AP Language and Composition
AP Junior English
Summer Assignment 2013
If you have any questions regarding this assignment, check with Mrs. Cupryk in room
244 (during the summer rkcupryk@mpsaz.org or 480-326-6027) OR Mrs. Edens in room 124
(during the summer cbedens@mpsaz.org or 480-472-8172). This is also posted at
http://www.mpsaz.org/rmhs/staff/rkcupryk
Junior AP English will focus on preparing you for the AP Language and Composition
exam as well as for AP Literature and Composition (Senior AP English) and collegelevel courses. The AP exams are given each May and provide an opportunity for
students to earn three to nine hours of college English credit (depending on the
student’s exam score and the standards/policy of the individual college/university).
Make sure you complete the ENTIRE summer project.
Step 1: Purchase and read the book On Writing Well by William Zinsser (ISBN # 006-089154-8 OR ISBN # 978-0-06-089154-1). Check for used copies (abebooks.com,
barnesandnoble.com, amazon.com, former AP Language Students) or ask a current AP
Lang junior who is done with his/her book.
● Read all of Part 1 and 2 (or chapters 1-10) of Zinsser’s book.
● For Parts 3 & 4 of Zinsser’s book, choose two chapters from these eight:
11, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25. ALL of them are worth reading, but you only
need to choose 2 from the 8 listed (after you’ve read the first 10 chapters).
Step 2: While reading On Writing Well, take careful Cornell-style notes by chapter
(12 chapters total), including your comments and questions on what you have read.
Bring your notes on the first day of class. For Cornell notes explanation and example –
go to http://coe.jmu.edu/LearningToolbox/cornellnotes.html OR
http://www.freewebs.com/lanzbom/cornellnotes.pdf
(use the key notes section to include your individual comments and questions about
the material)
Step 3: Choose and read 1 piece of writing from the list provided at the end of the
directions. You only need to choose one piece, either a speech, an essay or letter, or a
short story from the list. THE LIST IS POSTED BELOW, FOLLOWING THE ASSIGNMENT
INSTRUCTIONS.
Step 4: Based on the piece you chose, read, and analyzed, respond to the following
analysis questions.
● Type your answers making sure the purpose/topic of your response is clear for
each numbered item (in other words, restate the question as part of your
answer).
● You are ONLY being asked to this for ONE piece of writing, so be as specific and
detailed as possible in your responses.
● When possible and appropriate, use evidence/quotes from the piece to illustrate
or defend your response.
1. What is the SUBJECT or topic of your piece?
2. What is the OCCASION (social and historical context) of when and why your piece
was written?
3. Who is the intended primary AUDIENCE for your piece (and don’t say “anyone who
can read” or “everyone” or any similar broad over-generalization)?
4. What is the PURPOSE of your piece? Why did the author write it? What is his or
her intent or goal in writing it? What is the intended lesson/message of the piece?
5. Who is the SPEAKER or narrator of the piece (and don’t say “the author”)? What
type of person is he/she?
6. What is the TONE of the piece? Cite two specific examples of how the author
creates this tone. Be specific, clear, and descriptive (for example: sarcastic, somber,
impassioned, pedantic, mocking, etc). For a more complete list of tone words, go to
http://www.mpsaz.org/rmhs/staff/rkcupryk/aplang_comp/rhet
7. Was the author successful and effective in conveying his message or argument?
How so and why OR how not so and why not?
8. Based on your Zinsser reading, what did this author do well? Be specific and refer
to elements and skills that Zinsser presents (you may even quote or reference Zinsser
to help clarify).
9. Based on your Zinsser reading, what were this author’s weaknesses? What did
he/she NOT do well? Be specific and refer to elements and skills that Zinsser presents
(you may even quote or reference Zinsser to help clarify). And don’t say “nothing” or
any similar statement of blind adoration for the piece or the author.
10. If you were to write a rhetorically analytical essay on this piece, what would your
thesis statement be for the following prompt?
How does the author of your chosen piece use rhetorical strategies to express
his/her view/opinion?
(make sure you identify that view/opinion as well as the rhetorical strategies)
(see the samples of good and bad thesis statements below to guide you as you
compose your own)
Sample Thesis Statements for Rhetorical Analysis Thesis:
GOOD THESIS STATEMENTS
The emotional appeal of Florence Kelley’s speech, coupled with overwhelming populous
data, delivers the burden of responsibility and guilt shared by all who allow child labor
to occur.
Through a potent mix of general pathos and specific legislative examples, Kelley
creates a powerful argument against child labor.
With a tone of mystery and suspense, Coleridge employs profuse imagery, symbolism,
similes, and metaphors to articulate man’s need to love all things: mankind, nature,
and all beings alike.
BAD THESIS STATEMENTS
Florence Kelley uses many techniques to argue against child labor. The main thing she
does is use facts that make the reader stop and think about what is really happening.
Kelley has a very keen sense and ability to share her message using many different
rhetorical devices.
Using a variety of rhetorical techniques, Coleridge presents a theme about love.
Junior AP Language & Composition
Reading List
Abbey, Edward:The Right to Arms - ESY
Adams, Abigail: Letter to Her Daughter from the New White House - LTR
Anthony, Susan B.: Women's Right to Vote - SPCH
Bear, Luther Standing: What the Indians Means. - ESY
Benet, Stephan Vincent: A Creed for Americans - SPCH
Bush, George W.: 9/11 Address - SPCH
Cather, William: A Wagner Matinee - SS
Chesnut, Mary: Civil War - JRNL/ESY
Chopin, Kate: A Pair of Silk Stockings - SS
Christopher Columbus: Journal OF the First Voyage to America - JRNL/ESY
Cisnero, Sandra: Straw into Gold - SS
Cooper, James Fenimore: Notions Of The Americans - ESY
Crane, Stephen: The Mystery of Heroism - SS
De Vaca, Cabeza: A Journey through Texas - JRNL/ESY
DeCrevecouer, Jean: Letter From and American Farmer - LTR
Dillard, Annie: The Writing Life - LTR
Douglass, Frederick: Independence Day Speech at Rochester - SPCH
Dove, Rita: For the Love of Books - ESY
Earl of Spencer’s: “Eulogy for Princess Diana - SPCH
Edelman, Marian Wright: A Family Legacy - ESY
Elizabeth, Queen: Farewell to Diana - SPCH
Frazier, Ian: Coyote vs. Acme - ESY
Frost, Robert: Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech - SPCH
Faludi, Susan: Blame it on Feminism - ESY
Fulgham, Robert: All I need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten - ESY COLLECTION
Gilman,Charlotte Perkins: The Yellow Wallpaper - SS
Glaspell, Susan: A Jury of Her Peers - SS
Hemingway, Ernest: Hills Like White Elephants - SS
Hester, General: Address to His Troops on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor - SPCH
Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki: A Tapestry of Hope - ESY
Joliffe, David: Pre Paring For The 2007 Synthesis Question: Six Moves Toward Success.- ESY
Joseph, Chief: I will fight no more for ever - SPCH
Kennedy, John F.: Inaugural Address - SPCH
King, Martin Luther Jr.: Letter from Birmingham Jail - LTR
Lee, Robert E.: Letter to His Son - LTR
Lewis, Meriwether: Crossing The Great Divide. - JRNL/ESY
Lincoln, Abraham: The Gettysburg Address -SPCH
Lincoln, Abraham: Emancipation Proclamation- SPCH
Lutz, William: Weasel Words The Art of Saying Nothing at All - ESY
Miller, Arthur: On Social Plays - ESY
Momday, N. Scott: The Names - SS
O’Connor, Flannery: The Fiction Writer and his Country - ESY
Pipher, Mary: Saplings in the Storm - JRNL/ESY
Poe, Edgar Allen: The Fall of the House of Usher - SS
Poe, Edgar Allen: the Philosophy of Composition - ESY
Porter, Katherine Anne: Race at Morning - SS
Porter, William Sydney (O. Henry): The Last Leaf- SS
Pound, Ezra: A Few Don’t by an Imagiste - ESY
President Obama: Inaugural Speech and Commemoration of the NAACP - SPCH
Purinton, Edward: Big Ideas from big Business - ESY
Roosevelt, Franklin D.: Petition to Wage War on Japan - SPCH
Roosevelt, Franklin D.: Post Pearl Harbor attack - SPCH
Roosevelt, Theodore: Duties of American Citizenship - SPCH
Smith, John: The General History of Virginia - SS
Steinbeck, John: The Chrysanthemums' - SS
Sullivan, Andrew: I-Pod World: The End of Society? - ESY
Tan, Amy: Mother Tongue - ESY
The Metamaorphosis of the Everyday - ESY
Truth, Sojourner’s: An Account of an experience with Discrimination - ESY
Turner, Frederick Jackson: The Significance of the Frontier in American History - ESY
Twain, Mark: American Language and Slang as it is Slung - ESY
Twain, Mark: Two Ways of Seeing a River - ESY (autobiography excerpt)
Weiner, Robert: Pro Bono Work Still Valued - ESY
Welty, Eudora: Becoming a Writer - ESY
Winkle, Rip Van: from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick - ESY
Wu, John: Making and Unmaking the Model Minority - ESY
X, Malcolm: Coming to an Awareness of Language - ESY
LEGEND: ESY = essay
speech
LTR = letter
SS = short story
JRNL = journal
SPCH =