AP LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION
2010/2011
MR. WHITEHEAD
AP Language & Composition, like other junior year
English courses, focuses upon American literature.
Course readings are drawn from a wide selection —
from the colonial period through to the present. All
genres — poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction —
will be studied. The main focus of our study,
however, will be devoted to understanding and
appreciating writing style. As you develop a
vocabulary with which to discuss writing style, you
will be expected to develop your ability to apply
that vocabulary to the literature you will read. You
will also work to continue developing your own
writing skills, with the goal of both refining your
writing skills and finding your own writing voice.
You will be asked to write often and in many
different modes.
Overall, the curriculum will prepare you for the
Advanced Placement Examination in English
Language & Composition, which is offered in May.
Course work will involve the use of technology and
other sources of information as some of the tools of
learning. You will be expected to develop analytical
skills, and to take intellectual and performance
risks.
You are expected to arrive to class on time with
books and materials, maintain a notebook and a
writing folder. To succeed in the course you must
COMPLETE ALL ASSIGNED WORK
(PROMPTLY). You are also expected to document
all secondary sources, to respect the viewpoints of
others, and to use the Writing Center on days when
we meet there.
If you have not already secured an Internet account,
please do so. In the unfortunate event that you
become ill, please contact me via e-mail for reading
and writing assignments so that you do not fall
behind.
TENTATIVE UNITS OF STUDY
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The American Dream
The American Hero
Colonialism and Transcendentalism
Modernism & Postwar Uncertainty
Oppression & American Minorities
The Jazz Age
Rhetoric
TENTATIVE COURSE TEXTS
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The Writer’s Presence (a collection of
essays
The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston
The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne
The Turn of the Screw, James
The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald
Leaves of Grass, Whitman
Adventures of Huck Finn, Twain
Benito Cereno, Melville
A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams
Into the Wild, Krakauer
Selections by Edgar Allan Poe
Selections by Emerson and Thoreau
Assorted short fiction
Assorted nonfiction
Literature from journals
GRADE CALCULATION
Major Writing Assignments
20%
Minor Writing
30%
Homework
10%
Performed Projects
10%
Participation
10%
Tests
10%
Quizzes
10%
POSSIBLE ASSIGNMENTS AND ACTIVITIES
WRITING
You will write in a variety of forms for a variety of audiences. Writing assignments may include:
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A personal essay on your experience of reading The Grapes of Wrath and Their Eyes
Were Watching God. This essay should employ narrative and description. It should be
detailed. Use compelling diction and varied sentence structure. Revision and
resubmission required.
An analytical or personal essay on your reading of Russell Baker’s essay “Gumption,”
from Growing Up. Subjects may include work, parents, self-realization. Use a word
you’ve never used before.
An in-class, close-reading analysis of Steinbeck’s use of rhetoric in a single passage from
The Grapes of Wrath. Study of sentence fragments, parallel structure, rhythm.
An in-class, close-reading analysis of Hurston’s use of syntax in a single passage from
Their Eyes Were Watching God. Study of sentence variety, climax, metaphor.
An analytical or personal essay on your reading of Raymond Carver’s essay “My
Father’s Life.” Subjects may include parents, death, coming of age. Practice using
anadiplosis, anaphora, antistrophe or chiasmus.
A poem on your parents in their youth. Practice using specific details through aural,
visual, gustatory, olfactory and tactile imagery.
An analytical or personal essay on your reading of Bernard Cooper’s essay “A Clack of
Tiny Sparks: Remembrances of a Gay Boyhood.” Subjects may include alienation,
sexuality, coming of age, role models. Study of sentences that use subordination.
A researched argument paper on The Scarlet Letter. Secondary sources and citations
required. Revision and resubmission required. Original argument which includes a
synthesis of source materials.
An analytical or personal essay on your reading of Nora Ephron’s essay “A Few Words
about Breasts.” Subjects may include body image, childhood, self-realization. Practice
using effective verbs and avoiding the verb “to be.”
An in-class, close-reading analysis essay on a single passage from The Scarlet Letter.
Study of extended metaphor.
The Hawthornian sentence: write a single sentence of at least 140 words, grammatically
correct, in the style of Hawthorne. Revision and resubmission required. Only one
semicolon allowed. Study of coordination and subordination.
In-class, close-reading analysis essay on a single passage from Melville’s “Benito
Cereno.” Explain how the figurative and rhetorical devices contribute to establishing
mood and theme.
An abstract of literary criticism on Henry James novella The Turn of the Screw.
Write a collaborative psychological report on the narrator of “A Tell-Tale Heart.” Study
of impersonal voice.
Write your own “Philosophy of Composition.” Your essay should be modeled after Poe’s
essay, and be in the voice of either Wallace Stevens, discussing “Thirteen Ways of
Looking at a Blackbird,” or Susan Mitchell, discussing “Blackbirds.”
Keep a nature journal for a weekend, a la Thoreau.
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A personal/argument/synthesis essay in which you explore the enigma of Chris
McCandless (Into the Wild and/or Timothy Treadwell (Grizzly Man) while reflecting
upon the Transcendentalist writings of Emerson and Thoreau and your own thoughts and
feelings regarding nature, self-reliance, fulfillment and the prescriptive path of
postmodern American life. Revision and resubmission required. Original argument which
includes synthesis of visual and textual sources. Practice balancing the general and
specific, the abstract and the concrete.
Write a poem that imitates either Whitman or Dickinson. You must “fool the experts” by
successfully employing elements exemplified by each poet. Study of parallel structure,
catalog, use of em dash.
Close-reading analysis of a single passage from Twain’s Huck Finn. Explain how the
figurative and rhetorical devices contribute to establishing mood and characterization.
A persuasive letter on the controversy of censorship of Huck Finn.
An expository essay on one of the “Seven Deadly Sins.” Practice using narrative,
description, classification, analogy.
Major Writing and Minor Writing
Both major writing and minor writing assignments will require you to go through the process of
writing—drafting, revision, editing—sometimes on your own and sometimes with your peers. I
will mark corrections on most writings. Some assignments will require you to resubmit papers
after they have been edited by your peers, by yourself and by me.
The length of major writing assignments will range from 3-5 pages. The length of minor writing
assignments will range from 1-2 pages. Since minor writings are more frequent, they will count
for more of the semester grade than major writing assignments.
Minor Writings Based on Readings in The Writer’s Presence
At the end of every other week or so I will assign an essay to read from The Writer’s Presence
textbook. On Monday (or Tuesday, if Monday is a holiday), you will be responsible to come to
class with a two-page, double-spaced personal essay modeled after the Writer’s Presence essay.
This personal essay should not borrow too liberally from the model; that is, you should copy
actual sentence wording. Rather, you should write in a similar style or on a similar topic; for
example, you might emulate Raymond Carver’s use of understatement or Russell Baker’s use of
euphemism or Bernard Cooper’s use of metaphor.
REVISION
Writing is a process, and revision is a key step in arriving at a finished piece. You will be
expected to practice revision based upon suggestions/corrections offered by me and by your
peers. You’ll also be expected to revise on your own. Revision (“seeing again”) should involve
more than just spellchecking. You should give thoughtful consideration to:
 The structure of overall piece (organization, transitions, circularity, repetition, etc.)
 The structure of paragraphs (effective topic sentences, use of examples and specific
details, coherence and unity)
 The structure of sentences (varied sentence types and lengths, use of subordination and
coordination, rhetorical constructions)
 The choice of words (diction)
 The tone (author’s attitude toward subject and/or audience)
READING
In addition to the American literature survey our school requires, we will read a variety of
nonfiction texts in order to examine the way writers write and to prepare you for the AP
examination in May. In our examination of these texts, you will be asked to identify and explain
the authors’ use of language and rhetorical strategies.
 James D. Brasch, “The Grapes of Wrath and Old Testament Skepticism”
 Old Testament, “Ecclesiastes”
 Mimi Reisel Gladstein, “The Indestructible Women: Ma Joad and Rose of Sharon”
 Nina Baym, “The Character of Pearl”
 John Caldwell Stubbs, The Scarlet Letter: A Tale of Human Frailty and Sorrow”
 Michael L. Lasser, “Mirror Imagery in The Scarlet Letter”
 Regis Michaud, “Freud and the Triangle”
 Barack Obama, “Against Going to War with Iraq”
 Sir Francis Bacon, “Of Friendship”
 Walt Whitman, excerpt from Specimen Days: Civil War Diary
 Thomas Jefferson, “Manners,” from Notes on the State of America
 Thomas Paine, “The Crisis,” December 23rd, 1776
 Winston Churchill, broadcast on invasion of Russia, June 22, 1941
 Nat Hentoff, “Huck Finn Better Get out of Town by Sundown”
 Lionel Trilling, “The Greatness of Huckleberry Finn”
 David Guterson, “Enclosed. Encyclopedic. Endured: The Mall of America”
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TEST PREPERATION READINGS
Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865
Nancy Mairs, “On Being a Cripple”
Annie Dillard, excerpt from Pilgrim at Tinker’s Creek
John James Audubon, excerpt from Ornithological Biographies
Alfred M. Green, speech delivered in Philadelphia in 1861
Lord Chesterfield, letter to his son, October 4, 1746
Queen Elizabeth, speech to Parliament in 1601
Jennifer Price, “The Plastic Pink Flamingo: A Natural History,” 1999
George F. Kennan, excerpt from “Training for Statesmanship,” 1953
VIEWING AND MEDIA LITERACY
In addition to reading, writing and speaking, you will be asked to study visual images and
graphics and to think about the ways they relate to written texts. In our course we will study the
following:
 Photographs of Migrant Workers, by Dorothea Lange, paired with actual sound
recordings from government camps, PowerPoint
 Dustbowl paintings of Alexandre Hogue, paired with excerpts from Grapes of Wrath
 Graph, “Effects of 1934 Drought: Palmer Drought Severity Index”
http://drought.unl.edu/kids/impacts/1934.htm
 Art of Harlem Renaissance, paired with Their Eyes Were Watching God,
http://www.iniva.org/harlem/index2.html
 Diagrams of masted ships, paired with “Benito Cereno”
 Excerpts from Amistad, paired with “Benito Cereno”
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New Yorker cartoons based on Poe’s “The Raven”
Map of Southern slave and free states, paired with Huck Finn
Photograph of Hatfield clan, paired with Grangerford/Shepherson chapters, Huck
Video: Voices and Visions: Walt Whitman (use of prose rhythm, Anglo-Saxon diction)
Video: Voices and Visions: Emily Dickinson (use of dash, capitalization, hymn meter)
Edward Hopper, Gas, paired with description from The Great Gatsby
Edward Hopper, Morning in a City, prompt for writing in Fitzgerald’s style
Chart of Coalition Hostile Fatalities in Iraq, paired with Obama speech
http://zfacts.com/metaPage/lib/Iraq-war-hostile-fatalities-L.gif
RESEARCH
Two of the major writing assignments in the course require you to conduct research and to
synthesize information into a paper that presents your own original argument on a topic. I
will distribute the following handouts on conducting research. Your essays must include
Works Cited formatted according to MLA style. I have several links on our my web site to
assist you. I may distribute the following handouts:
 Steps to a Successful Research Paper
 Thesis Statements
 Presenting Evidence of Research (Note Cards)
 The Difference between Quoting and Paraphrasing
 Parenthetical Citations
 Creating a Works Cited Page