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COMING SOON 10/29/2025

Ideas in Argument

Building Skills and Understanding for the AP® English Language CourseSecond Edition ©2026 John R. Williamson; Mary Jo Zell; Elizabeth Davis

Ideas in Argument, Second Edition, is designed to help all students—and teachers—succeed in AP® English Language and Composition courses. It was created to support teachers and guide students as they become stronger analytical readers and persuasive writers.

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Home Features New to This Edition

The first textbook program to fully align to the AP® English Language Course is now better than ever!

Ideas in Argument

is completely aligned to the 9 units in the AP® English Language and Composition Course and Exam Description;
scaffolds the skills across the units in a way that builds students’ confidence and success;
includes engaging and inspiring texts that students will love to read, and teachers love to teach;
presents rhetorical reading and analytical writing workshops that actually teach the craft of argument—now with more templates and models;
builds critical thinking skills and takes students beyond the classroom into real-world arguments;
contains organizers, charts, templates, and tips that help students understand and practice the rhetorical skills and concepts that matter most;
is written in a voice that speaks to students;
includes detailed, step-by-step workshops focused on tackling the AP® FRQ prompts in alignment with the scope and sequence of the AP® Course and Exam Description and Personal Progress Checks;
provides test-taking strategies alongside practice multiple-choice questions and AP® FRQ prompts throughout every unit; and
features a new, full Practice AP® Exam at the back of the book.

Features

A Clear Pathway to Success, Fully Aligned to the AP® Units and Skills

At the heart of the AP® English Language and Composition course are Big Ideas that are presented through strategically scaffolded and sequenced units that build skills for achieving success on the AP® Exam. Ideas in Argument, Second Edition, puts the Big Ideas into practice. Ideas in Argument follows the nine units of the AP® Framework, making it easy to use the resources found in AP® Classroom, such as Personal Progress Checks, released AP® Exam Items, AP® Daily videos, and more while paving a pathway for student success on the AP® Exam.

Why Ideas?

After decades of experience as writing teachers and AP® Exam leaders, the authors agree that the one secret ingredient to realizing success on the AP® Exam is just that—ideas. It’s not enough to just discuss a topic. To be successful, students need to express an idea about that topic. That’s why ideas are at the core of every unit in Ideas in Argument. More importantly, ideas—like faith, place, justice, community, technology, and more—are at the heart of argument and rhetoric we hear, read, and participate in every day. These ideas are also at the heart of the human experience. Regardless of what students are reading, writing, researching, or thinking as they complete this course, they will be discovering, analyzing, and connecting ideas.

Diverse, High-Interest Classic and Contemporary Readings, Refreshed for a New Edition

In addition to classic works from authors like Susan B. Anthony, Rachel Carson, Frederick Douglass, Patrick Henry, Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King Jr., and Henry David Thoreau, we’ve included a wealth of contemporary and diverse voices like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Tom Hanks, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Tommy Orange, Taylor Swift, Clint Smith, FKA Twigs, Jesmyn Ward, and more.

New to This Edition

NEW! Nearly 100 new readings from classics by writers such as James Baldwin, Helen Keller, Arthur Miller, and Zora Neale Hurston—to exciting contemporary voices, including Robin Wall Kimmerer, Tom Hanks, Jesmyn Ward, and more.
NEW! Applying AP® Skills questions in the margins of the AP® Big Idea Workshop texts prompt students to read actively and focus on the workshop’s central skill.
NEW! Writing templates help scaffold students’ skill development and provide structure to their written responses in each unit’s Composition and AP® FRQ Workshops.
EXPANDED! Ideas in American Culture collections with five readings on a cultural idea in every unit offer even more choices for nuanced argument and skill practice.
NEW! Ideas in American Culture features help students hone visual analysis skills and develop sophisticated arguments.
NEW AND UPDATED! Even more scaffolded AP® practice throughout. Deeply aligned to the skills of the course in each unit, these features meet students where they are and get them where they need to go:

NEW! A practice AP® multiple-choice question in every AP® Big Idea Workshop scaffolds students’ skill development.
NEW! Two practice AP® FRQ prompts for every reading in the Ideas Collections. Written in stable prompt wording to mirror the exam, these allow students to think and write about real-world issues while also preparing for the AP® exam.
EXPANDED! AP® FRQ Workshops further scaffold the writing for the exam, with new templates, graphic organizers, quick reference charts, and annotated student models to guide students every step of the way.
NEW! A full practice AP® exam at the back of the book gives students yet another way to self-assess and prepare for the exam at the end of the year.

Ideas in Argument

John R. Williamson; Mary Jo Zell; Elizabeth Davis

Achieve

Achieve is a comprehensive set of interconnected teaching and assessment tools that incorporate the most effective elements from Macmillan Learning's market leading solutions in a single, easy-to-use platform.

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Ideas in Argument

Second Edition 2026

John R. Williamson; Mary Jo Zell; Elizabeth Davis

UNIT 1 ▪ Communicating an Idea

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ RHETORICAL SITUATION: The Writer’s Message

Tom Hanks, Commencement Address, Harvard University

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ CLAIMS AND EVIDENCE: The Writer’s Claim

Steve Rushin, Give the Kids a Break

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ REASONING AND ORGANIZATION: Narration and Description

Trevor Noah, Born a Crime

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ STYLE: The Writer’s Tone

Stephen King, Why We Crave Horror Movies

IDEAS IN AMERICAN CULTURE ▪ Faith and Doubt

Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

Langston Hughes, Salvation

Richard Feynman, The Value of Science

Arthur Miller, Why I Wrote The Crucible

Seema Yasmin, Can You Believe Anything? The Sunrise Problem

COMPOSITION WORKSHOP ▪ Writing a Narrative

Maiya Bhandari, Vibrant Colors (Student Model Essay)

AP® FREE-RESPONSE QUESTION WORKSHOP ▪ Rhetorical Analysis

Writing and Supporting a Defensible Thesis

Helen Keller, Letter to Dr. Finley

Kate Conley, Rhetorical Analysis Essay (Student Model Essay)

AP® FRQ Practice: Writing an AP® Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

AP® MULTIPLE-CHOICE PRACTICE

Multiple-Choice Questions: Reading

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Danger of a Single Story (Speech)

Multiple-Choice Questions: Writing

UNIT 2 ▪ Appealing to an Audience

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ RHETORICAL SITUATION: Considering the Audience

Kamala Harris, I Will Not Be the Last

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ CLAIMS AND EVIDENCE: Relevant and Sufficient Evidence

Israel Garcia, “Superpredator” Labels Are a Relic of the 1990s, but Tough-on-Crime Policies Persist

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ REASONING AND ORGANIZATION: Persuasion

Richard Haass, Why We Need Civics

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ STYLE: Syntactical Choices for Effect

George W. Bush, Address to the Nation on September 20, 2001

IDEAS IN AMERICAN CULTURE ▪ Reason and Revolution

Writing and Supporting a Defensible Thesis

Patrick Henry, Speech to the Virginia Convention

Thomas Paine, The American Crisis Number 1

Susan B. Anthony, Is It a Crime to Vote?

Audre Lorde, The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action

Sima Bahous, UN Commemoration of International Women’s Day

COMPOSITION WORKSHOP ▪ Writing a Persuasive Argument

Finley Gardner, Students Deserve a Free Education (Student Model Essay)

AP® FREE-RESPONSE QUESTION WORKSHOP ▪ Argument

Establishing a Line of Reasoning

Seth Hahn, Argument Essay (Student Model Essay)

AP® FRQ Practice: Writing an AP® Argument Essay

AP® MULTIPLE-CHOICE PRACTICE

Multiple-Choice Questions: Reading

Cori Bush, St. Louis Climate Strike Speech

Multiple-Choice Questions: Writing

UNIT 3 ▪ Understanding Context

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ RHETORICAL SITUATION: The Rhetorical Context

Dan Crenshaw, Five Lessons That Veterans Can Teach Us

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ CLAIMS AND EVIDENCE: Sources of Evidence

Molly Smith, The NFL Must Prioritize Players’ Safety and Humanity

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ REASONING AND ORGANIZATION: Exposition: Process Argument

Chris Daly, How the Lawyers Stole Winter

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ STYLE: Transitions

Noam Chomsky, Ian Roberts, and Jeffrey Watumull, The False Promise of ChatGPT

IDEAS IN AMERICAN CULTURE ▪ The Individual and Nature

Margaret Fuller and Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Letter to Readers,” Volume 1, Issue 1 of the Dial

Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Skywoman Falling

António Guterres, The State of the Planet

COMPOSITION WORKSHOP ▪ Exposition: Writing a Process Argument

Kathryn Stribling, Breaking Into the World of Clay (Student Model Essay)

AP® FREE-RESPONSE QUESTION WORKSHOP ▪ Synthesis

Incorporating Evidence from Sources

Steve Reddy, Synthesis Essay (Student Model Essay)

AP® FRQ Practice: Writing an AP® Synthesis Essay

AP® MULTIPLE-CHOICE PRACTICE

Multiple-Choice Questions: Reading

Wendell Berry, The Agrarian Standard

Multiple-Choice Questions: Writing

UNIT 4 ▪ Analyzing Purpose

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ RHETORICAL SITUATION: Multiple Purposes

Taylor Swift, For Taylor Swift, the Future of Music Is a Love Story

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ CLAIMS AND EVIDENCE: Function of Evidence

Liam Burke, Why the World Needs Superheroes

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ REASONING AND ORGANIZATION: Exposition: Definition Argument

Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, Letters of an American Farmer: What Is an American?

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ STYLE: Eliminating Ambiguity

Ralph Ellison, Hidden Name and Complex Fate

IDEAS IN AMERICAN CULTURE ▪ Division and Unity

Frederick Douglass, What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?

Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address

Sandra Day O’Connor, Commencement Address, Stanford University

Zadie Smith, Don’t Let Your Fellow Humans Be Alien to You

Elizabeth Kolbert, How Politics Got So Polarized

COMPOSITION WORKSHOP ▪ Exposition: Writing a Definition Argument

Hannah Richards, Transcendentalism (Student Model Essay)

AP® FREE-RESPONSE QUESTION WORKSHOP ▪ Rhetorical Analysis

Writing Commentary

John Steinbeck, Symptoms

Phat Pham, Rhetorical Analysis Essay (Student Model Essay)

AP® FRQ Practice: Writing an AP® Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Queen Elizabeth II, History Will Remember Your Actions

AP® MULTIPLE-CHOICE PRACTICE

Multiple-Choice Questions: Reading

Colin Powell, Address at the Groundbreaking Ceremony of the U.S. Diplomacy Center

Multiple-Choice Questions: Writing

UNIT 5 ▪ Creating Coherence

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ RHETORICAL SITUATION: The Writer’s Exigence

Tom Morello, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Acceptance Speech

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ CLAIMS AND EVIDENCE: Unity and Coherence

FKA twigs, Congressional Testimony on Intellectual Property

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ REASONING AND ORGANIZATION: Exposition: Causal Argument

Jay Caspian Kang, Should People Have the Right to Say Awful Things Without Facing Legal Consequences?

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ STYLE: Syntax for Emphasis and Coherence

Richard Rodriguez, X: The Neutering of the Spanish Tongue

IDEAS IN AMERICAN CULTURE ▪ Place and Values

Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi

Mike Ivey, A Rose by Any Other Name Is a Damned Brier

Jesmyn Ward, My True South: Why I Decided to Return Home

Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Displaced, the Unwanted

Xochitl Gonzalez, How Bodegas Became Cultural Centers for Beauty

COMPOSITION WORKSHOP ▪ Exposition: Writing a Causal Argument

P J Vigo, The Effects of Technology Integration on the Learning Experience (Student Model Essay)

AP® FREE-RESPONSE QUESTION WORKSHOP ▪ Argument

Creating Unity and Coherence

Alejandra Taylor, Argument Essay (Student Model Essay)

AP® FRQ Practice: Writing an AP® Argument Essay

AP® MULTIPLE-CHOICE PRACTICE

Multiple-Choice Questions: Reading

Zora Neale Hurston, How It Feels to Be Colored Me

Multiple-Choice Questions: Writing

UNIT 6 ▪ Establishing and Evaluating Credibility

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ RHETORICAL SITUATION: The Writer’s Credibility

Michael Phelps, Congressional Testimony on Anti-Doping

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ CLAIMS AND EVIDENCE: Strategic Evidence

Preminda Jacob, Banksy and the Tradition of Destroying Art

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ REASONING AND ORGANIZATION: Exposition: Classification/Division Argument

Imani Perry, Opening Up the Hip-Hop Vault

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ STYLE: Precision of Language

Edward Lee, Why I Write

IDEAS IN AMERICAN CULTURE ▪ Wealth and Poverty

Upton Sinclair, The Jungle

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fireside Chat: Outlining the New Deal Program

Barbara Ehrenreich, In America, Only the Rich Can Afford to Write Poverty

Lakshmi Puri, Women Entrepreneurs Can Drive Economic Growth

Darrell M. West, Should America Have Trillionaires?

COMPOSITION WORKSHOP ▪ Exposition: Writing a Classification/Division Argument

A Satirical Look at the Division and Classification of Essays (Student Model Essay)

AP® FREE-RESPONSE QUESTION WORKSHOP ▪ Synthesis

Synthesizing Evidence from Sources

Boya Shi, Synthesis Essay (Student Model Essay)

AP® FRQ Practice: Writing an AP® Synthesis Essay

AP® MULTIPLE-CHOICE PRACTICE

Multiple-Choice Questions: Reading

William Faulkner, Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

Multiple-Choice Questions: Writing

UNIT 7 ▪ Comparing Perspectives

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ RHETORICAL SITUATION: Nuance, Complexity, and Contradictions

Lin-Manuel Miranda, What Artists Can Do

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ CLAIMS AND EVIDENCE: Qualification and Concession

Kelly Conaboy, The Bizarre Tragedy of Children’s Movies

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ REASONING AND ORGANIZATION: Evaluation: Comparison/Contrast Argument

Suzanne Britt, Neat People vs. Sloppy People

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ STYLE: Syntax for Purpose

Colson Whitehead, The “Loser Edit” That Awaits Us All

IDEAS IN AMERICAN CULTURE ▪ Justice and Progress

Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

Harvey Milk, You’ve Got

Elie Wiesel, Hope, Despair and Memory

Gloria Steinem, Commencement Address, Wellesley College

Judith Heumann, Our Fight for Disabilities—And Why We’re Not Done Yet

COMPOSITION WORKSHOP ▪ Writing an Evaluation Argument Using Comparison/Contrast

Riley Stevenson, Climate Activists Must Fight for System Change and Individual Change (Student Model Essay)

AP® FREE-RESPONSE QUESTION WORKSHOP ▪ Rhetorical Analysis

Explaining Significance

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Commencement Address, Johns Hopkins University

Mirabelle LoPresti, Rhetorical Analysis Essay (Student Model Essay)

AP® FRQ Practice: Writing an AP® Rhetorical Analysis Essay

James Baldwin, Letter to My Nephew: My Dungeon Shook

AP® MULTIPLE-CHOICE PRACTICE

Multiple-Choice Questions: Reading

John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address

Multiple-Choice Questions: Writing

UNIT 8 ▪ Explaining Complexities

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ RHETORICAL SITUATION: The Dynamic Rhetorical Situation

Kurt Vonnegut, Letter to Drake School Board

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ CLAIMS AND EVIDENCE: Counterargument: Refutation and Rebuttal

Clint Smith, The Meaning of Life Without Parole

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ REASONING AND ORGANIZATION: Evaluation: Problem-Solution Argument

Scott Shigeoka, How Curiosity Can Help Us Overcome Disconnection

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ STYLE: Contrast and Incongruity

Horace Miner, Body Ritual among the Nacirema

IDEAS IN AMERICAN CULTURE ▪ Individuals and Communities

Toni Morrison, Be Your Own Story

Judith Ortiz Cofer, The Myth of the Latin Woman

Tommy Orange, How Native American Is Native American Enough?

Julia Alvarez, What We Believe About Identity

Chaiya Milowic, Influencer Culture Needs to End

COMPOSITION WORKSHOP ▪ Writing an Evaluation Argument: Proposing a Solution

Walter Li, Self-Care Alone Will Not Fix the System (Student Model Essay)

AP® FREE-RESPONSE QUESTION WORKSHOP ▪ Argument

Acknowledging and Responding to Opposing Arguments

Kat Humphreys, Argument Essay (Student Model Essay)

AP® FRQ Practice: Writing an AP® Argument Essay

AP® MULTIPLE-CHOICE PRACTICE

Multiple-Choice Questions: Reading

Ronald Reagan, Tear Down This Wall

Multiple-Choice Questions: Writing

UNIT 9 ▪ Joining the Conversation

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ RHETORICAL SITUATION: Understanding the Rhetorical Situation

Vivek H. Murthy, Surgeon General Urges Americans to ‘Rethink How We’re Living Our Lives’ in Closing Letter to the Country

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ CLAIMS AND EVIDENCE: Biases and Limitations

Tre Johnson, Black Superheroes Matter

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ REASONING AND ORGANIZATION: Multimodal Argument

Thomas Hobbs, Will Tattoos Finally Be Accepted as Art?

AP® BIG IDEA WORKSHOP ▪ STYLE: Voice and Complexity

Barack Obama, Remarks by the President in the Eulogy for the Honorable Reverend Clementa Pinckney

IDEAS IN AMERICAN CULTURE ▪ Technology and New Frontiers

Stephen Hawking, Questioning the Universe

John McWhorter, What the World Will Speak in 2115

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Becoming Martian

Scientific American, Exploration Is Essential to Human Success

Jane Goodall, A Speech for History

COMPOSITION WORKSHOP ▪ Writing a Multimodal Argument

Reese Furr, Rhythm of Life (Student Model Essay)

AP® FREE-RESPONSE QUESTION WORKSHOP ▪ Synthesis

Demonstrating Complexity

Vihaann Upadhya, Synthesis Essay (Student Model Essay)

AP® FRQ Practice: Writing an AP® Synthesis Essay

AP® MULTIPLE-CHOICE PRACTICE

Multiple-Choice Questions: Reading

E.O. Wilson, The Bird of Paradise

Multiple-Choice Questions: Writing

AP® Practice Exam

Guide to MLA, APA, and CSE Documentation Styles

Guide to Generative AI

Visual Rhetoric Workshops

American Literary Periods at a Glance

Glossary/Glosario

Ideas in Argument

Second Edition 2026

John R. Williamson; Mary Jo Zell; Elizabeth Davis

Find Your Rep

John Williamson

John R. Williamson, PhD is professor of English education and dean of P–12 programs at Eastern Kentucky University where he also continues to teach AP® English Language and AP® English Literature at the University’s Model Laboratory School. Prior to this role, John served as the vice president of curriculum, instruction, and assessment for the College Board’s AP® Program where he led the transformation of the suite of AP® courses and exams, including both AP® English courses. John continues to lead workshops as an AP® faculty consultant. Additionally, he has experience as a reader and table leader for both AP® English Exams. John has taught courses at all high school levels, as well as both undergraduate and graduate courses in composition, rhetoric, linguistics, theater, and literature.

Mary Jo Zell

Mary Jo Zell is currently an AP® English Content Specialist for Mass Insight and Research, Inc. She taught high school English for thirty years and served as the English department chair at Keller High School (Texas) where she taught AP® English Language, AP® English Literature, and Dual Credit English. She has also served as an adjunct professor at Tarrant County Community College. Mary Jo is an experienced reader and table leader for the AP® English Language Exam. She served on the AP® English Literature Instructional Design Team and presents many workshops as an AP® faculty consultant for both AP® English Language and AP® English Literature.

Elizabeth A. Davis

Elizabeth Davis has taught English for more than three decades for Round Rock ISD and College Station ISD, where she also served as English Department Chair for many years. She has been a reader for the AP® English Language Exam and served on the AP® Literature Instructional Design Team. For over twenty years, she has served as an AP® faculty consultant, conducting workshops in both AP® English Language and AP® English Literature.

Ideas in Argument

Second Edition 2026

John R. Williamson; Mary Jo Zell; Elizabeth Davis

Find Your Rep