Summer+Assignment+2

Everything’s an argument! All writing, even fiction and poetry, presents an opinion on an issue (or several issues). In A.P. English Language and Composition we focus on authors’ establishment and development of argument rather than theme and character. Although you are probably more familiar with the latter, it is important that you begin to focus your analysis and note-taking on the former.

Select one text from the list of choices below.Research the various titles to ensure that you choose the work in which you are most interested.


 * //**[[image:https://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSIH_KsKwBTciIerO_FpNzRsNQ4uOLGkjRVOh2WpIM6J1hdCzUr align="left"]]Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser**//
 * **Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver**
 * Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
 * //**Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi**//
 * **Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell**
 * //**Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriquez**//
 * //**Amazing Grace by Jonathon Kozol**//
 * //**Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin**//


 * 1) Read the book carefully. You should be actively reading. This means pausing to reflect on ideas, writing notes, looking up unfamiliar ideas and marking important pages. Because annotating (marking, underlining, highlighting) promotes critical reading, an essential skill in both high school and __#|college course__ and, it is best that you purchase your own copy of the text you’ve selected.
 * 2) As you read carefully, look for the author’s argument. For what purpose does the author seem to be writing this text? Where does he or she make good points, weak points, give __#|credit__ to the other side, and provide background information? Do you __#|agree__ or disagree with these ideas? Some books will contain more than one argument—select the argument that most interests you to use as the basis of the reader’s log you will create.
 * 3) Create a reader’s log with 20 entries from the chosen book. The purpose of this log is to explore the connections existing between individual techniques and strategies and the overall argument the writer makes. Each of your entries should contain three parts, as described below.

For each entry:

a) Identify a direct quote which contributes to the argument or tone AND which contains an example of any of the rhetorical strategies and stylistic devices on the list. Label the strategy or device you are analyzing.

b) Explain how the quote is an example of the strategy/device. (What about the wording or structure makes the quote a metaphor, an ad hominem argument, an asyndeton?).

c) Explain why this individual example of a device or strategy is effective in developing the larger  idea  the writer develops.
 * (Does it create a feeling, image, or relationship for the reader, and how does that help the argument or tone?
 * How is it persuasive?) Use the attached handout on tone to  help  you.
 * The reader’s log should contain a variety of devices and strategies. Use the example below as a model.

**PART TWO: Log Example** From John Clellon Holmes “This is the Beat Generation”.


 * a) Parallelism: “No single comparison of one generation against another can accurately measure effects, but it seems obvious that a lost generation, occupied with disillusionment and trying to keep busy among the broken stones, is poetically moving, but not very dangerous. But a beat generation, driven by a desperate craving for belief and as yet unable to accept the moderations which are offered it, is quite another matter.”


 * b) These two sentences mimic each other in both structure and diction, making them parallel. Following the “but” conjunction, each begins an independent clause with the subject “generation”. Immediately following this subject, an appositive interrupts both clauses, and each appositive contains two verb phrases, the second of which is further modified by a prepositional phrase. Both independent clauses then close.


 * c) Holmes’ first purpose is to clearly juxtapose the two generations by setting them side by side in parallel sentences, making his readers understand the similarities between the generations, thefirst of his two main arguments, and perhaps sympathize with the younger generation. However, the first sentence contains an additional and small, but important phrase, “but not very dangerous”. Holmes’ omittance of this phrase at the end of the second sentence is key. The parallel structure but contrasting concepts, established with the “But” and “yet” conjunctions of the second sentence, lead the reader to expect a contrasting statement to “but not very dangerous” to maintain the parallelism. The parallel structure draws attention to the fact that the contrasting statement is not present, making Holmes’ second argument that the beat generation does, in fact, have potential to create literal change without his having to write it.

**PART TWO: TONE WORDS REFERENCE** Tone is the writer's attitude toward the material and/or readers; and the feeling or attitude a literary work evokes. A tone is created through the writer’s word choices, sentence structures, juxtapositions, and persuasive techniques, among other strategies.

Tone should not be confused with mood, which is:

The atmosphere or feeling created by a literary __#|work__, partly by a description of the objects or by the style of the descriptions. A work may contain a mood of horror, mystery, holiness, or childlike simplicity, to name a few, depending on the author's treatment of the work.

Increase your tone vocabulary by internalizing the list of tone words that follows. You may wish to include some of these words when addressing tone in your reader’s log. An enriched vocabulary will enable you to use more specific and subtle descriptions of an attitude you discover in a text.



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