A. Buono
Marblehead High School
buono.anna@marbleheadschools.org
Advanced Placement Language and Composition
Summer Reading 2013-2014
Your summer reading reflects the purposes of the course and will serve as a starting off point for our work in
September. Each of the following texts is required reading that you should be prepared to discuss on the first
day of class. In addition, written assignments that accompany each text are due on the first day of class as well.
Failure to complete this work will result in removal from this AP course.
1. Hayakawa, S. I. Language in Thought and Action. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1995.
Take copious notes on key terms and concepts. Put them into your own words. Get to know them. Be prepared for a
rigorous test on this text.
2. MacNeil, William and Robert Cran. Do You Speak American? New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005.
Take notes on the introduction and each of the eight chapters. Choose one chapter that is of particular interest to you
and write a review of it. If you have questions about this form, see the OWL at Purdue University (a very useful
resource) http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/704/01/. No more than two pages double spaced.
3. Assorted Puritan writings: (printed packet)
Read the following primary sources in the order in which they appear here. Read actively and take notes on the
overall meaning of each piece. Then, attempt to summarize what you think to be the Puritan ideal. These notes will
not be collected but will benefit you immensely. These primary sources come from:
Hall, David, ed. Puritans in the New World: A Critical Anthology. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2004.
Introductory Chapter “From the Old World to the New”
Chapter 1: William Bradford, the “Pilgrims,” and the Founding of Plymouth Plantation
 “Of Plymouth Plantation” (things make more sense beginning at chapter four of this document…)
Chapter 12:Anne Bradstreet on Vanity and the Practice of Meditation
 “For my dear son Simon Bradstreet”
Chapter 18: Anne Bradstreet: Verses addressed to Her Husband and Family
 “To my dear and loving husband”
 In reference to her children, 23 June, 1659
 As Weary Pilgrim
 In Memory of my Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet, who deceased August 1665 being a year and
half old
 On my Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet, who died on 16 November 1669 being but a month, and one
day old
Chapter 14: John Winthrop on the Social Ethics of a Godly Commonwealth
 “Christian Charity, A Model Hereof”
4. Vowell, Sarah. The Wordy Shipmates. New York: Riverhead, 2008.
Read this text immediately after the Puritan writings (especially the John Winthrop). Using Vowell’s text as a starting
point, write an analysis of how Puritan ideals exist in modern society (twenty- and twenty-first centuries). No more
than two pages double spaced.
In order to absorb these texts to their fullest and most amazing degrees, it is recommended that you purchase
your own copies. Write in them. Love them. Take them on vacation with you. This will do nothing but help. If
this presents any sort of problem, please see me privately. See you in the fall, and happy reading! You’re about to
get really smart. I look forward to working with you in the fall.