AP LANGUAGE & COMPOSITION
Summer Reading 2013 – ALL WORK IS DUE IN CLASS ON THE FIRST DAY OF
SCHOOL IN SEPTEMBER 2013.
Course Description
Welcome to AP English Language and Composition, a course designed to be the
equivalent in rigor of a college course in rhetoric, literature studies, and composition. The
focus of AP Language and Composition is intensive analysis of literature—fiction,
poetry, drama, and most significantly, nonfiction. AP Language will acquaint students
with the styles, modes, and techniques evident in various periods of American writing.
The literature open to study, however, includes not only American Literature, but any
literature of sufficient merit to serve both as a subject for advanced critical analysis
and as a model for students in their own work as writers. Students will write in a
variety of modes and genres, concentrating on exposition and argumentation/persuasion.
This focus on nonfiction modes will require students to recognize rhetorical, stylistic, and
literary devices and strategies that can be used to enhance their own writing. They will
learn that advanced composition does not magically happen, nor does it happen according
to a pre-ordained formula; rather, the advanced writer makes decisions regarding persona,
tone, diction, syntax, and all other considerations only after giving careful thought to
his/her audience, rhetorical context, and purpose. Special attention in this course will be
devoted to preparing students for the AP Language and Composition examination, which
directly tests the student's reading and writing abilities by asking him or her to recognize
and analyze how an author shapes a piece of writing to serve the overall purpose or
themes.
Your summer reading assignment involves THREE parts:
1. Read Everyday Use: Rhetoric at Work in Reading and Writing, by Hephzibah
Roskelly & David A. Jolliffe, and the related readings in the back of the book.
2. Create AP Vocabulary flash cards.
3. Using the Castle Learning site, complete the assigned non-fiction reading passages
and corresponding analysis questions for each reading.
Part 1
Read Everyday Use: Rhetoric at Work in Reading and Writing. For each chapter in
Everyday Use you will:
 Prepare a Study Guide which includes a summary of key concepts and
vocabulary. (Hint: Each Interchapter uses bullets to identify the main points of
the chapter)
 Complete the Interchapter exercises between each main chapter. Answers should
be thorough and written in complete sentences. (The readings to which the
questions refer are located in the “Readings” section in back of the book.)
 All work must be neatly HANDWRITTEN in a COMPOSITION NOTEBOOK.
Part 2
Using 5” x 8” index cards and the “Glossary of Rhetorical Terms” on pages 341-351 of
Everyday Use, create a flashcard for each term. Write the word/term on the unlined side
of the index card. Place the definition AND YOUR OWN EXAMPLE WHICH
DEMONSTRATES YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE MEANING on the reverse,
lined side of the index card. You will utilize these cards throughout the year and will be
quizzed on the terms during the first half of the course.
Part 3
Log in to the Castle Learning site. Complete the assigned non-fiction reading passages
(links can be accessed from Castle Learning) and corresponding analysis questions for
each reading. Think critically and respond with your best answer as the grade you earn
will count in your first quarter average.
As AP Language & Composition students, your ability to think critically, problem solve,
and work independently are as important as your work ethic, preparedness, and
attendance. To that end, make sure to test your user name and password for Castle
Learning and to review the assignment prior to June 20th as I am not available via phone,
e-mail, text, or in person over the summer break. Good luck!
R. Mazzella