Transcription
Hey everyone, welcome back to Coach Hall Writes! In today's video, I'm going to be sharing with you some of my favorite sentence frames for rhetorical analysis essays in AP Lang.
Before we get started, if you're looking for more resources, please check out the description box below. You'll find links to additional videos that could help you prepare for the AP Lang exam.
Before we get started, you might be wondering what a sentence frame is. And quite frankly, these have been a game-changer in my classroom because it has helped my students learn to better articulate their ideas, and it's also helped them incorporate more advanced syntax into their writing. So, basically, sentence frames are a frame. It's a way for you to plug in information that you know about the text that you're analyzing, and it's a way to get you started so that hopefully you don't have as much writer's block.
For the purposes of this video, if a word is in all caps, like for instance, the word SPEAKER is going to be in all caps quite a lot, that means that you need to replace that word with specifics from the text that you're talking about. You also might see ellipses, which are the three dots, and that just means that you need to finish the sentence. In some cases, there might be a slash between the words, in which case, choose the best word for your text. And as I tell my students, you can change the sentence frames to make it fit your style. So, these are a guide. It's not cheating or anything, but I want you to also learn to develop your voice. And so, if you would say something differently, or if the sentence frame doesn't quite fit the text that you're talking about, it's okay to change it.
So, let's start with a thesis statement sentence frame. I've included this in several other videos, so I will link that in the description box below. But remember, for a defensible thesis, you need to have rhetorical choices. That's what the writer is doing. Now, I tell my students that they should also have the message, argument, or purpose. That's why this one ends with "in order to," and then you have to finish the sentence. So, I encourage my students to have about a three-sentence intro, if possible. One to two sentences of context, that way they can explain the rhetorical situation, and then they build to their thesis, which is the final sentence of their intro. But as I tell my students, on the exam, if you are under a lot of pressure and you just can't think of what to say, or maybe you're running out of time, it's okay to just write a thesis. The goal is to just earn that thesis point, and to do that, you need rhetorical choices. But remember, I tell my students, not just rhetorical choices, I want to see the message, argument, and purpose as well.
So, let's go ahead and look at the sentence frame. So, it says: "In his or her tone speech..." So, you would put a tone word there if you want to. It's not required, but you could put an adjective there to describe the tone. "...to audience..." So, if there is a specific audience, we want to clarify who that audience is. You could also change this up and maybe put the event if there's a particular event that you want to mention. Or if it's not a speech, maybe it's a letter or an article, you would want to clarify that as well. "...and then we have the speaker's name." Usually, you're going to put their full name in your thesis, like first and last name. It sometimes helps to put their credentials. So, you could do this like I did where it's after the name, you just put a comma on either side, or you could put it before. So, you could say something like, "Florence Kelly, child labor activist," or "or you could just say child labor activist Florence Kelly." Either way is fine. "...and then we have our choices." So, whatever we say for Choice One, that's going to correspond with body paragraph one. Choice Two is going to correspond with body paragraph two. My students tend to only write two body paragraphs, that's why there's only two rhetorical choices here. But if you would do three, then go ahead and add a third. "...and then we have in order to..." Because that's where we're going to address the specific message, argument, or purpose.
Now, let's talk about topic sentences. Here are three pretty simple ones to remember, and this could help you follow the speaker's line of reasoning. Remember that speakers put their speech in a logical order. So, if we can figure out how they begin, how they continue, and how they conclude, then we're following their line of reasoning. Also, notice that these have a "what" and a "why." So, the speaker begins by, let's say it's comparing. The speaker begins by comparing blank to blank in order to... So, the comparing is the verb. That's what we're going to be focusing on the paragraph. So, that's our "what." That's our choice. But the "in order to" leads to the "why." I have found that when students do "what" and "why" in their topic sentence, it leads to a stronger claim, and it also usually leads to a stronger paragraph.
Here are some other options in case you don't like the previous ones, or in case you just want to change it up every once in a while. So, one that I personally really like is this top one: "In order to ultimately..." and then you say the specific purpose, "...speaker must first..." and so you're thinking about, okay, their end goal is to do this. So, therefore, to get there, they first have to do this. And then you could add, "Therefore, he or she..." and finish the sentence there as well. So, sometimes topic sentences might be a two-part topic sentence, and that's okay. Now, you could do something really simple: "Speaker..." and then tell the choice, "...in order to..." and then you could also separate it out like, "Speaker..." and then make a claim about the choice, "...and say doing so allows him or her to..." So, those are pretty simple ones, but they do work.
Now, let's talk about body paragraphs too. And if you have body paragraph three, this would apply as well. I personally don't like to see a topic sentence that says, "One choice the writer makes is..." and then the next topic sentence, "Another choice the writer makes is..." Now, are those claims? Yes, but could we write it in a stronger way? I think so. So, here's what I give my students. I tell them that I want body paragraph two to connect to body paragraph one. We want a connection or a transition, kind of like a bridge. So, don't preview your new main idea for the next paragraph in the paragraph that you're in. So, if you're in body paragraph one, don't end body paragraph one by giving us a sneak preview of body paragraph two. I've seen some students do that. And instead, what we want to do is use the concluding sentence, the last sentence of a paragraph, to wrap up the paragraph, tie it back to that main idea, and connect to your thesis.
But for the topic sentence of body paragraph two, that could be a great way to go from Main Idea One to Main Idea Two. So, notice that it says: "Speaker shifts from Main Idea One to Main Idea Two in order to..." and then we have the purpose. So, this could be a way to say, "Hey, I just talked about this main idea, but now I'm going to focus on this main idea." So, it's a little bit smoother than just saying, "Another choice the writer makes is." You could also say: "Having already established that..." and then you tell us Main Idea One, "...speaker then..." and you tell us Main Idea Two. Again, we're trying to create that connection between paragraphs with the topic sentence of body paragraph two, or possibly body paragraph three, if you'd like.
If you'd like more info about topic sentences, like you want more explanation and some more examples, definitely check out the description box below because I have a video all about topic sentences that covers this concept in more detail. But for this video, I just wanted to give you the sentence frames.
These particular sentence frames are going to help you connect to the rhetorical situation. That's probably my best tip for rhetorical analysis because oftentimes essays that tend to score lower might identify their rhetorical choices, and they might start to analyze why the writer makes those choices, but they really aren't connecting to their rhetorical situation. If you'd like more info about this and how to prevent it, check out the video in the description box below about my best tip for rhetorical analysis because in that video, I go into this concept in more detail. But these sentence frames are a way for you to think about that rhetorical situation: so the speaker, purpose, audience, context, and exigence, and how that influences the choices that the writer makes.
So, for instance, you could think about who the speaker is and why they are the right person for the speech. So, "Given that SPEAKER is..." and then you would say their credentials or their title, "...and then you tell us what they do." So, for instance, if they're a president, then perhaps they're trying to reassure the American public, or maybe they're trying to establish credibility. So, think about the speaker's credentials and what their role is because presumably, that's going to influence some of the choices that they make.
You could also think about the speaker-audience connection. So, let's say they both value the same topic. You could say: "Given that speaker and audience value blank, the speaker..." and then you tell us the choice that they make. So, maybe they both value freedom or equality. Thinking about what they value and what they have in common, or perhaps what they disagree on, can help you lead into some more insightful commentary.
Something else to consider is the exigence. So, why are they speaking? What is the catalyst for it? Is it in response to a particular event? Is it because they're at a particular event? Like maybe they're speaking at a funeral and it's a eulogy, or maybe it's a commencement speech at a graduation ceremony. So, you could say something like: "Given that he or she is speaking at a graduation ceremony, he or she..." and then you talk about the choice that they make. Because the choices that somebody makes for a graduation ceremony when they're trying to motivate people and uplift them is going to be very different than the choices that they make at a eulogy when they're trying to honor someone's memory. So, the exigence does come into play.
You could also consider the historical context. Now, this one might not work for every single passage, but for some passages, this could be a very useful sentence frame. So, you could say something to the effect of: "Considering that at this time..." and then tell us what happened at that time. So, for instance, "Considering that at this time women couldn't vote, the speaker..." and then you could say what they did. So, it has to be relevant context, but sometimes the historical context really does come into play, and the sentence frame is a great way to acknowledge that.
We could also focus on the message. So, you could say: "This message is particularly relevant to the audience because..." and I put MESSAGE in all caps because I do think you should use the word message, but I don't want you to necessarily stop at the word message. Maybe you could say something like, "this message of hope," or "this message of perseverance," whatever it is. Try to be a bit more specific when it comes to message, argument, or purpose. Don't just say "argument" or "message." Actually, tell us what the message is. Even if you've already said it somewhere else in your essay, it's usually good to be as specific as possible every single time. And the same thing happens with the audience. So, instead of referring to them as "the audience," if you could refer to them by name or as some kind of collective group, like maybe the American public, or the suffragettes, or even something like the graduates, or those in attendance at the funeral, whatever it is, instead of "audience," if we can be more specific, that helps remind the person reading our essay what their rhetorical situation is.
Now, I also have some sentence frames for rhetorical choices. These are some of the ones that my students have used the most frequently or have said are the most helpful. So, one common choice would be comparison or perhaps contrast. So, you want to choose one or the other. So, if you're writing about comparison, you could say: "By comparing blank and blank, this speaker..." and you tell us what they do. Or you could say: "Speaker contrasts blank and blank in order to..."
If you're looking to step it up another level, instead of contrast, maybe you say "juxtaposes." I really like this third bullet point here. So, I want you to pay close attention to this one because I think this particular sentence frame could be very useful for many students for rhetorical analysis. And here's why: when you are analyzing a choice, you still want to analyze the word choice. You want to look at the word choice and the details. And so, if we say something like: "Speaker's inclusion of the word blank serves to blank or reinforces blank." It could be pulling a word from something that you've quoted previously. It could be looking at a specific word in the passage if you're wanting to analyze their diction. But we want to think about why they're using certain words in their speech. What effect is that going to have on their audience? How is that reinforcing their message? So, those little details can really help.
Repetition is a pretty common rhetorical choice. So, instead of saying, "the writer uses repetition," we could say something like: "By repeating the word blank..." or it could be a phrase. If it's a phrase, just say: "By repeating the phrase blank..."
The top one on this slide is for an anecdote, which is a short story, usually it's personal or witty. So, if the speaker is reminiscing on a time in their childhood, maybe, or they're talking about a specific story, you could say something like: "The speaker recalls a time when..." instead of saying, "speaker uses an anecdote."
Something else that's pretty common is providing examples. So, sometimes it's one core example, other times it's a grouping of maybe three or four smaller examples. Either way, you could say: "Speaker provides an example of blank," or you could say: "Speaker provides multiple examples of blank." And then you're gonna, of course, not only tell us why they do that, but you're going to analyze the examples themselves. So, these sentence frames are just kind of a lead-in to help you make a claim, and then you need to support that with your evidence and commentary.
Another sentence frame that could be pretty useful is: "By detailing blank, speaker prompts audience to consider blank." So, instead of saying "uses imagery" or or even just like "mentions," the verb "detailing" could be used in different ways. So, that's why I think this one could be a useful sentence frame. I think it's pretty versatile.
And then the bottom sentence frame here is really for allusion. So, "Given that the audience is familiar with blank, or given that the audience values blank, the speaker alludes to..." So, again, you want to make this fit the passage that you're talking about. So, that's why there's different options here. So, choose the one that works best for you, or alter it and make it your own. That's fine, too.
So, here's another word choice one: "Including words such as this and that allows the speaker to evoke a sense of..." So, notice that it's not saying "uses pathos." But if you're wanting to analyze an emotional appeal, this sentence frame could be a good one for you to use. I also have a video about analyzing the appeals. So, if you're someone who tends to want to write about logos, ethos, pathos, I encourage you to check out that video.
Couple more here that you can also read along with me: "Speaker vividly describes blank in order to..." and also: "Speaker logically asserts that blank." So, if you're wanting to talk about something logical, it might sound better to say that they "logically assert" and then you tell us what their claim is, as opposed to "uses logos."
Something else that could help you is to use stronger verbs. Here are some that my students tend to like as they're building their commentary. You're welcome to screenshot this if you want to. Please make sure that you know how to use these verbs correctly because they are technically synonyms of "shows" in most cases, but they're not necessarily all interchangeable.
We also want to include rhetorically accurate verbs as we're talking about what the speaker is doing. So, here's a short list of some. There are definitely more in-depth lists online. So, if you're looking for a more inclusive list, I would encourage you to search for rhetorically accurate verbs. I sometimes find that some of those longer lists can be really overwhelming, so I just chose some of the ones that I thought might be most useful to students, but I don't want you to think this is an inclusive list.
Also, I think it's important to know transition words. Now, these aren't sentence frames, per se, but knowing which verbs and transition words you can include will help you with your writing. So, here are some transition words that my students use frequently to help create their line of reasoning by connecting their ideas. You're welcome to screenshot this list as well. But also, before you start using these words, if you're not sure what they mean, please look them up. That way, you make sure that you're using them correctly.
Really briefly, let's talk about conclusion paragraphs because we don't necessarily want to start with "in conclusion," but you might not know what to say instead. So, here are some options. You could say: "When considering the speaker's use of..." and you could talk about the choices that you've already mentioned, "...it becomes clear that..." Or you could talk about the topic itself, like what the passage was about.
And then here's one that could help you situate the issue in a broader context. That is a way to earn the sophistication point. But let me be clear, this sentence frame alone is not going to get you the sophistication point. However, if you're trying to add a little bit more depth to your conclusion, and you can think about the impact of the message, then maybe the sentence frame will help. So, it says: "Although speaker gave this speech in..." and then you put the year, "...the message of blank remains relevant today because..." So, that's that broader context. And I think that's best served in the conclusion. I don't think this sentence frame will work for every passage or for every writer, but it is one that my students have liked in the past and found useful, so I wanted to include it here.
If you found this video helpful, please do me a huge favor and hit that thumbs up button. Also, please double-check that you are subscribed, that way you don't miss out on any future Coach Hall Writes videos as we prepare for the upcoming AP Lang exam. And as I said previously, please check out the description box below, that way you have access to my other rhetorical analysis resources. And until next time, happy writing!