Advance Placement Language & Composition

Summer Reading 2017

Welcome to AP Language and Composition! This year you will engage in challenging reading, and explore and complete complex and interesting writing. You will learn how to analyze writing as well as develop the ability to create your own argumentative writing in order to persuade your audience that your ideas are valid, or more valid than someone else’s. You will learn toidentify and apply the Greek Philosopher, Aristotle’s, means of persuasion or appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos. Aristotle defined rhetoric as, “an ability, in each particular case, to see the available means of persuasion.” Everything you do in this class will help to prepare you for the AP Language and Composition exam as well as your future as a reader and writer in college and beyond.

This summer you are required to read three specific titles prior to the start of school on Wednesday, September 6th. I suggest that you purchase these books and annotate/mark them up as you read since you will use the twopieces of literature and The Elements of Style for writing assignments.

  • The first book is a modern classic: Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts. Although the book was originally released as memoir, later editionslabel it as fiction. Each of these stories can ‘stand on their own’, and in this novel Kingston weaves the stories of her mother’s native Chinainto her own childhood recollections. The stories Kingston heard from her mother helped to shape her understanding of herself and the world.
  • The second book is a memoir: Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. The first hundred pages or so are King’s stories about how he became someone who tells stories. The last 150 pages or so are a “Toolbox” where he provides specific rules and thoughts on how to write. This memoir is engaging and funny and a quick read full of great advice.
  • The last book is a small paperback called The Elements of Style, originally written by Cornell University professor William Strunk, Jr. In 1957, his former student,E.B. White (author of Charlotte’s Web), expanded the bookand had it republished. The Elements of Stylecontinues to be a best-seller, and while it has its critics, it is a readable, easy-to-understand guide to writing which includes rules of style, grammar, and commonly-confused words. It is a quick read andwill be referenced in class frequently.

I look forward to working with you this school year 2017-2018. Have a great summer, don’t procrastinate with the assignments, and contact me if you have any questions: .

Mrs. M. Weber

Teacher of English

Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny. ~ Aristotle

Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today. ~ Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Advance Placement Language & Composition

Summer Reading 2017

Books / Assignments must be in class Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2017
The Woman Warrior
by Maxine Hong Kingston
/ Objective: Participate in a grade level shared reading; identify elements of plot, character and tone in fiction in order to cite textual evidence in writing.
Directions:
1. Read the novel
2.For each chapter complete the following:
  • Choose one passage (quoted and cited properly) that resonates with you or that you responded to in some way. Howdid you respond to this passage? What did it make you think about? How did the author guide you to that response?
  • Then write a paragraph for each chapter analyzing word choice, literary devices, and images
3. Type a 500-wordmemoir of a specific moment from your childhood (before high school) that you can now seehelped shape how you see yourself, or how you fit into your family or the world. Use imageryto allow the reader to see this specific moment unfold. Include your thoughts and feeling throughout. Keep tying your story back to why it matters to who you are today (memoir rubric provided).
On Writing
by Stephen King
/ Objective: Identify and analyze writing tools authors use to create style;use these tools to analyze the work of other writers throughout the school year.
Directions:
1. Read the memoir
2.Jot down a few main events from each section of the autobiographyto help you remember them for class discussion. You can organize your notes as follows:
  • Label the narrative/autobiographicalsection (p. 1-110) On Writing and use headings for each chapter.
  • For “The Toolbox” section (p. 111-137) and “On Writing” section(p. 141-284), make a list of the tools or rules King advises writers to use. Label this page King’s Writing Tools.
  • Select and write10 quotes where King gives ‘writing advice’—be sure to note the page number in parenthesis. Label this section Writing Advice
3.You will use the tools and quotes you chose to write an essay the first week of school; notes will be collected and graded based on thoroughness of content.
The Elements of Style
by William Strunk and
E.B. White / Objective: Study and apply writing style rules to written works and essays.
Directions:
1. Read the book
2.Highlight and annotateareas that you feel you need to work on
3.Use the book to polish your summer reading/writingassignments

Modified from LeeAnn Spillane, Teacher of English, Cypress Creek High School