Homework for Wednesday, Nov. 28

Read and annotate Act 1, scene 2 of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1. Then, complete the following for Hal's soliloquy at the end of this scene: Write one or two paragraphs that identify Hal's rhetorical situation, and then explain how that rhetorical situation influences what he says in the soliloquy and how he says it.

Homework for Thursday, November 15

In William Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, read and annotate the following introductory materials:
Introduction, pp. vii-xix
Key Facts, pp. xxvii-xxviii
List of Parts, p. 3

Be prepared to answer the following questions in class:
1. Which play does the story of Henry IV, Part 1, follow? (0-1 sentence)
2. Summarize the events that lead up to Henry IV, Part 1. (4-6 sentences)
3. Identify the following characters and their distinctive traits (2-4 sentences for each):

• 3a. Prince Henry/Harry/Hal 
• 3b. Falstaff 
• 3c. King Henry IV 
• 3d. Percy/Hotspur 

4. How does the play begin? (4-6 sentences)
5. What does Machiavelli have to do with Henry IV, Part 1? (2 sentences)
6. Who are the most prominent characters?
7. Which sources did Shakespeare (probably) rely on to write Henry IV, Part 1?, and what liberties did he take with the historical facts? (2-4 sentences)
8. Keeping in mind that a character list can be arranged in various ways (e.g., the prominence of the roles or the order of appearance), by what principle is the List of Parts arranged? (0-1 sentence)

(All right, it's actually a little more than ten questions. My bad.)

Revised Upcoming Assignments through November 13

For Tuesday, Oct. 30: View the following speeches and answer the questions below about them:

Ronald Reagan's Farewell Address (In class, I mistakenly called it the "Morning in America" speech; I was thinking "city on a hill." "Morning in America" refers to an ad from the 1984 presidential campaign.)

Barack Obama's 2004 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address

If you wish, you may also read Reagan's speech here (scroll down) and Obama's speech here (scroll down).

Answer these questions about the above speeches. Write a paragraph for each answer.
1. Describe Reagan's persona in this speech, and identify at least two key moments where something in the text of the speech or his delivery of the speech make this persona apparent to you.
2. Obama makes effective use of all the tactics we've discussed for delivering a speech (e.g., persona, posture, eye contact, projection, enunciation, pitch variety, pauses, body language, and suiting the delivery to the words). Select three of these and explain how Obama uses them to reinforce the words of the speech.

For Thursday, Nov. 1: The threat of Hurricane Sandy pushed October 30's assignment to today.

For Tuesday, Nov. 6: Complete your speech in response to one of these prompts, which are also posted to the right.

For Thursday, Nov. 8: Read the New Yorker article on TED Talks handed out in class. Sorry, but it's not fully available on line. (You may also read this live chat  with the article's author, Nathan Heller. Give the chat transcript a minute or so to load.) Also, view two of the TED Talks posted here. Viewing these will take about thirty to forty minutes of your time.

For Tuesday, Nov. 13: You will write an in-class essay about your independent reading book. Introduce William Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1.

Homework for Monday, Oct. 22, Wednesday, Oct. 24, and Friday, Oct. 26

For Monday, a slight change; you will not have to read Frederick Douglass's "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July"; it's just too long. We'll come back to it.  First, identify three to five successful qualities of King's delivery of his "I Have a Dream" speech. If you want to view it again, click here. Second, read King's "I Have a Dream" speech, and write a good paragraph analyzing one of his rhetorical strategies or his use of one rhetorical device. If you don't have the handout from class, you may have a difficult time finding a version on line. The King family has aggressively pursued copyright violations of King's writings, so it has become very difficult to find his writing online. The best source is the King Papers Project at Stanford University, but their site was not working when I tried to access it. Third, view Steve Jobs's 2005 commencement address at Stanford University (available here), and then read the text of the speech (available here). Fourth, write a good paragraph that evaluates Jobs's delivery of his speech. You may write about his delivery of the speech, the rhetorical success (or shortcomings) of the speech, or both.

On Wednesday, you will read to the class The Gettysburg Address, an excerpt from Kennedy's Inaugural Address, or an excerpt from King's "I Have a Dream" speech. If you choose to do an excerpt, it should be about the length of The Gettysburg Address, and definitely not longer than 300 words.

On Friday, you will read your adaptation of The Gettysburg Address.

Homework for Tuesday, October 16. and Thursday, October 18

As we discussed and began in class, write your Gettysburg Address. You do not have to include all of Lincoln's rhetorical devices by today, but at least have a statement that is about as long as the Gettysburg Address. We'll continue to work on adding the rhetorical devices in class. The complete version, with all of Lincoln's rhetorical devices, is due Thursday, October 18. You will read them in class on Wednesday, October 24.

Homework for Wednesday, October 10, and Friday, October 12

For Wednesday, complete at least one page of the narrative essay that is due on Friday, October 12. Click here for the essay topics; they are also posted to the right under "Syllabus and Assignments."

Homework for Wednesday, Oct. 3

If you so desire, turn in your revision of the summer assignment.

Homework for Monday, October 1

Read and annotate James Baldwin's "Notes of a Native Son" (handout) and answer TWO of the following questions. While reading the essay, be mindful of Baldwin's audience(s) and purpose(s).

1. Identify at least three stories Baldwin tells about himself. What does each demonstrate? What is the unity among them?
2. Baldwin uses several writing techniques in the essay. Find examples of a concrete description of a person or a place; action; reflection; and strong argumentative assertions. How do these techniques advance his specific purposes?
3. Why does Baldwin divide the essay into three sections? What is the purpose of each?

Homework for Monday, Sept. 24, and Thursday, Sept. 27

For Monday, read and annotate the following essays, and then write a one-page DIDLS analysis for one (only one) of them:

Heidi Julavits, "The Writer in the Silos," pp. 159-162
Vijay Seshadri, "My First Fairy Tale," pp. 163-168
Patrick Madden, "A Sudden Pull on the Heart," pp. 169-172
Stanley Jenkins, "George," pp. 314-321
William deBuys, "Errands in the Forest," pp. 322-326

For Thursday, read and annotate George Orwell, "Shooting an Elephant" and James Baldwin, "Notes of a Native Son" which will be handed out on Monday. No writing. Bring Gornick's The Situation and the Story to class.

Interesting piece on what Romney could have learned from G. W. Bush

Given our discussion this morning about the presidential campaign and Romney's struggles as a candidate, I think you will be interested in this blog post by a New York Times coumnist. He points out that because of his presidential failures, we forget about George W. Bush's successes as a candidate, especially in 2000, but also in 2004. The columnist is interested in what a center-right coalition would look like, and he thinks Romney and the Republican party missed an opportunity to develop one. As he puts it, Bush's "failures and [their] backlash did not change the basic realities of national coalition-building." The blog post makes for fascinating reading in light of the recently released video recording of Romney dismissing 47% of the population (and, in his reasoning, the electorate). What might this campaign look like if Romney had run to the middle instead of the right? 

For Tuesday, Sept. 18, and Thursday, Sept. 20

While reading the essays for Tuesday, be especially mindful of how they were arranged by their authors. When you read a narrative essay, you might expect the author to arrange it chronologically. A chronological structure can be restrictive, confining authors to the straightforward time sequence of events.  Chronological structures might also present a false sense of unity, making events that were disjointed appear to be cohesive. Because of these limitations, authors will play around with the structure of the narrative essay for a variety of reasons, including drawing attention to important events or realizations, grouping certain experiences together, or giving a sense of how they came to make sense of the experience they're writing about.  Paying attention to the structure of a piece usually provides important insights on the author's purpose for writing the essay as the structure reinforces the thing the author has come to say.

For Tuesday, read and annotate the following essays in Gutkind, Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 2. While reading pay close attention to the authors' rhetorical strategies. Then, respond to one of the prompts below.
Potts, "The Art of Writing a Story about Walking across Andorra" (pp. 41-53)
Bernard, "Figurines" (pp.146-158)
Richards, "It Was Nothing" (pp. 305-309)

In one or two typed pages (double-spaced), respond to one of the following prompts:
1. How does the structure or organization of each essay reinforce the thing the author has come to say?
2. Write an essay about an incident that happened to you or a relationship you've developed with someone  using a structure suitable for either the subject of the story or the point you want to make.

For Thursday, read and annotate the following essays in  Gutkind, Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 2. While reading pay close attention to the authors' rhetorical strategies. Then respond to one of the prompts below.
Renner, "The Suicide Murder of Joe Kupchick" (pp. 173-188)
Sewell Matter, "Pursuing the Great Bad Novelist" (pp. 54-73)
Optional: Matherly, "Final: Comprehensive, Roughly" (pp. 6-20)

In one or two typed pages (double-spaced), respond to one of the following prompts:
1. These essays have subjects that are usually written by news reporters and journalists (or, in Matherly's case, teachers and professors). Explain the strategies the authors use that distinguish these pieces from straightforward reporting and transform them to creative nonfiction.
2. Take a topic or subject that you would ordinarily write about in a straightforward manner and turn it into a creative piece employing the strategies practiced by Renner and Sewell (and, optionally, Matherly). You may base this piece on an assignment you've completed for another class, e.g., a lab report or translation exercise.

For Tuesday, 9/11, and Thursday, 9/13

For Tuesday, as mentioned in the summer reading assignment, prepare for the in-class essay on your third summer reading book. You will be able to use your notes from Friday's class to help you, but you may use neither an outline nor your book. You will have forty-five minutes to write the essay. This will be the question: What rhetorical strategies does your author use to get the reader on his or her side? To frame your thesis, you may also consider whether the author is successful in getting the reader on his or her side. 

For Thursday, read and annotate the following essays in Gutkind, Best Creative Nonfiction. While reading, pay close attention to the writers' rhetorical strategies. Then, respond to one of the prompts below.

Anne Trumbore, "Spite" (pp. 1-5)

Sarah Miller-Davenport, "Here I Am in Bergdorf-Goodman" (pp. 21-24)

Gwendolyn Knapp, "Instead of the Rat Pack" (pp. 25-40)

In one-to-two pages, respond to one of the following prompts: 

1. Discuss the extent to which each of these authors meets Gornick's criteria for writing a memoir. You may focus on any or all of the following: detachment, trustworthiness, central insight, and depth of inquiry that appeals to a disinterested reader. A paragraph on each writer is sufficient. Be sure to include evidence to support your response. 

2. Write an essay in which you explore the significance of some part of your upbringing in shaping who you are today. It does not have to be shameful, or even unflattering, as it was in the essays you just read, but it must be very specific, and you should be clear about how you feel about it. 

Welcome to AP Lang, 2012-2013!

Welcome to AP Lang! Although school has only recently ended, I am excited for the start of the new school year and the beginning of your journey in studying rhetoric. Your summer reading and writing assignment is posted to the right, under Syllabus and Assignments. Here is a schedule of due dates for your assignments:

New York Times Summer Reading Contest: 3 entries by August 17 (Part 1).

Essay on a memoir due Wednesday, September 5 (Part 2).

Annotated book(s) due Wednesday, September 5 (Part 3).

Quiz on The Situation and the Story on Thursday, Sept. 6, or Friday, Sept. 7 (Part 2).

In-class essay on your book from Part 3 on Monday, Sept. 10, or Tuesday, Sept. 11.