AP Notes, Outlines, Study Guides, Vocabulary, Practice Exams and more!

AP Language Writing supports Flashcards

Terms : Hide Images
9732400876Ethosgives evidence that he or she is credible. May use testimonials, specialists, or religious figures to support their work.0
9732400877Logosgives the audience a clear, reasonable idea developed through reasoning and logic. May use reasoned examples, details, and/or statistics1
9732400878Pathosdraws on the audience's emotions so they will be sympathetic to the communicators ideas2
9732400879What falls under ethos, logos, or pathosAltruism, anger, fear, patriotic, intelligence, plain folk, snob3
9732400880Altruismappeals to sense of goodness or morality4
9732400881Plain folkappeals to the experiences of common man5
9732400882Snobappeals to a taste for the finer, and usually unobtainable, things in life6
9732400883Logical fallaciesAd hominem, bandwagon, begging the question, cause/effect, either/or thinking, equivocation, generalization, non sequitur, red herring, slippery slope, straw man7
9732400884Ad hominema personal attack of an individual instead of the issue at hand8
9732400885bandwagonurges the audience to accept a position because a majority of people already do9
9732400886begging the question (circular thinking)assumes the idea you are trying to prove as being true10
9732400887cause/effectassumes that the effect is related to a cause because the events occur together11
9732400888Either/or thinking (false dilemma)implies that one of two negative outcomes is inevitable12
9732400889equivocationallows a key word or term in an argument to have different meanings during the course of the argument13
9732400890Generalizationbases an inference on too small a sample as the basis for a broader stance14
9732400891Non Sequitur (Does not follow)Irrelevant reasons are offered to support a claim15
9732400892Red herringintroduces a topic unrelated to the claim16
9732400893Slippery slopeassumes a chain reaction of events which result in a terrible outcome17
9732400894Straw manstates an opponent's argument in an exaggerated form, or attacking a weaker, irrelevant portion of an opponent's argument18
9732400895ExemplificationProvides examples or cases in point. Are there examples- facts, statistics, cases in point, personal experiences, interview quotations- that you could add to help you achieve the purpose of your essay?19
9732400896DescriptionDetail sensory perceptions of a person, place, of thing. Does a person, place, or object play a prominent role in your essay? Would the tone, pacing, or overall purpose of your essay benefit from sensory details?20
9732400897NarrationRecount an event. Are you trying to report or recount an anecdote, an experience, or an event? Does any part of your essay include the telling of a story?21
9732400898Process analysisExplain how to do something or how something happens. Would any portion of your essay be more clear if you included concrete directions about a certain process? Are there any processes that readers would like to understand better?22
9732400899Comparison and contrastDiscuss similarities and differences. Does your essay contain two or more related subjects? Are you evaluating or analyzing two or more people, places, processes, events, or things? Do you need to establish the similarities and difference between two or more elements.23
9732400900Division and classificationDivide a whole into parts or sort related items into categories. Are you trying to explain a broad and complicated subject? Would it benefit your essay to reduce this subject to more manageable parts to focus your discussion?24
9732400901DefinitionProvide the meaning of terms you use. Who is your audience? Does your essay focus on any abstract, specialized, or new terms that need further explanation so your readers understand your point? Does any important word in your essay have many meanings and need to be clarified?25
9732400902Cause and effect analysisAnalyze why something happens and describe the consequences of a string of events. Are you examining past events or their outcomes? Is your purpose to inform, speculate, or argue about why an identifiable fact happens the way it does?26
9732400903ArgumentationConvince others through reasoning. Are you trying to explain aspects of particular subject, and are you trying to advocate a specific opinion on this subject or issue in your essay?27
9732400904Strategies for level of structureThree appeals (Logos, pathos, ethos), tone, arrangement (Inductive, deductive), mode of development (Narrative, division/classification, satire), repetition, patterns created from devices (imagery, diction, syntax), language registers, listing of reasons, opening with counter argument or making a concession, anticipating objections28
9732400905Devices for level of languageimagery or selection of detail, diction, syntax, rhetorical questions, irony, figurative language (metaphor, hyperbole, understatement), schemes, trophes29
9732400906Syntax patternsspecific phrasing patterns, length of sentence, # of sentences, divisions within a piece with different syntax for each, parallel structure, different sentence types, specific kinds of punctuation, rhythm and cadence in a sentence, repetitions, subject openers and non-subject openers, rhetorical questions30
9732400907Questions to discover syntaxWhat is the order of the parts of the sentence-Is it normal or inverted? Which part of speech is more prominent, nouns or verbs? What are the sentences like- periodic or cumulative? How does the sentence connect its words, phrases, and clauses? Does the sentence length fit the subject matter- why is the sentence length effective? What variety or sentence lengths are present? Sentence beginnings- is there variety or a specific pattern?31
9732400908Words that help describe a syntaxPlain, spare, austere, unadorned, simple, dry, ornate, elaborate, flowery, flowing, jumbled, chaotic, erudite, esoteric, complex, deceptively simple, journalistic, terse, laconic, harsh, grating, mellifluous, musical, lilting, lyrical, whimsical, elegant, staccato, abrupt, solid, thudding, sprawling, disorganized32
9732400909Construction of sentences to convey attitudeDeclarative, imperative, interrogative, exclamatory, simple, compound, complex, compound-complex, Cumulative (loose), Climactic (periodic) sentences, juxtaposition, parallelism, repetition, rhetorical question, ellipses, dash, semicolon, colon, italics, capitalization, exclamation point33
9732400910Simple sentenceOne subject and one verb34
9732400911Compound sentencemore than one subject and/or verb (no dependent clauses)35
9732400912Complex sentenceone independent and one or more clauses36
9732400913Compound-complex sentencetwo or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses37
9732400914Loose (Cumulative) sentencedetails after the subject and verb38
9732400915Periodic (Climactic) sentencedetails before the subject and verb39
9732400916Juxtapositionnormally unassociated ideas, words or phrases placed together40
9732400917Parallelismshow equal ideas; for emphasis, for rhythm41
9732400918Ellipsesa trailing off, going off into a dreamlike state42
9732400919dashinterruption of thought, an interjection of a thought into another43
9732400920semicolonparallel ideas, equal ideas, a piling up of detail44
9732400921colona list, a definition or explanation, a result45
9732400922italicsfor emphasis46
9732400923capitalizationfor emphasis, to personify47
9732400924exclamation pointfor emphasis, for emotion48

Need Help?

We hope your visit has been a productive one. If you're having any problems, or would like to give some feedback, we'd love to hear from you.

For general help, questions, and suggestions, try our dedicated support forums.

If you need to contact the Course-Notes.Org web experience team, please use our contact form.

Need Notes?

While we strive to provide the most comprehensive notes for as many high school textbooks as possible, there are certainly going to be some that we miss. Drop us a note and let us know which textbooks you need. Be sure to include which edition of the textbook you are using! If we see enough demand, we'll do whatever we can to get those notes up on the site for you!