11 A.P. English Language and Composition
Milholland/Armour 2014/2015
Summer Reading Assignment
Due Date: 1st day of school (no exceptions)
Part I: Assemble your materials for class
What do I need?
 1 set of 100 spiral notecards (any style) or 2 sets of 50 notecards
 Pens (any color except fluorescent)
 3 ring binder (1 ½ or 2 inches) with 8 dividersLabel your dividers (1)Allusions (2)Tips for Good Writers &
Writing Notes (3) M/C Passages (4) Novels (5) Essays (6) Notes (7 & 8) Misc.
 Lots of loose leaf paper (either regular or college ruled)
 Set of highlighters (pink, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple)
Part II: Set up your Flashcard File Box
What do I need?
 1 card file box that fits 3x5 index cards
 8 different colors of 3x5 index cards
o Red/pink, orange/peach, yellow, green, blue, purple/lavender, brown, plain white
o You may purchase different colored cards or you may make your own using white cards and
markers/highlighters.
o Cards can be color-striped, pastel, fluorescent-whatever makes you happy
How do I organize my cards?
 Make a subject card for each colorOn the front of one of each color, write the main topic.
o Red/pinkAuthor’s Overall Style
o Orange/peachTone Words
o YellowDiction
o GreenSyntax
o BlueLiterary Devices
o Purple/lavenderModes of Discourse
o BrownLiterary Movements
o WhiteEssay Writing Terms
Part II: Reading, Citing, and Annotating
What do I read?
 Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
 Black Boy by Richard Wright (You will only be reading Part One: Southern Night.)
The last page of your summer reading assignment is called the Works Cited page. Label the paper as such. Then, for
each book, write an MLA citation so that I know which edition of the book you used.
What is an MLA citation?
For the book citation use this format:
Author’s Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year.
Note: Italics can be substituted for underlining.
If you need additional help typing MLA citations, use the following web page as a guide:
http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/research/mlaparen.html.
1
What do I do when reading?

As you are reading, you are, of course, reading for understanding of the text, but more so, you are reading to
observe and analyze HOW (the techniques) the author creates the text.

Underline/Highlight words, phrases, sentences, lines, ideas that seem
o Significant, powerful, insightful, thought provoking, curious creative, vivid, sense oriented, unsettling,
unnerving, paradoxical, oxymoronic, true, false, right, wrong, agreeable, disagreeable, etc.
o Engage with the authors’ characters, ideas, values, beliefs, descriptions, interplay of images and
feelings that the authors’ language evokes in you.

Make marginal notes: Don’t be afraid to write in the text. Write your impressions, comments, questions, etc. as
you read.
How will my annotations be graded?

Annotation grades will be based on thoroughness, clarity, neatness, and apparent effort. I use the phrase
"apparent effort" because I will obviously not read all the notes on every page of your books. As you progress
through the course and learn more and more, your annotation will be expected to become more and more
complete and in-depth and comments to become more and more analytical.
Note for next year:

For this course, you will be asked to annotate everything that we read. All annotations will be checked for
completion and quality.

Reading assignments should be read and annotated before class. It is perfectly okay to add to your markings, in
fact, I encourage you to do so, either while we discuss in class or after you finish the book and are working on an
essay.

The bulk of the job, however, should be done in conjunction with your reading for class preparation. Also, if you
find annotating while you read to be annoying and awkward, do it after you have read the text. Go back after a
chapter or assignment and then mark it carefully. You should be reading assignments twice anyway, so this is not
any less efficient than marking as you read and then rereading the material.
What terms should I know to help me while reading?
Diction
The author’s choice of words contributes to the development of his purpose. To evaluate diction you must hear the
words and feel their effects as they reflect the writer’s vision. An author’s diction choices are carefully chosen because
they reflect a very specific meaning; sometimes words are chosen for their denotative qualities or their connotative
qualities; sometimes an author’s words are euphemistic or inflated or flat; sometimes an author uses an abundance of
nouns or adjectives or verbs.
Detail
The diction that an author uses helps him to express the facts, observations, incidents, and descriptions . These facts,
observations, incidents, and descriptions are called details. Details bring feeling, life, color, to the text. Detail or a lack
of detail brings the reader into the scene and helps the reader to experience the text the way in which the author
experiences it.
Details can be concrete, meaning that the reader can see it, touch it, feel it, smell it, hear it, such as a red house or a
bell ringing, or salty water on the lips. Others, however, can be abstract like the terms “happiness” or “loneliness” or
2
“hatred”. One cannot see these; one can only see examples of them based on people’s actions, behavior, words they
speak.
Appeals
Aristotle identified three appeals/techniques used by writers and speakers to communicate with and influence their
audiences. First, logos-an appeal to the logical/rational; second, pathos-an appeal to the emotional; third, ethos-appeal
to the moral. Aristotle also instructs that in order for an author/speaker to be believed and accepted by the
reader/listener, he must establish his credibility. He does this by all of his three appeals.
Author Purpose
Every author writes with a specific purpose in mind. Some of the general author purposes you may have learned about
are: to entertain, to inform, to persuade. The key for the reader is to determine the following: to entertain why?
About what? What techniques is he using to entertain? To inform about what? Why does the reader need to be
informed about this? How is the author informing the reader? To persuade who to do what? Why is it necessary to be
persuaded? How is the author persuading the reader? When a reader thinks about and asks these questions when
reading, he is engaging in analysis….and analysis is the most important process in this class.
Point of View and Tone
You may have been taught that point of view consists of 1st person, 3rd person limited, 3rd person omniscient, and stream
of consciousness. This is correct, but point of view also means the attitude of the author toward his subject matter and
audience. This attitude is conveyed through the author’s tone. Think about your own parent when he/she says, “Don’t
use that tone of voice with me!” And you can tell how your parent feels just by listening to his/her tone of voice. Tone
falls into two basic categories: positive and negative. Both positive and negative tones can then be broken down into
individual tones such as instructive, meditative, macabre, optimistic, grim, solemn, patriotic, angry, bitter, nostalgic,
scolding, disappointed, etc. Keep in mind that not only does the author speak with tone, but a character speaks with tone
also.
Syntax
Syntax is sentence structure. Sentences can be classified in different ways: by the number of words (telegraphic-appx.
1-9; involved-appx. 1-20; hyperinvolved-over 20 words), the function (declarative, imperative, interrogatory,
exclamatory), and by the types of clauses (simple, compound, complex, compound-complex).
Are there questions to guide me as I read?
Yes, on the following pages you will find a series of questions to answer that will help you to both maintain a focus of the
novel and to understand it from an advanced placement perspective. It is very important for you to do your best when
answering these questions. Questions should be answered using complete sentences. Good luck and happy reading.
P.S. Please feel free to email Mrs. Milholland or Mrs. Armour during the summer with any questions that you may have
about the assignment or the course work. robin.milholland@palmbeachschools.org
lois.armour@palmbeachschools.org
3
11 A.P. English Language/Summer Reading
Milholland/Armour
Analytical Questions for Each Text
Directions: Using a 12 point font, type the answers to the following questions. Be sure your responses are expressed
using complete sentences and completely cover all parts of the question. Be sure answers reflect depth of
thought, understanding, insight, and adequate explanation. While some questions may require very short
responses, some may require you to write longer, more paragraph-type responses. Just be as thorough
as possible.
1.
Impressions: Chart your impression as you read each text. After you have read a chapter or two, discuss what
your first impression was AND why the novel made that impression on you. Discuss how your impression
changed/did not change as you progressed through the text AND to what you can attribute the change in
impression. As you finish the text, discuss your final impression AND what influenced you to this final
impression. There are no right or wrong answers, so just be straightforward and honest in your response.
2.
Impact: Explain what the most positively/negatively striking/impacting section of the text was, and discuss
HOW and WHY this section struck/impacted you. Think very carefully about your reactions.
3.
Insight: Discuss any interesting observations and/or insights that you may have had (about the author, his
story, life, etc.) while reading each of the novels.
4.
Interpretation: Choose a favorite line/statement/ quote from each of the texts . Be sure to type the quote
using quotation marks and citing the author and page from which the quote came. Consider how the quote makes
you feel, what the quote means for you, and/or what insights it imparts
5.
Purpose: What might the authors have intended to achieve through the writing of their books? As specifically
as possible discuss whether or not the authors were successful.
6.
Point of View: From which point of view did the authors write their novels? Discuss how these specific points
of view impact the telling of authors’ stories. How might the stories have been different if the points of view
had been different?
7.
Attitude: identify some of the major subjects that each author addressed in his novel. Based on each text as
a whole, how did the authors feel about the subjects about which they wrote? Explore this question and try to
specifically identify the authors’ attitudes/perspectives. Don’t simply say “good” or “bad”. Give specific
explanations for your choices.
8.
Tone: Choose one specific passage/segment/paragraph/chapter/etc. from each text where the
authors’/speakers’ tones of voice are evident. Give a brief summary of the segment (about 3 sentences). Then
discuss which tones the authors use and what the authors may have been trying to convey/imply through these
tones.
9.
Rhetorical Appeals: For each novel, cite one specific example of each of the three rhetorical appeals. Discuss
whether or not the use of the appeal within the specific situation was successful in swaying the audience (either
us as readers or the character to whom the appeal is made).
10. Reliability: Evaluate whether each of the authors is a reliable and trustworthy writer/narrator. What
impressions lead you to your response?
11. Organizational Structure: Review how each text is put together, meaning how it is organized. Go back and
review/observe the organization of the text features: table of contents, chapter numbers/names, prologue,
epilogue, etc. Identify all of the features that these texts contain.
4
12. Explain how both McCourt and Wright organize their stories within the pages of the texts. Discuss how the
stories are told: chronological, episodic, journalistic, flashbacks, skewed order, etc.
13. Diction: McCourt and Wright are noted for their crisp diction choices, selection of detail, and their imagery.
Choose 5 words/phrases from each text or a passage from each text that impressed you in some way. The
words/ phrases/passage could be vivid, interesting, unfamiliar, exciting, gross, etc. Cite the page(s) on which
the words/phrases/passages can be found. Discuss the impact of the words/phrases/or passages you have
chosen.
14. Literary Devices: There are numerous literary devices with which you have yet to be acquainted, but for now,
identify the basic literary devices with which you are familiar: simile, metaphor, personification, irony,
hyperbole. Give at least 3 examples of 3 of the literary devices and the page numbers on which they occur.
15. Syntax: For each text, identify at least two sentences for each of the following: telegraphic, involved,
hyperinvolved, declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory. Be sure when you write the sentences on
your paper, you enclose them in quotation marks and list the page number for each one.
Write your essay-Using your best writing skills, compose a well written 5 paragraph essay that addresses the topic
below. Be sure to have a cogent thesis, strong supporting claims, reliable and applicable proof from
your novels which is parenthetically documented, and an adequate closing in which you recap your main
points and your thesis. Type your essay using a 12 pt. font and double space. Put a title at the top of
your paper, and your heading (name and date) in the upper right hand corner. On each subsequent
page, list your last name and page number in upper right corner.
Topic: Both of these novels recount the experiences of childhood as lived by each of the authors. Compare and/or
contrast the forces that most influenced/impacted the lives of each of the authors AND how each of the authors coped
with the challenges presented to them.
5