Analyzing Rhetorical Analysis FRQs by Medium & Genre

Before students begin writing full rhetorical analysis essays, they need to understand the kinds of texts they will encounter on the AP Language and Composition Exam. This lesson introduces students to the rhetorical situation by having them closely examine actual AP prompts (with the passages removed). This activity builds students’ critical thinking, inference skills, and familiarity with nonfiction genres, allowing them to better anticipate the rhetorical choices authors make.

Big Ideas:

• Every text is written within a rhetorical situation—a set of circumstances, needs, and purposes that shape the content and style of the message.
• Recognizing genre conventions helps readers predict what strategies and appeals a writer may use.
• Understanding the prompt is a key step in effective rhetorical analysis.

What Students Will Do:

• Analyze several real AP rhetorical analysis prompts (passages removed).
• Infer and outline the rhetorical situation: speaker, audience, purpose, message, context, exigence, medium.
• Predict rhetorical conventions and strategies based on the genre/medium.
• Justify their reasoning using specific textual clues from the prompt.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• Identify and describe components of the rhetorical situation using AP-style prompts.
• Recognize common nonfiction genres and their rhetorical conventions.
• Use contextual clues to make informed predictions about rhetorical strategies.
• Use academic vocabulary related to rhetoric (e.g., ethos, tone, diction, repetition).

Before the Lesson

• Collect a set of real AP rhetorical analysis prompts (with passages removed).
• Print or post the worksheet or digital document for students.
• Provide links to released AP rhetorical analysis prompts for students to review.
• Draft or locate a model example of a completed rhetorical situation analysis for one prompt.
• Prepare a glossary or mini anchor chart of rhetorical terms students should use (e.g., ethos, pathos, diction, tone).
• Create a list of questions prompting to scaffold rhetorical situation inferences (e.g., "Who would be likely to deliver this message?" "What seems to be the speaker’s goal?").
• Ensure students are familiar with components of the rhetorical situation (context, exigence, speaker, audience, purpose, message), basic rhetorical appeals and strategies, and common nonfiction genres (speech, memoir, editorial, etc.)
• Plan a quick mini-lesson or review activity if these concepts are new or need reinforcement.

Materials and Resources

• Lesson worksheet (download above.) 
• Copy of released AP Language and Composition free response questions (or you can make your own)

What to Do: 

Step 1: Introduce Purpose (5 minutes)

• Begin by asking: “What do you think makes a text effective in achieving its purpose?”
• Connect discussion to the concept of the rhetorical situation—that texts are written with a speaker, for an audience, with a purpose, in a specific context.
• Explain: Today, we’re working backwards from AP prompts to infer what kind of nonfiction text might be behind them.

Step 2: Review Rhetorical Situation Elements (5–10 minutes)

• Review or introduce the components: Speaker, Audience, Purpose, Message, Context, Exigence, Medium
• Display an anchor chart or slide for reference.
• Briefly review common nonfiction genres (speech, editorial, memoir, etc.).
• If needed, review a few rhetorical strategies/appeals (ethos, pathos, logos, tone, etc.)

Step 3: Model the Process (5–7 minutes)

• Use one AP prompt as a class model.
• Show how to:
  • Use clues from the prompt to guess the genre/medium.
  • Infer the rhetorical situation.
  • Predict rhetorical strategies based on the medium.
• Think aloud: "This prompt mentions a historical event and a public audience, so it’s likely a speech. I’d expect a formal tone, appeals to values, maybe repetition...”

Step 4: Student Practice (20–25 minutes)

• Distribute 2–3 different AP prompts (or one at a time).
• Students complete the worksheet for each:
  1. Match to a nonfiction medium
  2. Infer the rhetorical situation
  3. Predict rhetorical strategies/conventions
  4. Justify their thinking using language from the prompt

• Optional differentiation: 

  • Let advanced students choose from a larger bank of prompts.
  • Offer scaffolding questions or sentence frames to students who need them.
    

Step 5: Share & Discuss (5–10 minutes)

• Have students share responses in pairs or groups:
  • Do you agree with the genre/medium?
  • What differences do you notice in your rhetorical situation of breakdowns?
• Facilitate a brief class discussion:
  • What clues helped you figure out the genre?
  • Which parts of the rhetorical situation were hardest to infer?

Step 6: Reflect & Wrap-Up (5 minutes)

• Ask students to respond to one of the following:
  • “What surprised you about analyzing the prompt without the passage?”
  • “How can this help you when you actually write a rhetorical analysis essay?”
• Optionally collect reflections or use them as an exit ticket.

After Class (Follow-Up Options)

• Review worksheets for accuracy and depth of reasoning.
• Use insights to form small groups for future practice.
• As an extension, have students write a short rhetorical analysis paragraph based on one of the prompts once they’ve seen the original passage.