AP English Language and Composition

On your wings you will fly through this course, gaining much insight throughout this year. After school tutoring once a week will begin in February, the location to be announced at a later date. Attending these sessions is optional though strongly recommended. We will be spending time working on multiple choice question strategies, and preparing plans for timed writings as well as analyzing sample essays.

As a reminder, it is strongly suggested that you sign up to take the SAT in either April or June, the latter date being the preferred one. Because of the writing practice that will be completed both outside and during class, you should be amply prepared to score well on this exam.

The blog site for this course can be found here.

A Note about Plagiarism: (Repeated from the home page - please pay close attention here) Plagiarism is a serious problem both in high schools and colleges across the country. It is unacceptable in this class as well. Please read Plagiarism in Colleges USA, noting what constitutes plagiarism as well as how you can avoid it.

AP English Language Fall Semester

“Reading” Visuals

A beginning list of a few websites where you can practice reading visuals rhetorically as well as view documentaries - please manage your time viewing wisely:

• MargaretBourke-White Monroe Gallery
• Time Magazine - Kristallnacht

Extra Credit Possibilities

• These are meant to enrich your studies this year, not take the place of assignments you have not completed. If you have missed an assignment then this option is not available to you. You have a choice as to what kind of analysis to complete -- rhetorical strategies analysis or analysis of the argument presented. Make your choices carefully. Only two analyses are allowed for credit.
  • Assorted readings/speeches provided by me
    • Jonathan Edwards (Choose one sermon)
      • The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards
      • The Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University
  • Correspondence Between John and Abigail Adams
  • The Crisis #1 - Thomas Paine
  • Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death - Patrick Henry
  • Mary Rowlandson - A Narrative of Her Captivity
  • Resistance to Civil Government by Thoreau

Informed, Global Citizens

• In order to become an informed, global citizen (one who recognizes there are two sides to every issue), your task is to explore current events, and choose particular issue (try to narrow it down to something that could be covered in a four to six paragraph essay), then look for OP-ED pieces and/or magazine articles that present this issue. The following are links to a partial listing of online newspapers and magazines:
  • Newspapers
    • The Boston Globe
    • New York Times
    • Los Angeles Times
    • Washington Post
  • Magazines
    • The Atlantic Monthly
    • The Economist
    • Harper's Magazine
    • The Nation
    • The New Yorker
    • The Onion
    • Science/AAAA |Scientific research, news and career information
    • Time Magazine
  • Keep a reading journal in which you note the following:
    • Meaning, purpose, effect of the piece, i.e. what is the argument; what is the purpose; what point is the author trying to make; how is the author supporting it?
    • Rhetorical strategies, i.e. organization, DIDLS and SOAPSTone
  • I suggest that you write a rhetorical précis once the journaling is completed for each article. If you don't have access to the internet at home, you can choose to check out one of the magazines that I keep in class.
  • Major Readings 1st Semester
  • Henry David Thoreau: Walden
    • Henry David Thoreau — Walden (etext)
    • Henry David Thoreau — A Walden Study Text
      • Librivox -- Walden by Henry David Thoreau (audio)
    • Reflections on Walden
      • New York Times Links About Thoreau
        • Thoreau is Rediscovered as a Climatologist
        • Henry David Thoreau News
        • Climate Change
          • Photos - “The Warming of Walden” (New York Times)
  • Annie Dillard: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
    • Annie Dillard — Life and Work
    • The Myticism of Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
    • Pilgrim at Tinker Creek — An Introduction
      • Writing is Seeing in Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

• Useful Links

Rhetorical Modes:

Description

http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/descriptive.html

Narration

http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/narrative.html

Comparison / Contrast

http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/comparcontrast.html

Definition

http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/definition.html

Cause/Effect

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/composition/cause_effect.htm

Argumentative/Persuasive

http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/argument/

©2003-2014 by S. Hayes last updated 12 May 2015