AP Annotation Guide
General Tips
● Focus on language and not the content of what a speaker/writer says
● You can write about any choice a writer makes, even if it doesn’t have
an official vocab term (For example, you can notice a shift in tone)
● If you can’t remember what a choice is officially called, you can
just describe it (For example, “The author makes her audience feel a sense
of dread,” if you can’t remember the term “pathos”)
SOAPSTone
● Subject - What is this text about? (the topic)
● Occasion - What is the time period and place of the piece? What is the context that caused
the author to create it?
● Audience - Who is the group(s) to whom the piece is directed? What are the characteristics of
this group? How are they related to the speaker?
● Purpose - What does the speaker hope to accomplish with this piece? How would the
speaker like the audience to respond?
● Speaker - Whose voice is telling the story? Think about the age, gender, affiliation, social
class, of the speaker.
● Tone - What tone does the author intend to portray in the piece? Choose some words or
phrases that reflect a particular attitude.
Rhetorical Appeals
● Ethos - How does the speaker establish their credibility, as someone who should be believed
and trusted? What are their qualifications? How do they establish a connection with an
audience?
● Pathos - How does a speaker make their audience feel a certain way?
● Logos - How does a speaker use facts, stats, information, and logical reasoning to convince
an audience?
Rhetorical Choices and Style
1. Diction - word choice
Do the words used have a positive or negative connotation? What is the impact of
●
specific words and phrases on the audience?
2. Imagery - use of descriptions that appeal to sensory experiences
3. Language Style - characteristic of language as a whole
● For example, colloquial/slang, old-fashioned/archaic, informal/conversational,
formal, concrete/specific, abstract
4. Syntax - the way sentences are constructed
● Are sentences simple, complex, declarative, exclamative, etc?
● Are they short and punchy? Or long and winding?
● How do these structures impact the message or tone?
● What kind of punctuation does the speaker use?
5. Juxtaposition - placing different things close together for contrast
6. Parallelism – similarity in structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases or clauses.
● Example: …”we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred
Honor” from the Declaration of Independence
7. Repetition - the repetition of the same words, phrases, or sentence structures
8. Analogy - a comparison between two things. Analogies function to describe or explain one
thing by examining its similarities with another thing
● Similes and metaphors are BOTH types of analogies
9. Personification- investing abstractions for inanimate objects with human qualities or abilities
● Example: the smiling sun
10. Pun - play on words
● Use of words alike in sound but different in meaning (homonym) or use of words
spelled the same but with different sounds and meanings (homographic)
● Example: He robbed chickens and was charged with fowl play.
11. Hyperbole - the use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect
● Examples: My feet are killing me, Cry me a river
12. Irony (verbal) - use of a word in such a way as to convey a meaning opposite to the literal
meaning of the word
13. Irony (Situational) - occurs when incongruity appears between expectations of something to
happen, and what actually happens instead.
14. Paradox - apparently contradictory statement that nevertheless contains a measure of truth
15. Rhetorical Question asking a question, not for the purpose of eliciting an answer
but for the purpose of asserting or denying something indirectly
Rhetorical Modes
● ways that information is organized in a text; a rhetorical strategy that utilizes organization
and structure throughout
● Can be several in a text, but usually one will be primary and others secondary
● Argument – stating a claim and then proving it
● Narration - purpose is to explain information about your topic as a series of events in story
format.
● Description - purpose is to create a picture in words (vivid, specific details) to help the
reader visualize something a writer has seen, heard or done
● Process Analysis - purpose is to explain a process by giving directions or information about
how to do something or how something is done.
● Exemplification/illustration- The purpose is to discuss topic by using examples to clarify
points
● Comparison and Contrast The purpose is to show how two or more areas of your topic are
similar (compare) or different (contrast) or both.
● Classification and Division - purpose is to break topic into groups of categories and explain
● Definition - purpose is to define a word or concept about your topic using synonyms,
essential definition or extended definitions
● Cause and Effect - purpose is to explain what caused (cause) something to happen (effect) in
specific topic
