AP Language and Composition Summer Reading Assignment
Students,
Welcome to AP Language and Composition. Here is your summer reading assignment.
Please be sure and follow all instructions to successfully complete your assignment. The
assignment is divided into two parts, will serve as an introduction into a unit to be
covered later on in the course.
Part I: Read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Annotate as you read. You can do this with sticky notes or directly in the book if you
have purchased it. The expectation of at least 20 post its/annotations through your
reading is the minimum. While bullets/fragments are acceptable, remember to attach a
meaning/significance rather than just identifying an element. Utilize the
areas/techniques below to construct your responses.
1. Reader Response: Be able to trace your reactions, to ask questions in class, to remind
yourself when you find answers to earlier questions. This should help note the writer’s
effectiveness. Consider:
* Your reactions/emotional responses (humor, surprise, sadness, anger, frustration,
disappointment, tension/suspense, disgust, criticism, disagreement, confusion)
* Your questions or lack of understanding or doubts (ask “Why?”)
* Your revelations: when “things” become clear to you, when you make links
* Similarities to other works: “Reminds me of…”
* Wonderful writing—passages that strike you artistically/aesthetically and why
2. Speaker: Think about who the writer is and how what he/she knows is
communicated. This should help you decide the author’s credibility. Consider the
author’s background (ethnicity, education, location, religion, personal experiences, etc.)
3. Occasion: Consider what has occurred historically, politically, socially, or even
personally that may have prompted the writer to address this topic.
4. Audience: Think about what kind of person or people the author intended as the
audience and whether or not the author is able to connect with that audience effectively.
5. Purpose: Think about the author’s purpose in writing this book and whether or not
he/she is effective in that purpose. Did the writer want to: Inform? Persuade? Argue?
Defend? Criticize? Entertain?
6. Subject: Think about what the book is discussing and whether or not the author
demonstrates why this subject is important. Consider how the author develops the
sides/complications of the issues.
7. Authorial Devices and Structures in the Argument: Think about the author’s
techniques in delivery and how effective the author’s methods are for rhetorical
purposes. Consider such elements as word choice, organizational structure, syntax,
irony, humor, repetition/patterns, metaphors, changes in point of view, etc.
Part II: Read Mountains beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
Then select passages from the book that exemplify a variety of the elements listed
below. Each passage should be about a paragraph to one page. You should have at least
15 post its in your book, addressing a variety of these elements. Again, as you complete
margin notes or post its, you may bullet/fragment, but you must attach
significance/meaning to the author’s stylistic choices. Mere identification is not
acceptable.
 TEXT FEATURES: Text features help a reader to navigate the text. Ex: bold,
italics, caps, color, pictures, maps, charts, captions, titles, subtitles, etc. What
does the feature achieve?
 TONE: How does the author reveal his/her opinion about or attitude toward the
subject matter?
 DICTION: This refers to word choice. What kinds of words is the author
employing (colloquial, sophisticated, strong verbs, vivid adjectives, concrete
nouns, double-meaning words, slang). Why?
 SYNTAX: Syntax refers to sentence structure. Consider how the length and
structure of sentences help to achieve a purpose. Look for sentence fragments or
short sentences, extra-long sentences, or lists. Think, too, about declaratives
(statements), interrogatives (questions), imperatives (commands), exclamatory
(express emotion). Punctuation (or lack thereof) also conveys meaning.
How/Why?
 IMAGERY: Imagery invokes any of the five senses (smell, taste, sight, touch,
sound). To what effect?
 STRUCTURE: Where does the author employ a certain structure, like
compare/contrast, definition, cause/effect, process analysis (explains how
things are done), narrative (tells a story of who, what, where, when, why),
description (tells story with sensory detail), classification (organizes
items/ideas into categories). To what effect?
 RELIABILITY: What about the author seems credible? How do you know? Or,
you could consider information presented that sounds valid—how/why?
Conversely, where does the author or the material presented seem questionable
or biased?