AP English Language · Free-response guide
How to write the AP Lang rhetorical analysis essay
By the CollegePrepRoom editorial team · Updated · How we write and check these pages
The rhetorical analysis essay is the second essay in Section II of the AP English Language and Composition exam. You read a nonfiction passage, usually a speech, letter, essay or article, along with a short introduction that tells you who wrote it, when, and for what occasion. The prompt asks you to analyze the rhetorical choices the writer makes to achieve a purpose or convey a message.
Many students treat this essay as a hunt for devices such as ethos, anaphora or metaphor, and that habit keeps essays in the middle of the rubric. The rubric rewards explaining how a specific choice works on a specific audience to advance the writer's purpose in that situation. This guide explains the rubric, gives a repeatable reading-and-writing method, and shows the difference between device spotting and analysis.
Rhetorical analysis essay at a glance
| Where it appears | Section II, Question 2 |
|---|---|
| Text | One nonfiction passage with an introduction describing the rhetorical situation |
| Task | Analyze the writer's rhetorical choices and how they serve the purpose or message |
| Score | 0 to 6 points on the analytic rubric |
| Section weight | The three essays together make up 55% of the exam score |
| Suggested time | About 40 minutes |
How the rhetorical analysis essay is scored
The rhetorical analysis essay is scored out of 6 points. Each row of the rubric is scored separately, so you can earn points in one row even if you miss another.
| Rubric row | Points | What earns the points |
|---|---|---|
| Row A: Thesis | 1 | A defensible thesis that analyzes the writer's rhetorical choices. A thesis that only describes the passage, only lists devices, or restates the prompt earns 0. |
| Row B: Evidence and commentary | 4 | Scored 0 to 4. Low scores summarize the passage or list devices without explaining them. Middle scores give relevant evidence but explain only some of it, or explain it in general terms. The top score gives specific evidence for all claims in a line of reasoning and consistently explains how multiple rhetorical choices in the passage contribute to the writer's argument, purpose or message. |
| Row C: Sophistication | 1 | Awarded for sophistication of thought or a complex understanding of the rhetorical situation, for example by explaining the significance of the writer's choices given the situation, explaining the purpose or function of the passage's complexities or tensions, or writing in a style that is consistently vivid and persuasive. |
| Total | 6 | Points from all rows are added together. |
- The phrase 'rhetorical choices' is broad on purpose. A choice can be a device, the order of the argument, a shift in tone, what the writer concedes, which example comes first, or who the writer addresses directly.
- Row C is the hardest point to earn and the one scorers award least often. It is a holistic judgment of the whole essay. A tacked-on 'some people might disagree' line in the conclusion does not earn it.
- Scorers credit an accurate explanation of what the writer is doing, even when the technical name is wrong. A correct name with no explanation earns nothing.
Rubric summaries are written in our own words from the publicly available AP course and exam materials. Check the current official scoring guidelines for exact wording, as they can be revised.
Step-by-step method
Read the introduction as evidence
The italic introduction is part of the prompt. Before reading the passage, note the speaker, the audience, the occasion, the date and what pressure the moment puts on the speaker (the exigence). Most strong theses depend on a detail from this introduction: a commencement audience, a hostile legislature, a grieving town.
Find the purpose in one sentence
After the first read, finish this sentence: 'The writer wants this audience to believe or do ___.' Purpose is more specific than a topic. 'Talks about voting' is a topic; 'persuades young people that skipping a local election hands power to people who do not share their interests' is a purpose.
Map the passage in movements
Divide the passage into two to four sections by what the writer is doing in each: establishing common ground, describing a problem, conceding a point, issuing a call to action. Shifts between sections are often where the most important choices are, and organizing your essay by movement gives you a clear line of reasoning.
Choose two or three choices that do the most work
For each movement, pick the choice that most clearly serves the purpose. Prefer choices you can quote briefly and explain at length. Depth of explanation is what earns the points.
Write a thesis that links choices to purpose
A useful pattern: 'In [situation], [writer] [verb] [choice] and [choice] to [effect on audience], in order to [purpose].' Device names are optional in the thesis; a plain description of the strategy works well.
Build each body paragraph around one claim about a choice
Open with the claim (what the writer does and why), quote short evidence, then write commentary: what the language does, how this audience would likely react given the situation, and how that reaction advances the purpose. Aim for at least as many sentences of commentary as of quotation.
Explain the shifts
When the writer changes tone, pronoun, or strategy, ask why the change happens at that moment. Explaining a shift ('after earning the audience's agreement on safety, she pivots to cost because…') shows that you understand the passage as a sequence of decisions, which is what the top Row B score describes.
Close on the situation
Use the conclusion to explain why these choices fit this audience and moment, for example why a measured tone was necessary in front of skeptical listeners. This is a natural place to show the complex understanding Row C rewards.
Common mistakes
Device spotting
'The author uses ethos, pathos and logos' followed by one example of each is the most common pattern in essays that score 2 or 3. Name the strategy only if you also explain its effect and purpose.
Summarizing the passage
Retelling what the writer says, in order, is summary. Each paragraph should explain why the writer says it that way.
Vague effect statements
'This makes the reader feel emotional' or 'this creates imagery' explains nothing. Say which emotion, in which audience, and what that emotion makes them more willing to accept.
Ignoring the audience
An analysis that would apply to any reader misses the rhetorical situation. Tie the effect to the audience named in the introduction.
Arguing with the writer
The prompt asks how the writer argues. An essay that judges whether the writer is right leaves Row B without relevant commentary.
A five-paragraph device template
Organizing by device (one paragraph for diction, one for imagery, one for syntax) often hides the line of reasoning. Organizing by the passage's movements or by the writer's main rhetorical choices tends to produce a clearer argument.
Example: device spotting versus analysis
Invented situation for illustration: a school superintendent speaks to parents after a vote to start the school day later, a change many of them opposed.
Thesis that does not earn Row A
The superintendent uses rhetorical devices such as repetition, rhetorical questions and ethos to talk about the new schedule.
Thesis that earns Row A
The superintendent acknowledges parents' frustrations and appeals to their shared concern for students' health to persuade them to accept the later start time.
Device spotting
The superintendent uses a rhetorical question when she asks, 'Who among us does their best work at 6 a.m.?' This is pathos and it makes the audience think.
Analysis
By asking, 'Who among us does their best work at 6 a.m.?', the superintendent moves the debate from students to the parents themselves. Parents who arrived ready to defend their own schedules are asked to remember their own exhaustion, which makes the research on teenage sleep she cites next feel like common sense the parents already share.
All prompts, passages and sample sentences on this page are original examples written for illustration. They are not official exam material.
Practice prompts
Original prompts in the style of the rhetorical analysis essay, written by our editorial team for practice. They are not official exam questions.
- A museum director writes to donors after a fire damaged part of the collection, asking them to fund a rebuilding project. Analyze the rhetorical choices the director makes to persuade a grieving but cautious audience.
- A retiring coach gives a farewell speech to a team that has just lost a championship game. Analyze how the coach's choices reframe the loss.
- A scientist writes an op-ed urging lawmakers to fund a long-term study whose results will not arrive for decades. Analyze the choices the writer makes to argue for patience.
- A mayor addresses residents after announcing an unpopular water restriction during a drought. Analyze how the mayor's choices build cooperation.
How to practice the rhetorical analysis essay
Practice the reading separately from the writing. Take a speech or editorial, give yourself 12 minutes, and produce only the purpose sentence, the movement map and a thesis. Then compare your map with the full text: did you notice the shifts? When that feels automatic, write full 40-minute essays.
When you review an essay, underline each named device and check whether the next two sentences explain its effect on the audience and its link to purpose. Each underline without that explanation marks a place where the commentary the rubric describes is missing.
Free practice prompt
Lessons in the AP English Language course
Related guides and terms
Rhetorical analysis essay: frequently asked questions
Do I need to name rhetorical devices in the AP Lang rhetorical analysis essay?
No. The rubric rewards explaining how the writer's choices work toward a purpose. Technical terms are useful shorthand. An accurate explanation earns credit with or without the term.
What counts as a rhetorical choice?
Any decision the writer made that shapes how the audience responds: word choice, tone, structure and order, the examples chosen, appeals to shared values, concessions, sentence patterns, and shifts in any of these.
Should I organize the essay by device or chronologically?
Organizing by the passage's movements or by the writer's main strategies usually produces the clearest line of reasoning.
How do I earn the sophistication point on rhetorical analysis?
Explain why the writer's choices are significant given the specific situation, or explain how the writer handles a tension or complexity in the passage, and sustain that across the essay. A single insightful sentence at the end rarely earns the point.