When it was time to make my senior year schedule, I was undecided on an English class. Even after Mr. Major presented an AP Lit vs. AP Lang video to my English 11 Honors class, I was still unsure. Nevertheless, I ended up choosing AP Lang because I believed that it would help me grow the most and provide me with the most opportunities to improve my writing skills.
Doubling up on AP Lit and AP Lang senior year was off the table, as I planned to double up on AP science instead. As a result, I asked Westlake High School graduates what their thoughts on each class were. Although my older sister only took AP Lit, she felt that I would like AP Lang due to my analytical personality. However, this statement did not end my uncertainty, as I believed that personality was not enough to determine which class was right for me. As a result, I texted a friend who managed to double up on both classes senior year, hoping that he would be my ultimate deciding factor and give me the most nuanced opinion out of anyone I knew. He responded by telling me that despite more busywork, he liked AP Lang more. So, following both my friend’s opinion and my gut, I placed AP Lang on my schedule for senior year.
My first feeling that I made the right decision came while I was reading On Writing, a novel that I thought was the most entertaining memoir and advice book I’ve ever read. In addition, reading On Writing prepared me for college, as the novel emphasizes writing skills such as description, paragraphs, and grammar that could be prevalent in every class. All in all, I believe that I’ve gained more from reading On Writing than what I would’ve gained from reading another fictional narrative for summer reading.
I still believe that I made the right decision by placing AP Lang on my schedule, as its material is more applicable and diverse than any English class I’ve ever taken. A thorough examination of the value of language in our lives, a peek into the minds of cold-blooded criminals, and rhetorical strategies extending beyond the traditional ethos, pathos, and logos are only some examples of the fascinating topics we have discussed during class. Since the beginning of the year, one of my goals as Editor in Chief has been to publish articles that are more professional than ever. AP Lang is a great supplement to this goal, as it is teaching me how to write anything. “I think part of what makes it stand out is that we can use pretty much any literature we want to to study argument, because there is argumentative writing in almost everything. We can look at whatever novels we’re interested in, we can look at essays we’re interested in, and we can just look at a wide variety of writing that you might just not get in a more standard curriculum,” says Mrs. Reichert, the current teacher of AP Lang at WHS. While AP Lit would’ve only taught me a single facet of the English language, AP Lang is teaching me how to master the English language as a whole.
