AP Language and Composition/ECE ENGL 1010
Summer Reading Assignment
Ms. Piel
The AP English Language and Composition course is designed to reflect the requirements for a college
composition course; therefore, you will be required to read complex texts with understanding as well as to
enrich your prose in order to communicate your ideas effectively to mature audiences. You will learn how to
analyze and interpret exemplary writing by discerning and explaining the author’s use of rhetorical strategies
and techniques, eventually applying many of these techniques to your own writing. In order to prepare for our
discussions, you will complete several assignments over the summer. The first assignment will be the reflective
essay. For the second, you are required to read one selection over the summer and complete the assignments
associated with the text. Be sure to consider the tasks before, during, and after reading the required texts. The
work for these tasks will be due during the summer.
The purpose of the summer reading and writing assignments are to prepare you for the demanding
nature of the class, while also exposing you to a variety of writing styles, modes, and purposes. While the class
is considered a college level course and will be challenging, you should enjoy the content. The ultimate goal of
the AP English Language and Composition/ENGL 1010 class is to teach you the art of reading, writing, and
critical thinking; it is not intended to help you maintain a perfect grade point average. The AP Exam is
also quite important; you will be prepared accordingly for it.
Students and parents should be aware that failing to complete the summer reading is not a reason to
request a schedule change; additionally, students who do not complete the summer assignments will begin the
quarter with several zeroes, which can cause a significant decrease in the quarter grade. Students can overcome
zeroes associated with summer reading, but doing so will require diligence and excellence in completing all
other work.
Attached are the details for the summer assignment. You may also find the details of the summer
reading assignment on the Nonnewaug High School website. I suggest you begin early and not wait until the
last weeks of the summer to complete this.
Enjoy your summer reading!
Please register for the class Remind101 as we will use this site for important messages before and during the
school year:
1) Text @aplang2017 to the number 81010 and/or
2) Send an e-mail to aplang2017@mail.remind.com with a blank subject and message
You will also need to register for Turnitin.com:
1) Go to www.Turnitin.com
2) Create an account for yourself or use a pre-existing account.
3) Class ID is 12680738 and the password is Gizmo (class title is AP Lang 2017)
All essays, including your summer work will be submitted to turnitin.com in order to check for plagiarism. If
you do not submit the essay through the website, you will not receive credit for your work. All essays will be
due at 11:59pm on the designated due date.
Summer Reading Assignment and Tasks
(Descriptions of each assignment and task are on the following pages)
Assignment 1: The Reflective Essay
Choose one of the quotes from the reflective essay assignment page and write a 2-3 page essay that responds to
the quote. This essay is to be submitted to Turnitin.com by 11:59pm on Friday, July 29, 2016.
Assignment 2: Independent Reading Text
Choose one text from the list of memoirs and complete the two essay responses. These responses are to be
submitted to Turnitin.com by 11:59pm on Friday, August 19, 2016.
BOOK PICK UP DAY WILL BE: Monday, June 6 in Room 218
Assignment 1: Reflective Essay
Due by 11:59pm on Friday, July 29, 2016 on Turnitin.com:
Choose one of the quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson dealing with the idea of self-reliance. Please put this quote
at the top of your essay and then answer the following prompts:
1. What is the meaning of this quote?
2. What does this quote reveal about who you are as a reader, writer, and critical thinker?
3. Describe a significant moment in your learning that is representative of the quote. Think about what this
moment reveals about who you are as a reader, writer, and critical thinker.
4. End with who you want to be as a reader, writer, and critical thinker by the end of this upcoming school
year.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes
“Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and
Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To
be great is to be misunderstood.”
“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”
“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”
“There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that
imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide
universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on
that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and
none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.”
“Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force
of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half
possession. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him.”
“My life is not an apology, but a life. It is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be
of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady.”
“The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do,
nor does he know until he has tried.”
Assignment 2: Independent Reading Text
Choose one text from the list of memoirs and complete the two essay responses. These responses are to be
submitted to Turnitin.com by 11:59pm on Friday, August 19, 2016.
BOOK PICK UP DAY WILL BE: Monday, June 6 in Room 218
Choose one of the following texts to read and annotate:
Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer
Seal Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy Seal
Sniper by Howard E Wasdin
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle
Tzemach Lemmon
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
No Matter How Loud I Shout by Edward
Humes
The Bite of the Mango by Mariatu Kamara
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
Natural Born Heroes: Mastering the Lost
Secrets of Strength and Endurance by
Christopher McDougall
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an
American Family in Hitler’s Berlin by Erik
Larson
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life
in the Void by Mary Roach
The Red Market: On the Trail of the World’s
Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers,
and Child Traffickers by Scott Carney
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
Without a Doubt by Marcia Clark
Assignment 2: Independent Reading Text
Please answer the following two questions as separate essays (separate files). These responses
are to be submitted to Turnitin.com by 11:59pm on Friday, August 19, 2016.
Please make sure that you adhere to the MLA formatting rules.
 12 Point Times New Roman Font
 Double Spaced
 MLA Heading
 Proper MLA formatting rules for citations—all quotes need to be woven into a sentence
that you start and need to have a citation in parentheses.
o This concept is true when ____ states, “…” (5).
 No first person or second person pronouns and no contractions
MLA Heading:
Your Name
AP Lang/ENGL 1010
Ms. Piel
Due Date (19 August 2016)
Assignment Title
You Need to Answer BOTH of These Essay Questions in Separate Files
Question #1
Rhetorical Analysis Essay:
Authors hope to get a message across in their
writings. Using the text you chose as your
summer reading text, think about a significant
message the author hopes to convey to his/her
readers, then write an essay analyzing how
the author conveys that message. Do not just
tell what the message is, but analyze how the
author gets that message across in his/her
text. You may consider such devices as tone,
diction, figurative language, and the appeals.
These are not the only devices that you may
choose to discuss in your essay. For other
devices, please go to literarydevices.net.
Please keep this essay in 3rd person. Please
make sure that you use direct evidence to
support your reasoning.
Question #2
Argumentative Essay:
Identify one of the main arguments in your
summer reading text. Respond to this
argument in the form of a multiple paragraph
argumentative essay in which you take a stand
on the argument. Support your argument with
direct evidence from the text. You may not
use any other materials. Please keep this
essay in 3rd person.
Remember: Argumentative Essays Have
o Direct Thesis Statements that Show
Two Sides
o Counterarguments