AP Language & Comp MOEHRING
The Columnist Assignment:
An Ongoing Project
As a part of your pursuit of becoming well-informed citizens and critical consumers of media, you will be responsible for multiple formal analyses of current, relevant columns/columnists for the rest of the year. The guidelines are as follows:
1. One analysis per six weeks will be required. You may do one more, if you choose, for extra credit. Reviews may be turned in at any time, but the deadline will be the Friday before the last week of the grading period. Each column must be dated within the given grading period, beginning the Sunday before the grading period begins.
2. Your review will include the following three components:
a. Begin with a brief (one paragraph) synopsis of the column you have chosen, including a concisely quoted—or paraphrased—thesis statement.
b. Following this, you will provide a brief personal commentary on the content of the piece (also one paragraph).
c. Finally, and most importantly, you will provide a stylistic (rhetorical) analysis of the work. In other words, you will discuss how the argument was crafted. This will be a full, multi-paragraph essay. In this study you should include items such as, but not limited to:
i. Intended audience
ii. Author’s attitude toward the scene/event (bitterness, irony, sincerity, etc.)
iii. Diction (consider connotations of words, types of verbs/nouns/adjectives etc.
iv. Syntax (complex/simple, shifts, etc.)
v. Organization of the piece (fluency, length/variety of paragraphs, etc.)
vi. Shifts of any kind (tone/speaker/tense/etc.)
vii. Conspicuous figurative language
viii. Overall purpose or theme
ix. Anything else stylistically striking about the piece
Remember: the what and how are important, but not as much as the why.
3. Include a full bibliography with your analysis (MLA format, please). This can go at the bottom of the analysis; it is not necessary to provide a separate works cited page.
4. Staple the article to the back of the page.
Sample citation:
Barrows, Carlyle. “With an Eye Toward the Future.” New York Times. 11
October 2013: 33D.
WHERE TO FIND COLUMNS:
NOTE: you must use a different news source each six weeks. Put a checkmark next to the source when you have used it. If you choose to do extra credit Columnist assignments, make sure to go through all the sources before you repeat any. (You may use the sources in any order) After the initial group assignment, your work should be independent. Although it is permissible to discuss a column with a peer, any overly similar assignments that indicate academic dishonesty—CHEATING-- (between all Gann/Moehring students) will be counted as a 0.
New York Post
http://nypost.com/opinion/
http://nypost.com/columnists/
Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion.html
New York Times
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/index.html
The Daily Caller
http://dailycaller.com/section/opinion/
All media is slanted because it is created by people, and people cannot completely divorce themselves from their views. Furthermore, a columnist’s goal is to persuade the reader of his/her viewpoint. The above sources represent different ends of the political spectrum. Reading from different types of sources will broaden and challenge your own viewpoints. After using each of these sources, you may also go to any newspaper or news channel’s opinion page to find a column/op-ed (opinion/editorial). Remember, you are REQUIRED to turn in ONE completed columnist project each six weeks. You may do up to 2 extra columnist projects per six weeks. The grade you earn will replace a low test grade. All columnist projects must be turned NO LATER than the Friday before the last week of the grading period.