ®
Analyzing Q2. AP
3. Style. How is Tan’s use of the phrase “mother tongue” ambiguous? Analyzing Q2. AP Teaching Tip. One of
4. Rhetorical Situation / Claims and Evidence / Reasoning and Organization. At several the Essential Knowledge items in Unit 4 of the Essential Knowledge items in Unit 4 of
®
the AP
points in her essay, Tan relates anecdotes. Consider the anecdotes in which Tan gives a the AP Language CED focuses on choices
writers make for intr
oductions (see RHS-1.I).
speech, impersonates her mother in conversation with the stockbroker and with the hospital writers make for introductions (see RHS-1.I).
Y
in regard to the CAT scan, and how she experiences the SAT. How do they further her You could ask students to explain how ou could ask students to explain how
argument? Which do you consider most powerful? Explain your answer. T an’
Tan’s opening paragraphs “orient, engage, s opening paragraphs “orient, engage,
5. Rhetorical Situation / Reasoning and Organization. What is Tan’s strategy behind and/or focus the audience.”and/or focus the audience.”
including a lengthy, direct quotation from her mother (par. 6) rather than paraphrasing
what she said?
6. Claims and Evidence / Reasoning and Organization. Tan criticizes herself twice in this
DIFFERENTIA
TION
essay. In paragraph 3, she quotes a speech she gave “filled with carefully wrought DIFFERENTIATION
grammatical phrases, burdened, it suddenly seemed to me, with nominalized forms, past
Scaffolding
perfect tenses, conditional phrases. . . .” What are “nominalized forms, past perfect tenses, Scaffolding
conditional phrases,” and why are they burdensome? At another point, Tan recalls a draft of Analyzing Q6. If you have students prone
Analyzing Q6.
The Joy Luck Club in which she wrote, “That was my mental quandary in its nascent state”
to over-writing or to using overly formal lan-
(par. 20). Why does she call this “[a] terrible line”? to over -writing or to using overly formal lan-
guage in their essays, you might have them
7. Rhetorical Situation. Although Tan clearly appeals to pathos through personal narration and guage in their essays, you might have them
eview one of their own drafts and find any
r
characterization, she makes some appeals to logos. Identify them and describe their effect. review one of their own drafts and find any
“terrible line[s].” They could then r
ewrite
8. Reasoning and Organization. Tan divides the essay into three sections. How does this “terrible line[s].” They could then rewrite
them in simpler and more effective
structure contribute to the argument she is developing? them in simpler and mor e ef fective
language.
9. Rhetorical Situation / Claims and Evidence / Reasoning and Organization. Discuss language.
how Tan broadens the essay’s relevance by going beyond just her personal experience and
raising issues that would be germane to her audience.
10. Rhetorical Situation. This essay was first published in Threepenny Review, which the
novelist Jonathan Franzen has described as one of the “few magazines left in this country
which seem pitched at the general literary reader and which consistently publish such
interesting, high-quality criticism, reflection, argument, fiction, and poetry.” How does Tan
appeal to this audience of “general literary reader[s]”?
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