May 2011
To:
Students of AP English Literature
From: Dr. Whittier
Re:
AP English Literature, Summer Reading and Book Purchasing
Dear Students,
The AP English class you'll be taking with me in the fall will prepare you for the AP English Literature exam
in May, and for the writing and literature classes you'll encounter in college. I'm sending you this letter so
you'll know what to expect in the class, what expectations I'll have of you, and what your summer
assignment is.
First to the course itself: My syllabus has been audited by the College Board, and meets the requirements of
the AP Literature course, which the College Board describes as follows:
AP English Literature and Composition
The course is designed to engage students in the careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative
literature. Through the close reading of selected texts, students can deepen their understanding of the ways
writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers. As they read, students should
consider a work's structure, style, and themes, as well as such smaller-scale elements as the use of figurative
language, imagery, symbolism, and tone.
Reading
The course should include intensive study of representative works from various genres and periods,
concentrating on works of recognized literary merit. The works chosen should invite and gratify rereading.
Reading in an AP course should be both wide and deep. This reading necessarily builds upon the reading
done in previous English courses. These courses should include the in-depth reading of texts drawn from
multiple genres, periods, and cultures. In their AP course, students should also read works from several
genres and periods -- from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century -- but, more importantly, they should get
to know a few works well. They should read deliberately and thoroughly, taking time to understand a work's
complexity, to absorb its richness of meaning, and to analyze how that meaning is embodied in literary form.
In addition to considering a work's literary artistry, students should consider the social and historical values it
reflects and embodies. Careful attention to both textual detail and historical context should provide a
foundation for interpretation, whatever critical perspectives are brought to bear on the literary works studied.
Writing
Such close reading involves the experience of literature, the interpretation of literature, and the evaluation of
literature. All these aspects of reading are important for an AP course in English Literature and Composition,
and each corresponds to an approach to writing about literary works. Writing to understand a literary work
may involve writing response and reaction papers along with annotation, free-writing, and keeping some
form of a reading journal. Writing to explain a literary work involves analysis and interpretation, and may
include writing brief focused analyses on aspects of language and structure. Writing to evaluate a literary
work involves making and explaining judgments about its artistry and exploring its underlying social and
cultural values through analysis, interpretation, and argument.
Writing should be an integral part of the AP English Literature and Composition course, for the AP
Examination is weighted toward student writing about literature. Writing assignments should focus on the
critical analysis of literature and should include expository, analytical, and argumentative essays. Although
critical analysis should make up the bulk of student writing for the course, well-constructed creative writing
assignments may help students see from the inside how literature is written. The goal of both types of writing
AP Lit / Summer Letter 2
assignments is to increase students' ability to explain clearly, cogently, even elegantly, what they understand
about literary works and why they interpret them as they do.
Writing instruction should include attention to developing and organizing ideas in clear, coherent, and
persuasive language; a study of the elements of style; and attention to precision and correctness as necessary.
Throughout the course, emphasis should be placed on helping students develop stylistic maturity, which, for
AP English, is characterized by the following:
 Wide-ranging vocabulary used with denotative accuracy and connotative resourcefulness
 A variety of sentence structures, including appropriate use of subordinate and coordinate
constructions
 A logical organization, enhanced by specific techniques of coherence such as repetition, transitions,
and emphasis
 A balance of generalization with specific illustrative detail
 An effective use of rhetoric, including controlling tone, maintaining a consistent voice, and
achieving emphasis through parallelism and antithesis
It is important to distinguish among the different kinds of writing produced in an AP English Literature and
Composition course. Any college-level course in which serious literature is read and studied should include
numerous opportunities for students to write. Some of this writing should be informal and exploratory,
allowing students to discover what they think in the process of writing about their reading. Some of the
course writing should involve research, perhaps negotiating differing critical perspectives. Much writing
should involve extended discourse in which students can develop an argument or present an analysis at
length. In addition, some writing assignments should encourage students to write effectively under the time
constraints they encounter on essay examinations in college courses in many disciplines, including English.
And so, entering this class, students are expected to:
 Read actively, taking notes while reading and re-reading
 Have good recall of the texts they've read previously at PCS, and be able to make thematic links
between them
 Identify and explain the difference between a wide range of genres and literary movements
 Assess and analyze literary texts in their cultural and historical contexts
 Be familiar with a range of texts, from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century
 Understand the dynamic relationship between Form and Content, and thus be confident in initiating
or following a "close-reading" exercise in both writing and discussion
 Write a clear, arguable thesis and a logically organized essay through a series of drafts (be prepared
to peer-edit) as well as in class (40 minutes, timed, to mimic AP essays)
 Strike an effective balance between generalization and specific illustrative detail
 Use rhetoric effectively (including controlling tone, maintaining a consistent voice, and achieving
emphasis through parallelism and antithesis)
As you can see, my expectations of you are high. How well you do in this class will depend on:
1. your background and preparation (How much have you retained from previous classes? Have
you always been an avid reader? Do you supplement required reading with independent
reading?)
2. your native ability (Are you quick to notice links between textual detail and theme? Are you
already a graceful, sophisticated writer?)
3. your attitude and commitment (Are you curious and open-minded? Are you ready to step up to
college-level work? Do you listen and respond with maturity and respect to others in a seminar
setting? Are you a diligent worker, determined to get it right? Do you leave plenty of time to
proofread carefully before turning in work?)
The student who can say Yes to all of the above will be in excellent shape. There is no substitute for years of
independent reading, and the importance for this class of accumulated cultural capital cannot be overestimated. Similarly, the student with a native ability in the subject is at an obvious advantage. Still, these
AP Lit / Summer Letter 3
things being said, the only guarantee that a student will pass this class is his or her demonstrated
commitment to working hard, following instructions, and meeting deadlines. So work hard and open your
minds. I admire diligence, intellectual curiosity, and enthusiasm above all else, and if you can meet me half
way on these counts, I promise you a rewarding year. I also promise, throughout the year, to be fair and
consistent and to give you plenty of time for, and feedback on, each assignment. You will have to earn your
grade in this class, and you will be given the grade you deserve.
Over the course of the year we'll be reading a lot, writing a lot, and revising a lot. I realize that fall semester
is dominated for most of you by the college application process, which is why your first writing
assignment—three drafts of the college essay—is part of the course curriculum. It's important for you to
know, however, that your college application process is an extra-curricular commitment and, as such, must
not interfere with the rest of your work in this class. Plan to work hard. This will be a fun year, but it will not
be an easy year.
SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENT
STEP 1: With the help of your librarian, your parents, or anyone else who knows books, select one author
from the list below. If you choose to read novels, you must read at least two. If plays, you must read at
least three. Whichever genre you select, please note that at least one of your book choices must be from the
works listed in parentheses.
Prose Fiction
Julia Alvarez (In the Time of the Butterflies)
Kingsley Amis (Lucky Jim)
Martin Amis (Time's Arrow)
Rudolfo Anaya (Serafina's Stories)
Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale, Alias Grace, Surfacing)
Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
James Baldwin (Go Tell It on the Mountain)
Saul Bellow (The Adventures of Augie March)
Charlotte Bronte (Jane Eyre)
Emily Bronte (Wuthering Heights)
Italo Calvino (Invisible Cities, The Baron in the Trees)
Albert Camus (The Plague, The Stranger)
Truman Capote (In Cold Blood)
Willa Cather (Death Comes for the Archbishop, O Pioneers!)
John Cheever (The Wapshot Scandal)
Kate Chopin (The Awakening)
Joseph Conrad (Heart of Darkness)
Louis DeBernieres (Corelli's Mandolin)
Don DeLillo (Libra)
Anita Desai (Clear Light of Day)
Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, David Copperfield)
E.L. Doctorow (Ragtime)
Fyodor Dostoevsky (Crime and Punishment, Notes from Underground, The Idiot)
Theodore Dreiser (Sister Carrie)
George Eliot (The Mill on the Floss, Middlemarch)
Ralph Ellison (The Invisible Man)
Louise Erdich (Antelope Wife)
William Faulkner (As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury)
Henry Fielding (Tom Jones)
AP Lit / Summer Letter 4
Ford Maddox Ford (The Good Soldier)
E.M. Forster (A Passage to India)
John Fowles (The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Magus)
Myla Goldberg (Bee Season)
Graham Greene (The Heart of the Matter)
Jane Hamilton (A Map of the World, The Book of Ruth)
Thomas Hardy (Return of the Native, Tess of the D'Urbervilles)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (The House of the Seven Gables)
Ernest Hemingway (The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls)
Zora Neale Hurston (Their Eyes Were Watching God)
Kazuo Ishiguro (Remains of the Day)
Henry James (The Portrait of a Lady)
Ha Jin (Waiting)
Maxine Hong Kingston (The Woman Warrior)
Joy Kogawa (Obasan)
Milan Kundera (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)
Margaret Laurence (The Stone Angel)
D.H. Lawrence (Sons and Lovers)
Bernard Malamud (The Fixer, The Natural)
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude)
Bobbie Ann Mason (In Country)
Cormac McCarthy (All the Pretty Horses, Blood Meridian)
Carson McCullers (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, The Member of the Wedding)
Herman Melville (Moby Dick, Billy Budd)
Toni Morrison (Jazz, Beloved, Song of Solomon)
Bharati Mukherjee (Desirable Daughters, Tree Bride)
Vladimir Nabokov (Lolita)
Joyce Carol Oates (We Were the Mulvaneys)
Flannery O'Connor (Wise Blood)
George Orwell (1984)
Cynthia Ozick (Heir to the Glimmering World)
Alan Paton (Cry the Beloved Country)
Iain Pears (An Instance of the Fingerpost)
Katherine Anne Porter (Ship of Fools)
Erich Maria Remarque (All Quiet on the Western Front)
Jean Rhys (Voyage in the Dark)
Jonathan Swift (Gulliver's Travels)
Leo Tolstoy (Anna Karenina)
Jean Toomer (Cane)
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (Fathers and Sons)
John Updike (Gertrude and Claudius)
Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five)
Alice Walker (Temple of My Familiar)
Evelyn Waugh (Brideshead Revisited, The Loved One)
Eudora Welty (The Optimist's Daughter)
Edith Wharton (The House of Mirth, The Custom of the Country)
John Edgar Wideman (Brothers and Keepers)
Virginia Woolf (To the Lighthouse)
Richard Wright (Native Son)
AP Lit / Summer Letter 5
Drama
Aeschylus (Prometheus Bound)
Edward Albee (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
Amiri Baraka (Dutchman)
Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot)
Anton Checkhov (The Cherry Orchard)
William Congreve (The Way of the World)
Oliver Goldsmith (She Stoops to Conquer)
Lorraine Hansberry (A Raisin in the Sun)
Lillian Hellman (The Children's Hour, The Little Foxes)
David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly)
Henrik Ibsen (The Wild Duck, A Doll's House, Hedda Gabler)
Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman, The Crucible)
Moliere (The Misanthrope, Tartuffe)
Sean O'Casey (The Harvest Festival)
Eugene O'Neill (Long Day's Journey into Night, The Iceman Cometh)
Harold Pinter (Homecoming)
Luigi Pirandello (Six Characters in Search of an Author)
Jean-Paul Sartre (No Exit)
William Shakespeare (Hamlet, King Lear, Othello)
Sophocles (Antigone, Oedipus Rex)
Tom Stoppard (Arcadia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead)
Luis Valdez (Zoot Suit)
Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest)
Tennessee Williams (A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Glass Menagerie)
August Wilson (Fences)
STEP 2: In a tape-bound composition book, keep a journal on each of the books (novels or plays) you read
(6-8 pages per book). Your entries should reflect on scenes, images, characters, and anything else that gets
you thinking about the meaning of the works and the questions they raise. Online study guides that offer
instant summaries and interpretations short-circuit this valuable process of reflection; DO NOT USE THEM.
Your Journal is due in class the first day of school. (Please make sure your name is clearly visible on the
front cover of your journal, and use ONLY a tape-bound composition book).
***
Required Texts (2011-2012) listed in the order we’ll read them
The Horned Man
James Lasdun
Crime & Punishment
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Thomas Hardy
Daisy Miller
Henry James
Doctor Faustus
Christopher Marlowe
Hamlet
William Shakespeare
The Sonnets
William Shakespeare
Rules for the Dance
Mary Oliver
Norton
Oxford
Penguin
Penguin
Signet
Folger
Folger
Mariner
ISBN: 0393324389
ISBN: 9780199536368
ISBN: 9780141439594
ISBN: 0141441348
ISBN: 9780451531612
ISBN: 9780743477123
ISBN: 9780671722876
ISBN: 039585086x
Book Purchasing
I’ll expect you to have all your books in hand by the first week of school.
All books have been ordered at The Literary Guillotine, located in downtown Santa Cruz at 204 Locust St.
(831-457-1195) and will be available by early August at a 10% discount to PCS students. Early planning
will ensure that no last-minute crises arise, and that you do not fall behind in your reading. (Important Note:
if you decide to purchase books elsewhere than The Literary Guillotine, be sure to get the same editions
listed above, so class time isn't wasted searching for page numbers). We encourage you to buy your books so
AP Lit / Summer Letter 6
you can write in them and review your notes for assignments and exams. If you can afford it, your purchase
of the Required Texts would be an excellent way to make a small contribution to PCS, whose budget is
always tight. You are, however, not required to do this: PCS is a public school and will make all books
available to students who don’t own their own. Be aware, however, that if you choose to use the schoolowned texts, these will have to be turned in at the end of the year in good condition (no missing pages, notes,
underlining, or highlighting).
Book Lending
All books will remain available at The Literary Guillotine until the end of the first quarter in mid-October.
If you choose NOT to buy your books the bookstore will issue you lenders, so long as you check these out
before the end of the first quarter. After that, books will no longer be available at PCS's expense. Just
mention that you're in AP English Literature, so the person serving you can make a note of your name, class,
and the books you are “checking out.” PCS will then be billed for those texts, and the texts will need to be
returned to the school. That said, I hope that you will buy the books. Remember you can always recoup some
of the cost by selling them at the end of the year, either to a PCS student, or back to the bookstore.
Important Reminder
Over the summer I'll be updating all course information on my PCS faculty webpage. I'll also distribute this
information on the first day of class, but I want you to read the syllabus carefully beforehand and sign the
Late Policy Agreement, below. It's crucial that you know what my expectations are and that you ask early on
if there's something you don't understand.
Enjoy your reading—enjoy your summer. I'll be out of the country for a bit, but feel free to email me in June
or late August if you have questions or concerns (sarah.whittier@pcsed.org). I look forward to our year
together.
Sincerely,
Dr. Whittier
AP English Literature
AP Lit / Summer Letter 7
Please read the policy below, sign the second page, and turn that page in to me on the first day of class.
Turning in Work
 All written work (Essays, Drafts, Portfolios, Presentation Handouts, Journals, etc.) is to be turned in at
the beginning of the class period—in class—on the day it is due. Papers will be marked down one point
for each of the first ten minutes the student is late to class. After ten minutes the paper will be counted
one day late.
 Students are responsible for printing their assignments, and should always anticipate unexpected
technical difficulty. Plan ahead: print your work out well in advance of the deadline since NO WORK
WILL BE ACCEPTED VIA DISK OR EMAIL.
Unless there is a prior arrangement with the teacher, work due on days where the student has a
scheduled absence (e.g., field-trip, doctor's appointment, UCSC or Cabrillo class, family trip, etc.)
MUST BE TURNED IN EARLY
 All work must be turned in directly to me or left on my desk if I’m not in my room.
Students may NOT turn in their work to the front office or leave it in my box there.
 Proofreading and adherence to MLA style is required of all PCS English students. In order to encourage
careful and professional presentation of your work, points will be docked from every assignment for
each of the following:
Three or more typos (sloppy errors, spelling errors)
Margins are not exactly one inch
Paper isn’t stapled
Page(s) missing or stapled in wrong order
Assignment is incomplete
Instructions not followed
Page, line, or word limit not strictly adhered to
Late Work
Any assignment or presentation with a due date will be marked down ONE FULL GRADE for the first day it
is late, and TWO FULL GRADES the second day it is late. Work turned in three or more days late will not
be accepted. Technical glitches (i.e., printer/ computer malfunctions) will NOT be considered legitimate
excuses for late work. No exceptions.
Exceptions to the Late Work policy are made in the following cases:
 If a student has been absent due to illness prior to a due date and, after the parent or student
consults with me, I agree that the student will need extra time to make up the work.
 Illness or family emergency on a due date, in which case the student must notify me of the
problem via email as soon as possible, and, on the first day back, attach a note of explanation,
written and signed by a parent, to the late work.
Please note: In the past parents have sometimes abused these exceptions. I would even say, sadly,
that such parents have contributed to a general understanding among students that the "excused
absence" is an easy loophole to the Late Work policy. But this loophole (and it's only a loophole if it
abuses the policy) completely undermines student accountability. It is my sincere hope that students
and their parents will take seriously the responsibility of turning work in on time. Taking more time
than other students who have struggled to meet a deadline is simply unfair. Making excuses for our
children is a temptation all parents have faced—myself included. But in college students will be on
their own, so the sooner they learn to be responsible for deadlines the better. More importantly,
though, playing by agreed-upon rules demonstrates strong ethical principals and respect: for oneself,
one's teachers, and one's peers.
Late Work turned in at the front office MUST BE GIVEN TO A PCS STAFF MEMBER ONLY,
AND MUST BE STAMPED WITH THE DATE AND TIME IT WAS TURNED IN.
AP Lit / Summer Letter 8
We have read the CLASS POLICIES above and understand that these rules are sanctioned by the PCS
administration for AP ENGLISH LITERATURE.
Student:
(print) ____________________________
(sign) ____________________________
(date) ____________________________
Parents
(print) ____________________________
(sign) ____________________________
(date) ____________________________
(print) ____________________________
(sign) ____________________________
(date) ____________________________