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AP English Language / Unit 1

Unit 1 · Skill module

Rhetorical Situation

A text is a response to a moment: a speaker, an audience, a purpose, and a pressure to speak.

Start first lessonUnit practice

Topics

  • Speaker and persona
  • Audience and expectations
  • Purpose
  • Context and exigence

Lessons

Key terms

Original practice

Marlow Works questions. If this unit does not have its own items yet, you will see other questions from the same course.

1 of 1Rhetorical situation · medium · multiple choice

A city engineer writes an open letter to residents arguing that a proposed bike lane will "cut crash injuries on this corridor, not just add paint to the curb." The phrase most clearly functions to do which of the following?

Original Marlow Works item — not a College Board question.

Take your time—this is practice, not a test.

Review checklist

  1. 01Name speaker, audience, and purpose in one tight sentence.
  2. 02State the exigence without retelling the whole history of the topic.
  3. 03Note one constraint (time, genre, power, or decorum) that shapes the voice.

Related resources

External links with reuse status. Marlow Works is independent and does not copy restricted exam or textbook material.

  • Official / link only

    AP English Language and Composition course page

    Official skills framework for rhetoric, argument, and synthesis.

    College Board · All rights reserved · accessed 2026-10-01

    Open source

  • CC BY — attribution required

    English Composition: Connect, Collaborate, Communicate

    Open composition text for writing process, argument, and revision.

    Open Textbook Library listing · CC BY · accessed 2026-10-01

    Open source