What's the difference between Lit and Lang?

One of the questions we get most in the English department is "what's the difference between AP English Literature and Composition and AP English Language and Composition?


The short answer is that AP Lit focuses mainly on analyzing fiction and drama, and that AP Lang focuses mainly on analyzing non-fiction and on making effective arguments.


The longer answer comes in when you ask about the AP English exams and what the difference is between the AP English exams and the exams for almost every other subject?




The answer that question is this--the AP English exams (Lit or Lang) differ from the other major exam topics because they focus on process not product.  What "process" means is that the exams focus on the student's ability to use the reading and writing "process" to analyze (and write critically about) works of literature that he or she has never seen before.  Literally no one other than the test makers know what writings are going to be on the AP English exams before they come out.  English AP courses are not given a specific list of works of literature that they need to cover.  The College Board in both cases essentially says we should cover literature from the 1500s to the present, and that's a lot of literature.


Because of this huge range of potential subjects, it's next to impossible to find any two AP English curricula that are exactly the same anywhere in the country or that focus on exactly the same works of literature.  It's not like calculus or physics where the instructor knows they need to get from concept A to concept Z by the end of the year, and that lack of certainty can cause some students (and teachers) anxiety.


But I choose to focus more on the positive side of that uncertainty.  The breadth of the potential topic matter frees the AP English student from the pressure of having to cover a set amount of content in time for the AP exam in May, and instead the AP English student can concentrate on a deeper understanding of the content presented and the skills necessary to successfully read and interpret literature.


This reduction in pressure, however, should not imply a lackadaisical or non-Advanced Placement mindset toward the work.  This is ENGLISH after all, the lingua franca of the world, and we study only a small fraction of some of its greatest works in both AP Lit and AP Lang.  And AP being a "college level" class means we study those works with an eye for detail and an intensity that rises above the typical honors level English classroom.  The focus is on quality over quantity but the quantity is still significant.  The aim is for you to look back at the end of both AP Lit and AP Lang and be impressed with yourself and how much literature you have read and discussed and about which you have written.