We designed The Language of Composition: Reading • Writing • Rhetoric to be the first college-level textbook intended for upper-level high school English courses, in particular the Advanced Placement1 English Language and Composition course. Its goal is to help high school students read, analyze, and write with the same level of skill and sophistication of thought as they would in a first-year composition course in college. The Language of Composition offers a diverse collection of more than 150 college-level selections—including nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and visual texts—that are both interesting and suitable for a high school audience; practical advice on rhetoric, argument, reading, and writing; and special attention to synthesis and visual analysis skills in keeping with the content of the AP English Language and Composition course and exam.

The Language of Composition is the product of years of experience and collaboration. The three of us met through workshops where we were learning how to incorporate the theory and practice of rhetoric into high school curricula. The conversation that began in summer workshops extended to years of discussions about what worked with eleventh- and twelfth-graders and how to prepare students to succeed in or place out of first-year composition. The more we taught our students and worked with teachers, the more we came to appreciate the interrelationship among the three main components of this book: rhetoric, reading, and writing.

Sometimes we get lucky and life gives us second chances—as it has with The Language of Composition. Because of the excitement of teachers and students who have been using the book and the insights they have so generously shared, we learned what was working well, what needed more work, and what work was yet to be done.