✍🏽AP English Language
Key Terms

589 essential vocabulary terms and definitions to know for your AP English Language exam

✍🏽AP English Language
Key Terms by Unit

Unit 1 – Claims, Reasoning, and Evidence

1.1 Identifying the purpose and intended audience of a text

1.2 Examining how evidence supports a claim

1.3 Developing paragraphs as part of an effective argument

Unit 2 – Organizing Information for a Specific Audience

2.1 Analyzing audience and its relationship to the purpose of an argument

2.2 Building an argument with relevant and strategic evidence

2.3 Developing thesis statements

2.4 Developing structure and integrating evidence to reflect a line of reasoning

Unit 3 – Perspectives and How Arguments Relate

3.1 Interpreting character description and perspective

3.2 Identifying and avoiding flawed lines of reasoning

3.3 Introducing and integrating sources and evidence

3.5 Attributing and citing references

3.6 Developing parts of a text with cause-effect and narrative methods

Unit 4 – How writers develop arguments, intros, and conclusions

4.2 Developing introductions and conclusions

Unit 5 – How a writer brings all parts of an argument together

5.1 Developing commentary throughout paragraphs

5.2 Maintaining ideas throughout an argument

5.3 Using modifiers to qualify an argument and convey perspective

5.4 Using transitions

Unit 6 – Position, Perspective, and Bias

6.1 Incorporating multiple perspectives strategically into an argument

6.2 Recognizing and accounting for bias

6.3 Adjusting an Argument to New Evidence

6.4 Analyzing Tone and Shifts in Tone

Unit 7 – Successful and Unsuccessful Arguments

7.1 Examining complexities in issues

7.2 Considering how words, phrases, and clauses can modify and limit an argument

7.4 Exploring how sentence development affects an argument

Unit 8 – Stylistic Choices

8.1 Choosing comparisons based on an audience

8.2 Considering how sentence development and word choice affect how the writer is perceived by an audience

8.3 Considering how all choices made in an argument affect the audience

8.4 Considering how style affects an argument

Unit 9 – Developing a Complex Argument

9.1 Strategically conceding, rebutting, or refuting information

9.2 Crafting an argument through stylistic choices like word choice and description

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