Common Mistakes on the AP Lang Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Summary

In this comprehensive video, Coach Hall Writes guides students on how to avoid common pitfalls while crafting a stellar AP Lang rhetorical analysis essay. The video highlights the importance of focusing on rhetorical choices rather than devices, emphasizing the need for analysis over summary. It also advises students on how to implement a chronological approach to reflect the line of reasoning, the significance of connecting choices to purpose, and providing insightful commentary instead of superficial remarks. Ultimately, success lies in understanding the speaker's choices and their impact on the audience, leading to a more effective and persuasive essay. This video is a must-watch for students aiming to improve their writing skills and ace their AP Lang essays.

Highlights

• Learn the difference between devices and rhetorical choices for a sharper analysis. 🎓
• Avoid summarizing—focus on what the speaker does and why. 🧐
• Chronological analysis helps reflect the speaker’s line of reasoning. 📅
• Connect rhetorical choices to the message for insightful commentary. 🌟
• Precision in commentary elevates your essay from average to excellent. 💥

Key Takeaways

• Stop analyzing just devices—focus on rhetorical choices for a stronger essay! 🎯
• Less summary, more analysis! Remember to highlight what the speaker is doing. 📚
• Avoid device-driven essays; follow a chronological analysis for clarity. 🕰️
• Connect choices to the overall purpose or message for higher-level commentary. 🔗
• Adopt precise commentary by constantly asking 'why' and 'how.' 🤔

Overview

Crafting an effective AP Lang rhetorical analysis essay can be daunting, but Coach Hall Writes breaks down the process into manageable pieces. One key aspect is shifting the focus from devices (nouns) to choices (verbs). Understanding the action behind rhetorical elements leads to a more dynamic and persuasive essay. For instance, instead of just mentioning repetition, pinpoint how a speaker 'emphasizes' or 'highlights' an idea, creating a more engaging piece.

Another critical point is the importance of focusing on analysis rather than summary. It’s vital to delve into what the speaker is doing rather than merely stating what is being said. Coach Hall recommends structuring your essay chronologically to mirror the speaker’s line of reasoning. This method not only aids in understanding the argument's flow but also provides a structured format for your essay, making it easier to follow and more impactful.

For a top-notch essay, connecting rhetorical choices to the overall purpose is essential. This involves insightful commentary that explains how these choices affect the audience and achieve the speaker’s purpose. Students are urged to dive deep into commentary, avoiding superficial statements, by constantly asking themselves why the speaker chose certain strategies and how they function within the text. The ultimate goal is to provide a comprehensive, engaging analysis that stands out from the rest.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction The chapter "Introduction" begins with a warm welcome from Coach Hall, expressing gratitude and anticipation for the session. The main focus is outlined: addressing common mistakes students frequently make in their AP Lang rhetorical analysis essays. Before delving into these mistakes, Coach Hall emphasizes the importance of subscribing and staying notified about new videos for continued learning. Additionally, there is a mention of checking the description box for useful resources and related videos. The chapter sets the stage for a detailed exploration of the first mistake in the analysis essays.
• 00:30 - 02:00: Mistake 1: Analyzing Devices Instead of Choices The chapter focuses on the common mistake in rhetorical analysis essays of analyzing devices instead of choices. It emphasizes the importance of writing about choices, which are verbs, as it leads to a more active and rhetorically accurate analysis. While writing about devices (nouns) and appeals is acceptable, prioritizing choices can result in stronger writing.
• 02:00 - 04:30: Mistake 2: Summarizing Rather Than Analyzing The chapter discusses the importance of analyzing rather than summarizing when dealing with literary devices and choices. It provides examples of how to transform a device (noun) into a choice (verb) to facilitate deeper analysis. For instance, 'repetition' can be transformed into 'repeats', and 'juxtaposition' into 'juxtaposes' or 'contrasts'. It also acknowledges that some devices, like 'anecdote', don't easily convert into a verb, suggesting the use of different expressions in such cases. The chapter emphasizes enhancing analytical skills through these transformations, and mentions additional resources are available in linked videos.
• 04:30 - 07:00: Mistake 3: Device-Driven Analysis In this chapter titled 'Mistake 3: Device-Driven Analysis', the author addresses a common issue observed in rhetorical analysis, particularly in student essays. Instead of merely stating that a text uses a device like repetition or metaphor, the chapter encourages using more precise, rhetorically accurate verbs such as "recalls," "reminisces," or "tells a story." This shift in language aims to enhance the quality and clarity of rhetorical analysis essays. The chapter emphasizes moving beyond basic identification of rhetorical devices to conveying a deeper understanding of how these devices function within the text.
• 07:00 - 14:00: Mistake 4: Limited Commentary In this chapter, the author discusses a common mistake in rhetorical analysis essays - focusing too much on summarizing the passage rather than analyzing it. The text highlights the importance of explaining the speaker's actions and choices instead of merely recounting what the speaker says. It advises that while some summary is necessary, the primary focus should be on analyzing the rhetoric and understanding the speaker's strategies and intentions.
• 14:00 - 15:30: Mistake 5: Personal Reactions In this chapter titled "Mistake 5: Personal Reactions," the focus is on the importance of using specific verbs and phrases in analysis. Key verbs such as compares, describes, repeats, illustrates, highlights, suggests, and emphasizes are highlighted as tools for offering deeper analysis. The use of commentary phrases such as 'because' and 'in order to' is also encouraged to provide clarity and depth in analytical writing. Overall, the chapter emphasizes moving beyond personal reactions to offer more structured and insightful commentary.
• 15:30 - 16:00: Conclusion The chapter on 'Conclusion' discusses how to improve summary writing by using a passage from Florence Kelly as an example. It illustrates a simplistic summary that merely states Kelly's argument about prohibiting children from working at night. The chapter then contrasts this with a stronger example where the quote from Kelly is embedded within a sentence, emphasizing her choices and enhancing the depth of the summary.

Common Mistakes on the AP Lang Rhetorical Analysis Essay Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 Hey everybody, welcome back to Coach Hall writes. In today's video, we're going to be talking about common mistakes that students make on their AP Lang rhetorical analysis essays. Before we get started, let's be sure to stay in touch. If you haven't already, go ahead and click that subscribe button and click the bell to turn your notifications on. That way, you don't miss any upcoming AP Lang videos. Also, be sure to check out the description box below for links to some other helpful videos. Mistake number one for AP Lang
• 00:30 - 01:00 rhetorical analysis essays is analyzing devices instead of choices. Now, let me be clear. You can write about devices, which are nouns. You can also write about appeals. However, if you write about choices, which are verbs, that leads to a more active or rhetorically accurate analysis. So, it's not that you can't write about devices or appeals. It's just that writing about choices tends to lead to stronger writing. If you're unsure about the difference
• 01:00 - 01:30 between devices and choices, I'll link some helpful videos in the description. In most cases, you can turn a device into a choice. So, for example, repetition can become repeats. You just go from a noun to a verb. The same thing happens with juxaposition. It becomes juxtaposes or contrasts. And then as I talk about in those videos that I'll link in the description box below, there are some choices that don't easily turn into a verb, but you can use a different expression. So for instance, the noun would be anecdote. That's the device.
• 01:30 - 02:00 But if you're trying to phrase it in rhetorically accurate language, instead of saying uses an anecdote, you could say something like recalls a time when, reminisces on, tells a story about. So, if you're the type of student who is currently saying uses repetition or uses a metaphor in your rhetorical analysis essays, I want you to try to focus on using rhetorically accurate verbs. The next mistake I see students making that
• 02:00 - 02:30 tends to lead to a lowercing essay is summarizing the passage. You're going to need to explain what the speaker says. So, a tiny bit of summary is necessary in some cases, but it's important to remember that it's a rhetorical analysis essay. You're supposed to be analyzing, not summarizing. To fix this, you want to explain what the speaker is doing. So, what choices is he or she making and why? So, less emphasis on what they say and more emphasis on what they do. This
• 02:30 - 03:00 is why those choice verbs that we talked about previously are helpful. This could be verbs like compares, describes, repeats, etc. It also helps if you include commentary phrases. This could be like the word because or phrases like in order to. There are even some verbs that tend to suggest commentary like illustrates, highlights, suggests, emphasizes. By using those verbs, you're more likely to be offering analysis as
• 03:00 - 03:30 opposed to summary. So, here's an example of summary and how to fix it. This is about the Florence Kelly passage and it says, Kelly talks about child labor and says that children should not work at night, which is true. That is her argument in a nutshell. However, notice that that's very simplistic. So, in the stronger example, notice that the quote is embedded into the sentence, which means that it has words on either side of the quote. And then, instead of saying talks about child labor, we're focusing on the choice that she's
• 03:30 - 04:00 making. Well, what is she doing? She presents an alarming statistic. Notice the added word there, alarming. Instead of just saying she presents a statistic, by adding in that descriptor of alarming statistic, it makes it more precise. So that's a little bit of a bonus tip for you. Adding in adjectives and adverbs can make your writing more precise, more rhetorically accurate. And then notice at the end of the sentence, we have emphasizing. So you can add a comma and an ing verb. So here it says emphasizing
• 04:00 - 04:30 the scope of the issue and urging legislative action. That right there is telling us why she's doing it. And that's the real difference between summary and analysis. Summary tells us what they say, but analysis tells us why they're doing it. Another common mistake that I see students making is writing a deiced driven analysis. A device-driven analysis is when an essay typically focuses on the devices or choices without considering the line of
• 04:30 - 05:00 reasoning. To be clear, these essays can still score well. It's possible to still earn a three or a four in row B with a device-riven essay. That being said, I encourage students to do something called a chronological analysis because doing so acknowledges the speaker's line of reasoning. It's important to remember that a speaker makes the choices that they make in a particular order in order to have the speech or the letter, whatever it is, be the most effective.
• 05:00 - 05:30 the choices in that particular order, that structure, if you will, creates a line of reasoning. And so, if you follow the speaker's line of reasoning by analyzing chronologically, then your essay likely will have a line of reasoning as well. So, you might be wondering, okay, what exactly does a device- driven essay look like? These essays are ones where a student might notice repetition at various points in the passage and then write a paragraph about repetition. And then let's say
• 05:30 - 06:00 they notice another choice like detail and they notice details throughout the passage. So they just pull different examples throughout the whole passage and put that in their second paragraph. Now these paragraphs could be well written, but usually what happens is there's not really a connection or a link between the paragraphs. It tends to be something like one choice the writer makes is repetition, another choice the writer makes is detail. And sometimes the evidence selection feels a little bit like it's just a scavenger hunt,
• 06:00 - 06:30 especially if the evidence is not presented in chronological order for that choice. So here's how you fix it. Here's how you go from device driven to a chronological analysis. Your body paragraphs are still going to need a clear main idea, and that main idea will be a choice. However, instead of trying to find each instance of that choice throughout the entirety of the passage, you're going to divide the passage into sections. Usually, students can divide a rhetorical analysis passage into either
• 06:30 - 07:00 two or three sections because the passages tend to be between 600 and 800 words. The sections do not need to be equal length, and you can have more than three. When you're looking for shifts, look for a shift in either topic, choice, or tone. Once you have your sections, those can become your body paragraphs. As you're writing though, don't refer to it as a section or a chunk. Like don't say in the first chunk the writer does this. Instead though, you can use verbs like begins,
• 07:00 - 07:30 continues, shifts from, or shifts to, depending on what you want to say, or concludes. These verbs help indicate the line of reasoning. This next mistake is, in my opinion, a crucial one because this is usually the difference between earning A2 and A3 in row B, evidence and commentary. A lot of times students are taught pneummonics like space cat or soap stone. Personally, I prefer space cat. If you've never heard of that, I
• 07:30 - 08:00 will link a video in the description below that explains what that is. But basically, the rhetorical situation is the situation from which the text arises. Think of it like a puzzle. There are different components. There's the speaker, the purpose, the audience, context, exigence, and then also technically message or argument. Now, for some passages, you might know more about the speaker or the audience than other passages. But in general, those components are always present. And while I like the pneummonic, and I do teach it
• 08:00 - 08:30 to my students, I think there are times when students just kind of go through the motions of doing a space cat or a soap stone. They write the letters on their paper. They jot down a couple notes and they think they're done. But in actuality, you want to use this knowledge in your analysis. So, for example, ask yourself, what do I know about the speaker and his or her values? What do I know about the audience and their values? Another question that I like students to answer is, why does the
• 08:30 - 09:00 speaker make this choice for this audience on this occasion? Because you need to remember that the speaker is tailoring their message or argument to that particular audience on that particular occasion. Not only are they making specific choices, but remember they're making those choices in a particular order in order to be effective. So, if you're going to go through the trouble of figuring out the space or the soap part, make sure that you actually incorporate that into your analysis. Now, as a way to help you with
• 09:00 - 09:30 this, I do have some sentence frames that my students find useful. These sentence frames are a starting point and then as you get comfortable with them, you can adapt them to fit your own writing style and whichever passage that you're working with. I'll include a link to that video in the description box below. But if you are a student who tends to get a two in evidence and commentary, definitely check out that video. It's going to be important that you connect the choice to the message, argument, or purpose. Remember that your prompt is going to ask about one of
• 09:30 - 10:00 those three things. Starting in 2020, your prompt is going to say either convey a message, develop an argument, or achieve a purpose. Now, as far as which one, it kind of depends on the prompt. Sometimes they will leave it at that phrase, like they'll just say to achieve his purpose, but other times they will be more specific, like they might say to achieve his purpose of honoring soando. If your prompt includes that extra information, definitely use that to your advantage, but also
• 10:00 - 10:30 recognize that you are able to rephrase that and dig deeper. So, if they give you a purpose, a message, or an argument, consider that sort of surface level and go beyond the provided information. Now, if they don't give you a specific message, argument, or purpose as you're reading or after you're done reading, that's one of the first questions you need to ask yourself is what was the message, argument, or purpose? whichever one my prompt asked about. Now, here's my perspective on it. All passages are going to have a purpose. So, even if you are not asked
• 10:30 - 11:00 about purpose in your prompt, you can still connect to purpose. Typically, a passage is either going to have a message or an argument because a message is more like a lesson, whereas an argument is more persuasive. So, if you're asked about message, you can still analyze purpose, but you want to make sure that you're actually answering the prompt, too. So to make sure that you're answering the prompt, you should include the specific message, argument, or purpose in your thesis. And I would include it in multiple places in each of your body paragraphs. So here's an
• 11:00 - 11:30 example of how to fix this issue. A lot of times students will mention choices, but they won't actually link it to the purpose. So what you need to do is you need to clearly state why the choice matters. A quick fix for this is to add a because clause or an ing commentary verb like emphasizing or illustrating, something like that. So, here's an example. Kelly repeatedly says we to include the audience. So, the phrase there to include the audience is a hint
• 11:30 - 12:00 at the purpose, but it's very vague phrasing. Similar phrasing might be to get her point across. While it is true and it is a hint at the purpose, it's not a very insightful purpose. So, you can see in the bottom example that is stronger, it has more precise wording and a more specific purpose. So, that one says, "Kelly's repetition of we forges unity between her audience and the laborers they seek to protect, strengthening her call to action by
• 12:00 - 12:30 framing it as a collective moral duty." Now, both of those sentences essentially convey the same idea, but notice that the bottom example is much more precise. So, if you find that you're struggling to connect a purpose, ask yourself, why is the speaker making this choice? What is the desired effect on the audience? Just keep writing. And if you get really stuck, remember you could use the word because. Keep asking yourself why. Not fully connecting to purpose leads to another mistake that I see so often in
• 12:30 - 13:00 student writing, especially in those essays that tend to score a two in evidence and commentary. And that mistake is limited commentary, which essentially means that the commentary is present, but it's superficial. Think of it like this. You're water skiing, but you want to be scuba diving. So sometimes students will say things like, "This choice makes the speech more effective." or this speech helps the person achieve their purpose or get their point across. It's very vacuous
• 13:00 - 13:30 language, meaning that it's very empty phrasing. You could take the phrase to get his point across and you could use that phrase for multiple passages. So, we want to make sure that we're being specific, really examining why the writer is making that choice for that audience on that occasion. We shouldn't be able to take your commentary about a particular passage and just change a couple words and stick it in an essay about another passage with limited commentary. That's essentially what could happen because it's so surface
• 13:30 - 14:00 level. So here's how you fix it. Let's take this weak example. Kelly uses statistics to make her speech more persuasive. Now here's the thing that is true. So we have the start of something. This sentence has potential. It's just that in that instance, they're not digging deep enough. So, here's how you fix it. You can ask yourself why or how. So, how does she make it more persuasive? Well, she paints a distressing picture that amplifies her ethical appeal, forcing the audience to
• 14:00 - 14:30 confront the exploitation of children and feel a moral obligation to act. Notice we have that ing verb there again, adding that extra clause at the end of the sentence to make our writing more precise. So remember, commentary is your analysis. You're answering why, how, or so what. Admittedly, I don't see this next mistake too often. But I do think it's worth mentioning, and that is we don't want to insert personal reactions or opinions of the text. You
• 14:30 - 15:00 want to focus on analysis. Your job is not to praise the writer or to offer any kind of critique. That's a totally separate type of essay that is not tested on the AP Lang exam. So, keep the focus on how the rhetoric works. So, here's an example that's too personal. It says, "I think Albbright is really inspiring because she talks about breaking barriers and I agree with her." Now, that might be true. You might agree with her message, but take the first person opinion language out of it. So,
• 15:00 - 15:30 we want to get rid of the I think and the I agree with her because remember our job is not to praise her writing or to criticize it. But let's take this idea and shift it into something that would be more appropriate for the task. So, if we find her message inspiring, let's think about why the audience might find it inspiring. So, you can see an improved version at the bottom of the slide. All right, there you have it. Those are the most common mistakes that
• 15:30 - 16:00 I see students making on their AP Lang rhetorical analysis essays that tend to limit their score. If you found this video helpful, please do me a huge favor and hit that thumbs up. Also, don't forget to check out the description box below because I have several other rhetorical analysis videos on my channel that offer more detailed explanation about how to correct these mistakes to write a stronger essay. Thank you so much for watching and until next time,
• 16:00 - 16:30 happy writing.