AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE Fall 2016—Homework Assignment #1
Dear Students:
This assignment is designed to reinforce some of the concepts you learned in your 10th grade English class and to introduce some we will study in APEL. If you are anxious about the class and want to get a head start, you may complete this work over your summer break; however, you may also choose to do it all during the first partial opening week (Fair warning: it is a lot of work for three days!). This should quell some of your anxiety and make the opening weeks less intimidating and less stressful. We will hit the ground running from the first day of school, so your familiarity with the terms and rhetorical analysis will set the stage for a successful experience from day one. If any of this work feels overwhelming, do not fret. We will use the opening weeks to support and develop your understanding.
In addition to the formal work listed below, you should also consider changing your internet’s homepage to a news organization such as CNN.com or Google News. This will encourage you to explore headlines and opinion articles. Generally speaking, students who know about the world in which they live can develop and support arguments with relevant and convincing evidence.
I also know that many of you shop for supplies during the summer, so here is a list of materials that you will need: (1) a spiral notebook that measures 11 X 9 inches with at least 100 pages (double check that the book is 11 X 9—it will save you some work). This will serve as your class notebook; (2) a big glue stick. It is helpful to glue things into your class notebook as we complete the work; (3) a three ring binder for an approximately 100 page handouts booklet. This binder can be for all your classes, or you can choose to have one specifically devoted to APEL; and (4) pens and highlighters in multiple colors; this will help when you annotate articles. That’s it; pretty easy, pretty basic.
Those of you who already know us are well aware of our passion for reading. We hope you also find time to read some good books of your own choosing this summer. We’re looking forward to hearing your recommendations when we meet in the fall.
Good luck and happy summer!
Mrs. Jenkins and Mrs. DaFoe
NOTE: This homework assignment—complete and typed—is due on August 19th(this is the end of the opening week).All work is expected to be original, unless otherwise cited (in other words, do not work with a partner or copy someone else’s work). You will also need to submit your complete assignment to a plagiarism protection program, so please be sure to save an electronic version of your work. Directions for submitting to this program will be given during the first week of the first trimester. These assignments are intended to challenge your critical reading skills and strengthen your written communication.
Category One: Terms to Know—Rhetorical Devices Develop an understanding of the following concepts. Your understanding will be fuller if you go beyond definitions. Try to explain the rhetorical effect of each term and include examples when possible. Take notes as you develop this understanding. You will earn a grade for these notes, so please be sure that they reflect a high level of engagement and thorough study of the concepts. Please do not just copy and paste information from on line sources; paraphrase and make sense of the information.
Diction
oHigh/formal
oMiddle/moderate
oLow/informal
Colloquial
oAbstract
oConcrete
oMonosyllabic
oPolysyllabic
oConnotation
Syntax
oSimple
oCompound
oComplex
oCompound-complex
oDeclarative
oParallel construction
Tone
oWhat are kind of adjectives describe tone?
oWhat creates tone?
Logos
Ethos
Pathos
Rhetorical and literary strategies
oAllusion
oRhetorical questions
oPronoun usage
oSelection of detail
oAppeals to ethics, emotions and logic
oJuxtaposition
oUse of absolutes
oPoint of view
You will find chapters 8, 9, 10 from Writing with a Purpose (your textbook for the course) helpful. If you do not have a textbook, consider searching the internet for sources and accessing the links listed.
The University of Maryland University College: Effective Writing Center. Online Guide to Writing and Research. Chapter 3: “Thinking Strategies and Writing Patterns.” Pages 21-22
Google: “Analyzing Diction” to learn about how authors use words to create a specific tone and style. Try these links:
Google: “Analyzing Tone” to learn about how an author creates tone in his or her writing. Try:
Category Two: A Watershed 20th Century Work
Read J.D. Salinger’s novel, Catcher in the Rye. During the second week of school, you will take a close reading quiz. Read the book with an eye for developing themes, character development, plot development, symbolism, and the author’s styleand how the style of the narration influences each of the previously listed elements. You may want to take notes on these ideas as you read. The quiz is designed to discover your strengths as a critical reader and writer.
You will also have a writing assignment based in this novel during the first week of school. As you read, think about what you’ve learned about diction, tone and style.
Category Three: The Arguments that Surround You As you enjoy your summer, be on the lookout for arguments that engage you. While you may not yet notice them, arguments are everywhere. For this assignment, you are looking for an opinion piece, an argument. The article should not be merely informative; you need the author to express and develop a stance. Consider:
oTime Magazine
oNewsweek
oThe New York Times
oEditorials from any reputable news source.
oYou may also try these sites: (choose “syndication” on the right); or
oAnything that catches your eye when you log into your email or the internet. This might be something from Yahoo’s homepage, CNN’s homepage, etc.
Print out a copy of the article and then write a brief response (limit yourself to two typed pages, double spaced) that includes:
What THEY say: An overview of the author’s argument/claim/ purpose and message. Additionally, briefly explain how the author defends his or her stance.
What YOU say: A response to the argument. Defend, challenge or qualify the argument made. Be sure to support your stance with specific evidence.
Category Four: Bonus—your first extra credit opportunity! Any points you earn will be added to the writing category.
Practice applying the “terms to know” by analyzing the passage that appears below. Your analysis might consider such stylistic elements as diction, imagery, syntax, structure, tone, and selection of detail. Express your understanding by writing rhetorical précis—an exact prompt follows the passage.
There is something uneasy in the Los Angeles air this afternoon, some unnatural stillness, some tension. What it means is that tonight a Santa Ana will begin to blow, a hot wind from the northeast whining down through the Cajon and San Gorgonio Passes, blowing up sandstorms out along Route 66, drying the hills and the nerves to the flash point. For a few days now we will see smoke back in the canyons, and hear sirens in the night. I have neither heard nor read that a Santa Ana is due, but I know it, and almost everyone I have seen today knows it too. We know it because we feel it. The baby frets. The maid sulks. I rekindle a waning argument with the telephone company, then cut my losses and lie down, given over to whatever it is in the air. To live with the Santa Ana is to accept, consciously or unconsciously, a deeply mechanistic view of human behavior.
I recall being told, when I first moved to Los Angeles and was living on an isolated beach, that the Indians would throw themselves into the sea when the bad wind blew. I could see why. The Pacific turned ominously glossy during a Santa Ana period, and one woke in the night troubled not only by the peacocks screaming in the olive trees but by the eerie absence of surf. The heat was surreal. The sky had a yellow cast, the kind of light sometimes called “earthquake weather.” My only neighbor would not come out of her house for days, and there were no lights at night, and her husband roamed the place with a machete. One day he would tell me that he had heard a trespasser, the next a rattlesnake.
“On nights like that,” Raymond Chandler once wrote about the Santa Ana, "every booze party ends in a fight.
Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen." That was the kind of wind it was. I did not know then that there was any basis for the effect it had on all of us, but it turns out to be another of those cases in which science bears out folk wisdom. The Santa Ana, which is named for one of the canyons it rushes through, is a foehn wind, like the foehn of Austria and Switzerland and the khamsin of Israel. There are a number of persistent malevolent winds, perhaps the best known of which are the mistral of France and the Mediterranean sirocco, but a foehn wind has distinct characteristics: it occurs on the leeward slope of a mountain range and, although the air begins as a cold mass, it is warmed as it comes down the mountain and appears finally as a hot dry wind. Whenever and wherever a foehn blows, doctors hear about headaches and nausea and allergies, about “nervousness,” about “depression.” In Los Angeles some teachers do not attempt to conduct formal classes during a Santa Ana, because the children become unmanageable. In Switzerland the suicide rate goes up during the foehn, and in the courts of some Swiss cantons the wind is considered a mitigating circumstance for crime. Surgeons are said to watch the wind, because blood does not clot normally during a foehn. A few years ago an Israeli physicist discovered that not only during such winds, but for the ten or twelve hours which precede them, the air carries an unusually high ratio of positive to negative ions. No one seems to know exactly why that should be; some talk about friction and others suggest solar disturbances. In any case the positive ions are there, and what an excess of positive ions does, in the simplest terms, is make people unhappy. One cannot get much more mechanistic than that. (1968)
EXTRA CREDIT Writing Prompt: Demonstrate your understanding of the passage by writing a rhetorical précis that characterizes the writer’s view of the Santa Ana winds and analyzes how she conveys this view.
- If your précis writing skills are a little rusty, or if this format is unfamiliar to you, don’t worry. We will certainly review and practice it as a class. Additionally, instructions can be found on page 4 of this assignment. Just do the best you can. (For our purposes, a rhetorical précis is a paragraph that analyzes an author’s purpose/message and the strategies and techniques used to develop this message/purpose.)
Homework Assignment1 Checklist—What’s due on Friday, August19th:
______Category One: Typed or neatly written notes on terms to know
______Category Three: Copy of argument(from Time, Newsweek, etc), your 2 page (limit) typed overview and your response(In MLA format). Please be prepared to submit this work to safeassign.
______Category Four: extra credit (optional, but highly recommended): a rhetorical précis that analyzes the passage about the Santa Ana winds. (In MLA format). Please be prepared to submit this work to safeassign.
______Class materials listed in opening letter of introduction
During the second week of school, I will be ready to:
______Complete a reading quiz on Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye
______Use my knowledge of The Catcher in the Rye to complete class andwriting activities
______Use my knowledge of the “terms to know” to write an on demand essay
Want to do even more?!? Spend some time reading a newsmagazine (Time, Newsweek, etc.) You might also want to read an autobiography, biography or memoir of a famous American (dead or alive) that interests you. As we write our essays throughout the school year, you’ll benefit from acquiring this knowledge. Knowing more about history and current events will help you provide supporting evidence and details to defend your arguments.
Rhetorical Analysis—The Précis
A rhetorical précis is a highly specialized, specific type of summary. It differs from the more general summary in that emphasis is placed upon analyzing the rhetorical aspects of the work under consideration. In other words, a précis includes an analysis of WHAT the author is saying and HOW they are saying it. A rhetorical précis is a paragraph that includes the following:
- Name of author (if possible, a phrase describing the author’s credentials)
- The genre (essay, speech, letter, story, etc)
- The title of the work undergoing analysis
- A rhetorically accurate verb (such as “assert,” “argue,” “mocks,” “challenge,” etc.) to describe the writer’s purpose
- A “that” clause explaining the author’s purpose and message
- An explanation of HOW (content—rhetorical or literary strategy) the author develops or supports their thesis/purpose.
- Identification of the literary or rhetorical device
- An example from the text
- Be sure this explanation has a “that….” or an “in order to…” phrase that explains the effect of the rhetorical or literary strategy (what the writer hoped to achieve by using the strategy—how it helps reveal their persona, the effect on the reader, or how it helps them develop their purpose, etc). This commentary should also TIE TO PURPOSE; that is, ensure your analysis includes an explanation of how this rhetorical device helps the author achieve his or her purpose.
- An explanation of HOW (content—a different rhetorical or literary strategy) the author develops or supports their thesis/purpose.
- Identification of the literary or rhetorical device
- An example from the text
- Be sure your second sentence has a “that….” or an “in order to…” phrase that explains the effect of the rhetorical or literary strategy (what the writer hoped to achieve by using the strategy—how it helps reveal their persona, the effect on the reader, or how it helps them develop their purpose, etc). This commentary should also TIE TO PURPOSE, that is, ensure your analysis includes an explanation of how this rhetorical device helps the author achieve his or her purpose.
- An adjective that describes the tone the writer creates.
- A description of the intended audience.
Please note that the number of sentences is flexible, as is the order of presentation. What is important is that your finished précis reveal a full and sophisticated understanding that includes the elements listed above.