Guidebook for 2014-2015 AP Lang

Nathan FoulkMr Cassel

Advanced Placement Language and Composition13 June 2014

Visual Rhetoric

Same rules of textual rhetoric apply to visual rhetoric

It has a subject, speaker, audience, purpose, and context.

Lots of visual rhetoric is satirical, but it doesn’t have to be

My visual rhetoric was supposed to show myself looking in a mirror

and seeing a future version of myself, one that is successful

o Speaker: Myself

o Occasion: English Project,

o Audience: My class, as well as Mr Cassel

o Purpose: To inform the class that every person has potential to

be something great

o Tone: Hopeful, Optimistic

Basic Rhetoric

Rhetorical Triangle

o Rhetoric- the faculty of observing an any given case the

available means of persuasion

o The rhetorical triangle- a visual representation of the interaction

between subject, speaker, and audience

SOAPSTone – A way that Mr Cassel insists you break down notes.

Write down:

o Speaker- Not necessarily the author, writers often take a

persona, a character the author creates when writing. That

persona can be the writer, but it isn’t always

o Occasion- Date, context, and anything related to context that

can be insightful to better understand the passage

o Audience- Who the author is speaking to. But more of who the

author is trying to speak to. The best analogy would be a target

market in the business sector.

o Purpose- Why is the author writing this? A passage likely has

more than one purpose. Each purpose starts with either: To

inform, to persuade, or to entertain.

o Subject- What the author is writing about

o Tone- the feeling stated or implied by the author. NOTE:

Different from mood- the feeling or emotion conveyed by the

subject alone

Ethos, Logos, and Pathos

o Ethos- Short Definition: credibility; Long Definition: the

convincing by the character of the author

o Pathos- Short Definition: Emotion; Long Definition: the quality

of an experience in life or a work of art that stirs up emotions

o Logos- Short Definition: Reason and Logic; Long Definition:

the utilization of inductive and deductive reasoning methods to

be effective

Advanced Rhetoric

AP Test Prep

Multiple Choice

o Eliminate wrong choices

o Understand what they’re asking you, think like the examiner

o Look for questions with phrases like “In lines 18-22” and then

bracket lines 18-22

o Answer all of the ones you know first, then come back and

finish the rest

o Make notes in the margins of the passage, summarizing each

paragraph

o Don’t try to use all of these strategies, find out what works for

you and stick with it

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Writing- My Philosophy

Nate Foulk:

Uses his voice when writing. Always

Is always honest. He writes exactly how he feels

Connects with the subject in one way or another

Writes extremely logically. He values logic over anything else.

Uses conviction. The writer needs to be confident in his argument

before the reader can.

Qualifies the argument. A lot. This goes hand in hand with writing

how you feel/think.

Often breaks grammar rules for the sake of "writing like he talks". See

bullet above for example. "A lot" is not a sentence.

Does things for the right reasons. He never does something simply for

the sake of originality or style; he does it if it strengthens his

argument.

Has a full knowledge of grammar rules to strengthen the appeal to

Ethos. Even Cassel is susceptible to (subconscious) prejudice through

loss of Ethos.

Uses lots of dry humor. Nothing too complicated, and nothing that

insults anything but himself.

Uses self deprecation, but never to the point of a loss to the appeal to

Ethos

Doesn't care a bit as to how long his essays are, as long as he's proud

of them

Doesn't see writing as a process, no matter how many times Cassel

says otherwise

Writing- What I Learned

I learned that:

Using your voice is crucial; write like yourself

I needed to vary my sentence structure

Punctuation is extremely important. The difference between a comma

and a period is huge.

I needed to experiment! I needed to try everything to find my

strengths and to find my weaknesses.

Once I found my strengths, I needed to use them. All the time.

That all the rules that I learned through grade school really didn't

apply anymore.

Analysis of my essay- I connected it to myself, used a variety of

sentence structures, punctuation, and broke several common writing

rules.

Nathan Foulk

Mr Cassel

Advanced Placement Language and Composition

15 January 2014

The Mold and the Cast

Young men are like fossils, there are molds- cavities in the rock, outlining the

organism, and there are casts. Casts, the opposite of molds, project outward from the rock

in the shape of the organism. Men are either molds or casts, there isn’t much grey area.

Society examines individuals and groups them together, whether it be by gender, age,

race, religion, or creed. It assigns certain characteristics and traits to each group. These

characteristics and attributes become a certain group's mold. One of the most commonly

understood molds of society is that if a young man. I don’t fit the mold set by society of a

male teenager, and I don't try to.

What is the  stereotypical male teenager? We've all seen him. He's athletic,

immature, strong, and "fun". This is what society expects all males to be. You have to

play sports, you drink, you like to drive pretty fast, you get baked on the weekends, you

live by your own rules, etc. All of these little expectations add up to form a mold. Society

may hope guys aren't like this, but it expects that they are. If a guy doesn't fit this mold,

he us seen as different, our unique, if he's lucky. If he's not, he's just plain weird.

If that's the mold, I'm the cast. I have little to nothing in common with that mold.

I'm 6' 2" and a buck fifty-five.

There goes strong.

I go to church every week. I don't drink. I don't even have my permit yet.

Hasta luego, "live by your own rules"!

I will play my first sport this year at Seneca- golf; I once played kickball in gym and

made two errors: on the same play.

Athletic

Needless to say, when you think of a typical male teenager, Nathan Foulk is not the first

guy that pops into your head. Rather, I cook; I play 4 instruments; I spend my hours

trying to be able to afford college. Next Monday we have off of school, and I'll be

participating in a service project. I'm not the "fun", "party at my place" guy; I don't try to

be. I enjoy my uniqueness; I delight in my individuality.

This mold, this expectation of men didn't always exist. It arose after so many of the

"popular" young men conformed to what their peers were doing. If enough people stop

conforming and decide to think for themselves, perhaps society will start to judge them

for what they are, and not what they aren't. The cast has always been just as credible as

the mold. Archeologists accept both kinds of fossils, why can't we accept both kinds of

men?

Speeches/Debating

General:

o MAKE EYE CONTACT!! This is so critical it isn’t even

funny; the only way you can connect with the audience is if you

look at them. You can still write out your speech, but you need

to look up every once in a while.

o Project your voice

o Sound confident- You are correct, no doubt about it.

o Avoid use of vocalized pauses (e.g. uh, um, like, annnnnd,

sooo)

o Use simple, direct sentences- Not only is this more effective,

but it’s also harder to screw up

Debating

o Listen to exactly what your opponent says, and just crush their

arguments

o If you go first, make a variety of strong points, anticipate

attacks, and defend them.

o Make direct, eye contact with your opponent- Not only will this

look good to the audience, but it will make your opponent feel

extremely uncomfortable