Summer Reading Assignment Part I
Readings from Syndicated Columnists
This coming year in AP English, you will become students of rhetoric and language, learning to think
critically about the world in which you live. You will learn to develop and sustain informed arguments
based on information synthesized from your reading, research, and personal experience. The
assignment below will foster your development as an informed citizen-scholar who can support an
argument with relevant evidence, as well as provide examples to have in your writing repertoire.
From the list of syndicated columnists listed below, select 10 different articles representing each of
these categories:
 Education
 Science/ Nature/Environment
 History /Politics
 Work and Class
 Identity
 Gender Equity
 Media
 Language
 Race/Culture
 Ethics
You will have 10 different articles, at least one from each category.
1. Create an abstract (a 150 word summary) and bibliographical entry. Put the bibliographical
entry at the top of your abstract instead of a title for each of your selected articles. Follow MLA
format, and type with 12 pt. TNR with 1-inch margins. Consult the OWL website for how-to
information: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/656/1/ Don’t forget that
bibliographical entries are reverse-indented. The author’s name is at the margin and every line
after that is tabbed over. You will have each abstract on a separate page (10 pages).
Syndicated Columnists:

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad

Maureen Dowd

Peter Hitchens

Yasmin Alibhai-

Susan Estrich

Kitty Kelley
Brown

Niall Ferguson

Naomi Klein

Daniel Pipes
Timothy Garton

Robert Fisk

Charles

Katha Pollitt
Ash

Thomas Friedman
Krauthammer

Anna Quindlen

Dave Barry

David Frum

Paul Krugman

Ted Rall

Lucius Beebe

Francis Fukuyama

Christina Lamb

Dan Savage

Max Boot

Issamar Ginzberg

Rich Lowry

Jeffrey L. Seglin

David Brooks

Jonah Goldberg

Michelle Malkin

Mildred Seydell

Rosa Brooks

Stuart Goldman

Rachel Marsden

Ben Shapiro

Herman Cain

Froma Harrop

George Monbiot

Mark Shields

Wilson Casey

Amira Hass

Oliver North

Thomas Sowell

Jonathan Chait

Nat Hentoff

Greg Palast

Mark Steyn

Noam Chomsky

Seymour Hersh

William Pfaff

John Stossel

Ann Coulter

Dilip Hiro

Andrew Sullivan


Melanie
PhillipsJohn Pilger

Jennifer Vanasco

George Will

Bob Woodward

Andy Xie

Fareed Zakaria

Phyllis Zagano