The list below represents examples of textbooks that meet the curricular requirements of AP English Language and Composition. The list below is not exhaustive and the texts listed should not be regarded as endorsed, authorized, recommended, or approved by the College Board. Not using a book from this list does not mean that a course will not receive authorization. Syllabi submitted as part of the AP Course Audit process will be evaluated holistically, with textbooks considered along with supplementary, supporting resources to confirm that the course as a whole provides students with the content delineated in the curricular requirements of the AP Course Audit. For discussions of the usefulness of these texts and other teaching materials in the AP English Language and Composition classroom, please consult the Teachers' Resources section of AP Central.
 Teachers' Resources
There is no recommended or required reading list for the AP English Language and Composition course. The following texts are provided simply to suggest the range and quality of reading expected in the course. Teachers may select texts from those listed below or may choose others of comparable quality and complexity. AP courses are designed to provide students with a learning experience equivalent to that of a college course. Whenever applicable, college-level texts must be used to engage students in the curriculum.
The AP English Language and Composition course requires nonfiction readings (e.g., essays, journalistic articles, political writings, scientific writings, environmental writings, autobiographies/biographies, diaries, histories, criticisms) that are selected to give students opportunities to identify and explain an author's use of rhetorical strategies and techniques. Thus, individual works of literature or literature anthologies are not included on the list below. If fiction and poetry are assigned in your course, their main purpose should be to help students understand how various effects are achieved by writers' linguistic and rhetorical choices.
Books on Rhetoric
Any edition of the texts below will meet the curricular requirements of the AP English Language and Composition course.
Axelrod, Rise B., and Charles R. Cooper. The St. Martin's Guide to Writing. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martin's.
Barnet, Sylvan, and Hugo Bedau. Current Issues and Enduring Questions: A Guide to Critical
Thinking and Argument with Readings. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Bartholomae, David, and Anthony Betrosky. Ways of Reading. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Bazerman, Charles. The Informed Writer. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Bazerman, Charles, and Paul Prior. What Writing Does and How It Does It. Mahwah, NJ:
Erlbaum.
Bell, Kathleen. Developing Arguments. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Bloom, Lynn, Z. Fact and Artifact. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. The Craft of Research.
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Corbett, Edward P. J., and Robert J. Connors. Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student. New
York: Oxford University Press.
Corbett, Edward P. J., and Robert J. Connors. Style and Statement. New York: Oxford University
Press.
Covino, William A. The Elements of Persuasion. Boston: Longman.
Crowley, Sharon, and Debra Hawhee. Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students. New York,
NY: Longman.
Ede, Lisa. Work in Progress: A Guide to Academic Writing and Revising. New York: Bedford/St.
Martin's.
Faigley, Lester, Anna Palchik, Cynthia Selfe, and Diana George. Picturing Texts. New York:
W. W. Norton.
Jolliffe, David A. Inquiry and Genre: Writing to Learn in College. Boston: Longman.
Lunsford, Andrea A., John J. Ruszkiewicz, and Keith Walters. Everything's an Argument: with
Readings. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.
McQuade, Donald, and Christine McQuade. Seeing and Writing. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Roskelly, Hephzibah, and David Jolliffe. Everyday Use: Rhetoric at Work in Reading and
Writing. New York: Longman.
Sunstein, Bonnie Stone, and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater. Fieldworking: Reading and Writing
Research. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Tibbetts, A.M., and Charlene Tibbetts. Strategies of Rhetoric. New York: HarperCollins.
Trimbur, John. The Call to Write. New York: Longman.
Yagelski, Robert P., and Robert Keith Miller. The Informed Argument. New York: Heinlein.
Readers
Any edition of the texts below will meet the curricular requirements of the AP English Language and Composition course.
Barnet, Sylvan, and Morton Berman. Literature for Composition. Irving, TX: Prentice Hall.
Bizzell, Patricia, and Bruce Herzberg, eds. Negotiating Difference: Cultural Case Studies for
Composition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Cohen, Samuel. 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Colombo, Gary, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle. Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for
Critical Thinking and Writing. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Cooley, Thomas, ed. The Norton Sampler: Short Essays for Composition. New York:
W. W. Norton.
Decker, R. E., ed. Patterns of Exposition. New York: Addison-Wesley.
DiYanni, Robert, and Pat C. Hoy II. Frames of Mind: A Rhetorical Reader with Occasions for
Writing. Boston: Heinle.
DiYanni, Robert, ed. One Hundred Great Essays. New York: Longman.
Eschholz, Paul, and Alfred Rosa, eds. Models for Writers: Short Essays for Composition.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Eschholz, Paul, and Alfred Rosa, eds. Subjects/Strategies: A Writer's Reader. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin's.
Flachman, Kim, and Michael Flachman. The Prose Reader. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice
Hall.
Gilyard, Keith, Deborah H. Holdstein, and Charles I. Schuster. Rhetorical Choices: A Reader for
Writers. New York: Longman.
Gordon, Jane Bachman, and Karen Kuehner. NTC's Anthology of Nonfiction. Lincolnwood, IL:
Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.
Gross, John, ed. The Oxford Book of Essays. New York: Oxford University Press.
Jacobus, Lee A. A World of Ideas. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Kennedy, X.J., Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Jane E. Aaron. The Bedford Reader. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin's.
Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandell. The Blair Reader: Exploring Contemporary
Issues. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandell, eds. Patterns for College Writing: A Rhetorical
Reader and Guide. New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Lester, James D. Diverse Identities: Classic Multicultural Essays. Lincolnwood, IL: McGraw-Hill.
McCuen, Jo Ray, and Anthony C. Winkler, eds. Readings for Writers. Fort Worth, TX: Heinle &
Heinle Publishers.
Miller, George, ed. The Prentice Hall Reader. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Nadell, Judith A., John Langan, and Eliza A. Comodromos. The Longman Reader. New York:
Longman.
Nadell, Judith, John Langan, and Eliza A. Comodromos. The Macmillan Reader. New York:
Longman.
Peterson, Linda H., and John C. Brereton, eds. The Norton Reader. New York: W. W.
Norton & Co.
Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. Writing Arguments: A Rhetoric with
Readings. New York: Longman.
Root Jr., Robert L., and Michael Steinberg. The Fourth Genre. New York: Longman.
Stubbs, Marcia, Sylvan Barnet, and William E. Cain. The Little, Brown Reader. New York:
Longman.
Trimmer, James F., and Maxine C. Hairston, eds. The Riverside Reader. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin.
Wescott Barrows, Marjorie, et al. The American Experience: Nonfiction. New York: Macmillan.
Yagelski, Robert. Literacies and Technologies. New York: Longman.
Handbooks, Style Guides, and Grammar Texts
While any edition of the texts below will meet the curricular requirements of the AP English Language and Composition course, the AP English Language Development Committee recommends that schools use the most recent edition of handbooks because these will have the most up-to-date information on citing sources properly.
Miles, Robert, Marc Bertonasco, and William Karns. Prose Style. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice
Hall.
Bernstein, Theodore M. The Careful Writer: A Modern Guide to English Usage. New York: Free
Press.
Faigley, Lester. Penguin Handbook. New York: Longman.
Fowler, H. Ramsey, and Jane E. Aaron. The Little, Brown Handbook. New York: Longman.
Hacker, Diana. The Bedford Handbook. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Hacker, Diana. A Writer's Reference. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Hall, Diane, and Mark Foley. Longman Advanced Learners' Grammar. New York: Longman.
Hall, Donald, and Sven Birkerts. Writing Well. New York: Longman.
Killgallon, Don. Sentence Composing for College. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.
Lanham, Richard A. Revising Prose. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Lunsford, Andrea A. St. Martin's Handbook. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Murray, Donald. The Craft of Revision. Boston: Thomson/Heinle.
Strunk, William, Jr., and E. B. White. Elements of Style. New York: Longman.
Troyka, Lynn Quitman, and Douglas Hesse. Simon and Schuster Handbook for Writers. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Zinsser, William K. On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction. New York: Harper
and Row.
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