Martin Luther King

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AP Language Analyzing MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail ELAALRL1.a Analyzes and explains the structures and elements of nonfiction works of American literature such as letters, journals, and diaries, speeches, and essays. CBAPELC C4—The course requires expository, analytical, and argumentative writing assignments that are based on readings representing a wide variety of prose styles and genres. Organization: 1. Explain how the letter is organized and what effect the organization has on the letter as a whole. 2. Why does King arrange paragraphs 2—4 in the order that he does? How would reversing the order change the impact? 3. Why does King wait until paragraph 45 to address the alleged commendable behavior of Birmingham police in "preventing violence"? 4. Considering the final three paragraphs as King's conclusion, discuss whether you believe it is rhetorically effective. Audience: 5. Who are the intended audiences? What effect does audience have on King’s appeals? Syntax: 6. Identify a prominent syntactical move. What effect does that syntax have on the audience? 7. In the long sentence in paragraph 14 (beginning with "But when you have seen"), why does King arrange the "when" clauses in the order that he does? Try repositioning them, and then discuss the difference in effect. Tone: 8. Where does King’s tone shift? What effect is produced by the change? 9. What is King's tone in the opening paragraph? How might you make an argument for its being ironic? Appeals: 10. Identify at least one of each type of appeal and describe its effect—ethos, logos, pathos. 11. Martin Luther King writes as a member of several communities, some overlapping, some in conflict. What are they? Focusing on two or three, explain how he defines himself within each. 12. Why does King go into such detail to explain the basic principles and process of the

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