Skip to content
Marlbridge
Free trial

Flashcards · AP® English Language and Composition · Unit 2

Unit 2: Audience, Appeals and the Thesis flashcards

28 cards on topics 2.1 to 2.7. Pick a topic or study the whole unit.

Study mode needs JavaScript. Every card is listed below, so you can still cover the answers and test yourself.

All 28 cards

For a quick read-through or printing. Cover the right-hand side to test yourself.

2.1 Writing for an audience’s beliefs, values and needs

What are beliefs, values and needs in an audience?
Beliefs are what the audience holds to be true; values are what it holds to be important; needs are what it lacks or fears losing. A writer who answers all three gives the audience reasons to listen.
How can a writer answer an anticipated fear?
By stating the fear early and addressing it directly, so that the audience can relax and listen. Reassurance in an opening shows the writer understands the audience's position.
How does a writer appeal to shared values?
By naming principles the audience already accepts, such as fairness or safety, and then showing that the claim follows from them. The audience is asked to be consistent, not to change.
What is the difference between belief and value?
A belief is a view about what is true ("the bridge is unsafe"). A value is a view about what matters ("people's safety comes first"). Arguments often need both: a belief about facts and a value to judge them.

2.2 Relating to an audience’s emotions and values

How do writers appeal to an audience's emotions?
Through vivid details, personal stories, charged word choice and imagery that make readers feel concern, pride, fear or hope. The emotion should connect to the claim, not replace it.
Why can restraint be more moving than extravagance?
Plain, understated language can seem sincere and leave space for the audience's own feeling. Heavy emotional language can look like manipulation and reduce trust.
When is an emotional appeal persuasive and when is it not?
It works when the feeling fits the audience and is linked to the claim. It fails when it is exaggerated, unrelated to the point or aimed at feelings the audience does not share.
How do you analyse an emotional appeal in an essay?
Name the emotion, point to the specific words or details that create it, and explain why those choices suit the audience and help the writer's purpose.

2.3 Appeals: the modes of persuasion

What are ethos, pathos and logos?
Ethos appeals to the writer's credibility and character; pathos appeals to the audience's emotions and values; logos appeals to reason and evidence. Most arguments mix all three.
How does a writer build ethos?
By showing knowledge, fairness and good will: citing reliable sources, admitting limits, using a tone that fits the audience and speaking from relevant experience.
What is logos and how do you recognise it?
An appeal to logic and evidence: clear reasoning, data, causes and effects, and examples. Look for claims followed by reasons or proof that a reader could check.
Why should an analysis not just label appeals?
Naming ethos, pathos or logos earns little by itself. Explain how a specific choice works on this audience and how it advances the writer's purpose.

2.4 Choosing evidence strategically

What makes evidence relevant?
It bears directly on the claim being made and not only on the general topic. Ask whether the evidence would still support the claim if the topic was changed slightly.
How can an analogy work as evidence?
It clarifies an unfamiliar idea by comparing it to a familiar one, associates it with the qualities of the familiar thing and can amplify its importance. Its limit is that the two things may differ in important ways.
What is the difference between strategic selection and cherry-picking?
Strategic selection chooses the strongest evidence for the purpose and audience and is honest about the rest. Cherry-picking hides evidence that cuts against the claim, which damages credibility if noticed.
How does audience affect the choice of evidence?
Audiences trust different support: a technical audience may want data and sources, a community meeting may respond more to local examples. Choose what this audience will find credible.

2.5 Sufficient evidence

What does sufficient evidence mean?
Enough support, of the right kind, for the claim's size and the audience's doubts. A broad claim needs many examples or kinds of evidence; a narrow claim may need only one clear case.
How does the size of a claim affect the evidence needed?
The broader the claim, the more evidence it needs. "All pupils benefit" needs far more support than "some pupils benefited in this school".
When is one piece of evidence not enough?
When the claim is general, the audience is sceptical or the evidence could be a one-off. Adding a second kind of evidence, such as data plus an example, makes the case more secure.
Can there be too much evidence?
Yes. More examples that say the same thing add length but not strength, and bury the best point. Choose the strongest evidence and explain it well.

2.6 Identifying the thesis of an argument

How do you identify a thesis in a text?
Find the sentence or sentences that state the central claim the whole text defends. It is often near the start or end, but may be implied. Test it by asking whether the rest of the text supports it.
What is an implied thesis?
A central claim that the writer never states outright but makes clear through the details, tone and structure. Satire often has one: the reader has to infer what the writer really believes.
How do you tell a thesis from a topic or a fact?
A topic is a subject; a fact is not arguable; a thesis is an arguable position about the subject that the text then supports.
Where can a thesis appear in a text?
At the beginning, the end, spread across several sentences or nowhere explicitly. Writers choose its position for effect: an early thesis orients the reader; a late one builds towards the point.

2.7 Writing a defensible thesis statement

What makes a thesis defensible?
It takes a position that a reasonable person could dispute, can be supported with evidence in the space available, and answers the prompt. It should be specific, not a truism.
What are the features of a weak thesis?
It restates the prompt, simply announces a topic, states an obvious fact, is too broad to defend, or (in analysis) lists devices without saying what they do.
How do you write a thesis for a rhetorical analysis?
Name the writer's key choices and say what they accomplish for the audience and purpose, for example "By [choice], [writer] [effect]". Make it specific to the passage, not a statement that could fit any speech.
How can you revise a thesis to make it more defensible?
Add a reason or condition ("because", "only when"), narrow the scope, replace vague words with exact ones and check that your body paragraphs can prove each part of it.

Study Unit 2 further

AP® and Advanced Placement® are trademarks registered by the College Board, which is not affiliated with, and does not endorse, this website. Marlbridge is an independent tuition provider. It is not an authorized AP course provider, an AP school or an exam centre, and these resources are not official College Board materials. Reading them or doing simulations does not meet the laboratory requirement of an AP science course.