A World of Critical Thinkers by Alyssa

A World of Critical Thinkers by Alyssa - November 2021 Scholarship Essay

In my school, I believe that AP Language and Composition (AP Lang) deserves more emphasis. Now don’t get me wrong, AP Lang is not for everyone. It is a lot of work and the amount of pressure placed on you during a single exam can be overwhelming for many people. However, it was very different from many of my other English classes and gave me a lot of valuable skills I would not have otherwise learned. I think that the AP Lang style approach teaches valuable life skills that other English classes miss.
Many of the first concepts we learned in AP Lang were new to me, such as the rhetorical triangle and the Rogerian argument. The rhetorical triangle is the interaction between the speaker, audience, and subject and how that interaction affects a work. For example, a comedian might present his or her message differently than a government official or scientific expert; texts meant for a five-year-old might differ from ones meant for me as a high school student; a speaker’s tone might be different when discussing the history of leprechauns than when discussing the death of someone he or she looked up to. These elements are key to presenting and developing a persuasive argument in any setting, not just essay writing. If I want to make the case to my sister that Doctor Strange is cooler than Doctor Who, then I have to find a way to convince her that I as her sister am worth listening to, find a way to counter her bias against all superhero movies, and understand that the subject is a little silly, so silly arguments can (and should) be applied. Building off of that basic idea of discussion is the Rogerian argument. The idea behind this type of argument is that we are not solely arguing for one side or the other, but both trying to find a middle ground. In our discussion about Doctor Strange and Doctor Who, we might conclude that while Doctor Who is cool in some ways, Doctor Strange is cool in others. These concepts were just the first concepts I learned in AP Lang and they have already expanded my understanding of persuasively presenting my opinion.
Although I might have been exposed to these concepts, there are many Americans that could benefit from a better understanding of these concepts. In many cases, when Americans differ in political positions, they fight rather than discuss or forget that their audience does not share their political opinion. Controversial topics often attract people arguing solely with emotion and not reason. Some news stations feed off this and provide news that gets people worked up rather than giving them accurate information. Learning to analyze arguments helps me develop critical thinking skills and view arguments as tools for solving problems rather than being right. A critical-thinking-focused class like AP Lang helps me see the nuances of issues and pull together arguments from different perspectives to form my opinion. It does more than teach me to read a book closely, but how to use skills I have learned from reading books and apply them to my everyday life. AP Lang teaches students how to use English in the context of the real world and that is why it deserves more emphasis in school. It revolutionizes the American way of expressing opinions and solving dilemmas. AP Lang helps build a world full of critical thinkers.