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Special Focus:
Writing Persuasively
college writing courses and assignments the dividing line between these two modes of
writing is in fact relatively fine. Whether a writer is, for example, explaining an idea,
offering an extended definition, comparing and contrasting two entities, or arguing a
point, he or she is always taking a position and developing it with evidence, illustrations,
details, and reasons.
What are the implications of this new type of question for teachers preparing students to
succeed on the AP English Language and Composition Examination? The Development
Committee is not, I think it safe to say, recommending that high school courses
necessarily teach the traditional research paper. As it has been conceived in the past,
this genre too often asks students simply to compile, reproduce, and report what they
have discovered by doing research. In addition, the genre has frequently been the site
of—some might say an inadvertent invitation to—student plagiarism, both intentional
and unintentional. Instead of the traditional research paper, teachers might teach their
students how to write the researched explanatory or researched argumentative paper.
Assigning such a paper would involve helping students generate and find sources on
topics that are engaging and important for them, teaching them to read those sources
analytically and critically, and then leading them to produce papers that make and
develop a strong point or claim by entering into conversation with their research—by
synthesizing information and perspectives from the sources with their own reasoning
and ideas.
AP® English Language and Composition: 2006–2007 Workshop Materials 13