1

Olathe North AP English III

Summer Reading Assignment 2015

Summer reading assignment overview: 1. Rhetorical Terms (Part A): Study the Rhetorical Terms in Part A, and be prepared to take a quiz over the

terms, definitions, and examples within the first few days of school.

2. Choice Book (Part B): Read one of the choice nonfiction books listed in Part B and complete both of the

following: a. Annotations: While you read your selected book, annotate (either on sticky notes or in the text if you

own it) the text as you do a close reading. You will write an argument essay over your choice book within the first few days of school, so be sure your annotations reflect a thoughtful reading of your book.

b. Dialectical Journals: Follow directions in Part B to complete 12 dialectical journal entries over your chosen nonfiction book. You will turn in your dialectical journals to turnitin.com on the first day of school, so bring in an ELECTRONIC COPY (saved on your flash drive).

3. Synthesis Essay (Part C): Following the instructions in the attached prompt, compose a synthesis essay

about the subject of affluenza. You will turn in your synthesis essay to turnitin.com on the first day of school, so bring in an ELECTRONIC COPY (saved on your flash drive).

Summer Contact Information: If you have questions, please feel free to contact either of the Junior AP

teachers at the following email addresses:

Mrs. Brooks – mbrookson@olatheschools.org Ms. Runde – mrundeon@olatheschools.org

Important Dates to Remember: Summer Reading Assignment is due in class on Thursday, August 13, 2015.

Summer Study/Help Session: Wednesday, August 5 from 9am-11am. This session gives you an opportunity to meet your English teacher (Mrs. Brooks—room 931, Ms. Runde—room 930). It will also allow you to ask questions about the rhetorical terms, dialectical journals, synthesis essay, or even just about AP English in general. This is an optional session, but your attendance is highly encouraged.

Part A: Rhetorical Terms Guide For this portion of the assignment, you will study 20 rhetorical terms that we will reference and add to throughout the school year. Although it is not a requirement, you might choose to create flashcards on Quizlet or otherwise to help you study. Within the first week back, you will take a test requiring you to match the following 20 rhetorical terms with their definitions and an example. (The example may or may not be the one listed below.) Please study the following terms:

TROPES (the meaning is altered from the usual or expected):

term definition example

1. analogy Compares two things, which are alike in several respects, for the purpose of explaining or clarifying some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one.

“Tom was as nervous the day of his wedding as he was on their first date.”

2. irony A mode of expression, through words (verbal irony) or events (situational irony), conveying a reality different from and usually opposite to appearance or expectation.

“Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.” (Coleridge)

3. hyperbole A deliberate exaggeration or overstatement. “Man, we’ve been in this class FOREVER!”

4. litotes A special form of understatement in which we affirm something by negating its contrary.

"She's not a bad cook." (meaning that she's quite a good cook)

2

SCHEMES (syntax or word order is altered from the original):

5. juxtaposition A poetic and rhetorical device in which normally unassociated ideas, words, or phrases are placed next to one another for the purpose of compare-son, often creating an effect of surprise and wit.

“His words were both fearful and reassuring.”

6. allusion An indirect reference to a well-known person, place, event, literary work, or work of art. (usually conveying a meaning beyond the literal)

“My neighbor is never seen coming out of his house; he is Boo Radley.” (Boo Radley is a character from To Kill a Mockingbird; suggests the neighbor is a harmless recluse.)

7. synecdoche A form of metaphor in which a part of something is used to stand for the whole thing.

“He got a new set of wheels.” (set of wheels = car)

8. metonymy A figure of speech in which the name of one object is substituted for that of another closely associated with it.

People often say “the White House” to refer to the president and his administration.

9. paradox A statement that seems contradictory or absurd but that expresses the truth.

“Deep down he’s really very shallow.”

10. euphemism A device where being indirect replaces directness to avoid unpleasantness.

“Her uncle passed away.” (instead of “died”)

term definition example

11. parallelism / parallel structure

Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.

“Singing a song or writing a poem is joyous.”

12. chiasmus A sentence where the grammatical structure of the first clause or phrase is reversed in the second, sometimes repeating the same words.

“He exalts his enemies; his friends he destroys.”

13. epanalepsis The repetition at the end of a clause of the word that occurred at the beginning of the clause; it tends to make the sentence or clause in which it occurs stand apart from its surroundings.

"He is noticeable for nothing in the world except for the markedness by which he is noticeable for nothing.”—Edgar Allan Poe

14. antithesis Juxtaposition of contrasting words or ideas (often, although not always, in parallel structure).

"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.” —Abraham Lincoln

15. epistrophe The repetition of the same word or group of words at the ends of successive clauses; it sets up a pronounced rhythm and gains a special emphasis both by repeating the word and by putting the word in the final position.

“Unfortunately, it would have been easy to love her; it was much harder to know, for honor’s sake, that he could not love what he so wished to love.”

16. Anastrophe (sentence inversion)

Involves constructing a sentence so the predicate comes before the subject.

Among the weeds were a few wildflowers.

17. asyndeton A deliberate omission of conjunctions in a series of related clauses; it speeds the pace of the sentence.

I saw the mountain; I climbed the mountain; I conquered the mountain

18. polysyndeton The deliberate use of many conjunctions for special emphasis—to highlight quantity or mass of detail or to create a flowing, continuous sentence pattern; it slows the pace of the sentence.

The meal was amazing—my mother had cooked turkey and dressing and green peas and fruit salad and mashed potatoes smothered with gravy and toasty white rolls with honey and pumpkin pie.

19. anaphora The repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses; it helps to establish a strong rhythm and produces a powerful emotional effect.

We will pursue him into the mountains; we will pursue him into the desert; we will pursue him down valleys and into canyons; we will pursue him to the ends of the earth.

20. ellipses The deliberate omission of a word or words which are readily implied by the context; it creates an elegant or daring economy of words.

“To err is human; to forgive, divine.” ~Alexander Pope (“is” is omitted, but implied)

3

Part B: Choice Nonfiction Book with Annotations and Dialectical Journals

Choose one of the following books to read: Columbine by Dave Cullen

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink

Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement by Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell

Nickel and Dimed: on (not) getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

While reading, you will need to complete two tasks:

1. Annotate your book while reading: Use small sticky notes to mark the important parts of the text that you

think you will need to remember and think about as you prepare for the argument essay. Annotating simply means marking the page as you read with comments and/or notes. The principle reason you should annotate what you read is to aid in understanding. Annotating is also a way of encouraging you to slow down and read a passage closely, so that it will make you a better reader.

Annotating may include:

Highlighting key words, phrases, or sentences

Writing questions or comments in the margins

Bracketing important ideas or passages

Connecting ideas with lines or arrows

Highlighting passages that are important to understanding the work

Asking questions, making comments—talking back to the text.

2. Complete 12 Dialectical Journals: Using the annotations you’ve made in your book, compose two, typed

journal entries for each of the topics listed below. Your quotations should come from throughout the book, not just select sections.

Remember to cite your quotations appropriately.

You will BRING your finished journals on a FLASHDRIVE to be submitted to turnitin.com the first day of school. In addition to receiving a grade for the quality of your journals, you will be using the information you collect to help you write an in-class essay the first week of class.

Each typed entry must include in-depth commentary and reflect a thoughtful reading of the text. Discuss the significance of the quotation. For example, how do you think this quote contributes to the meaning of the book as a whole? What do you think the author is saying about the situation, about society, about life, etc.? How does the author make this point?

Although the quality of the response is more valuable than the quantity, a thoughtful response should be no shorter than 50 words in length. If you are selecting your quotations wisely, you should have no problem composing an in-depth response of this length.

Topics for Dialectical Journals A. The author’s credibility and background

Do you think this author has the authority or experience to speak about this issue? What are the author's credentials? What might bias the author's argument?

B. Thesis/Purpose Identify where the author is conveying his purpose and/or claim and discuss the effectiveness of his argument. How are these ideas conveyed? Is the author stating it directly or indirectly? Is the argument convincing? Why or why not?

C. The author’s tone What is the author’s tone? Does it change throughout the book? How does he/she manipulate tone to serve his/her purpose?

D. The author’s intended audience Who is the intended audience for this book? How does the author tailor his/her argument to suit the intended audience?

E. The book’s structure How is the book organized? You might want to consider anywhere you see that the author changes his/her tone, point of view, or the types of rhetorical strategies used. Does he/she use compare and contrast? Does he/she organize ideas in the book in chronological order or in some other order? Why? What effect does this organization have on the meaning of the book as a whole?

F. Rhetorical strategies/style How would you define the author’s style? Which rhetorical choices does the author use often, and what is the effect to the meaning of the book?

4

SAMPLE DIALECTICAL JOURNAL ENTRY From Life of Pi by Yan Martel. Notice the direct references to text in both columns.

C. Tone Quote: “A foul and pungent smell, an earthy mix of rust and excrement hung in the air. There was blood everywhere, coagulating to a deep red crust. A single fly buzzed about, sounding like an alarm bell of insanity” (Martel 127).

Commentary: Martel paints a disturbing picture in his description of the lifeboat following the slow, painful death of the zebra. He describes the air as smelling like “an earthy mix of rust and excrement,” the boat as having “blood everywhere,” and his only companion as “a single fly . . . sounding like an alarm bell of insanity.” Through this shockingly filthy and revolting portrayal of the lifeboat, Martel establishes a tone of absolute disgust.

Details you should notice about the quotation example above: 1. Title: identifies which topic is being discussed. 2. The quotation is accurately taken from the text, with no errors. 3. The quotation is properly cited with the author and page number in parentheses and is correctly punctuated.

Details you should notice about the commentary above: 1. The first sentence gives the reader context. What is going on in the passage selected? 2. Quotations are embedded into the text as a part of the commentary. 3. The commentary is more than just a personal reaction to the text. It describes the tone and how it is used in the text.

Part C: Synthesis Essay (Reminder: You will need to TYPE and bring in an electronic copy of your essay on a FLASHDRIVE. You will be submitting your essay to turnitin.com on the first day of school.)

Preparing for the Synthesis Essay— Overview: One of the three essay prompts on the English Language and Composition Examination is a synthesis essay. A synthesis essay is an essay linking at least three documents. When writing an argumentative synthesis essay, your goal should be to take a position on the prompt, and then support that position using evidence from the documents. With this type of prompt, you combine, or synthesize, the information from your sources to develop a unique argument on a topic. Your thesis statement should be a one-sentence claim that presents your perspective and identifies the position you will defend throughout the essay.

Document requirements: The essay must be typed in a 10-12 point easy-to-read font. Your essay should be written in MLA format. As such, you should use in-text citations (see step four below) and include a proper header at the top left of your paper (name, teacher, class, date—each on a separate line). The essay should be double-spaced, and the beginning of each paragraph should be indented.

Approaching the essay: Step One: Identifying the Task

Read through the introductory information, the directions, and important background information for the synthesis essay.

Be sure to note the basic task that you are supposed to complete. Step Two: Reading through the sources

Read through all of the attached sources.

List two or more major claims presented by each author (author’s purpose).

Find appropriate evidence/quotations you may use in your argument. Step Three: Develop a Position on the Topic

Re-read the prompt. Based on the evidence provided, develop a position the topic. Step Four: Interact with the sources

Review the claims you identified in the sources. For each source, choose one claim to which you will respond. Consider your response equal to commentary you might write in an essay.

Dr. David Joliffe, former chief reader of the AP Language Exam, suggests that the way to approach the synthesis essay is to think of it as “entering the conversation.”

CITE YOUR SOURCES: Whether you are using direct quotations or paraphrasing the ideas from one of the sources, you MUST indicate the source by both the author’s name AND the source with the letter number. Example: In the excerpt from Johnston’s Revolution, he claims that “society is dangerously dependent upon technology” (Source A).

Organizing the essay: Use a minimum of three sources as your evidence to support your response to the prompt. Follow the model

below demonstrating how to write a good chunk paragraph to help you embed your evidence and argue your

5

point. Do not forget to include the commentary piece, which will show original thought and make connections from your evidence to the rest of your paragraph and from your paragraphs back to your thesis statement.

Once class begins, we may discuss variations of the traditional five-paragraph essay. For this assignment, use that traditional model, with a special focus on well-developed body paragraphs.

Your body paragraphs should clearly show the thesis you are trying to prove, have appropriate evidence from the text, and include insightful commentary. See the instructions below on writing a good “chunk” paragraph.

Writing a chunk paragraph: Each body paragraph of your essay should consist of chunks, which means it should follow a basic guideline of these elements: assertion, context, evidence, commentary, context, evidence, commentary. A chunk paragraph will be at least eight sentences long, with 1-2 sentences for each element.

(1) Assertion—the point you are making stated confidently and clearly; the argument or claim that you will prove

within the chunk.

(2) Context—background information important to the subject and the introduction of the evidence.

(3) Evidence—usually in the form of a direct quotation. Be sure to introduce and cite the quotation using MLA citation style.

(4) Commentary—these are your ideas—what is significant about the quotation, what does it mean, and/or how does it relate back to the assertion at the beginning?

(5) Additional context to set up the next quotation.

(6) Evidence—quotation number two from the text that supports your assertion.

(7-8) Commentary—these are your ideas about significance and meaning for the second quotation. Then, in the last sentence of commentary, refer back to the assertion and give paragraph closure.

* Sometimes you may wish to include an additional chunk in your paragraph.

SAMPLE CHUNK PARAGRAPH (with 3 chunks)

Another example of Bradbury’s portrayal of alienation in Fahrenheit 451 is through Faber’s character. Faber

has a vast amount of knowledge, but no one to share it with until Montag comes along. When explaining how the

world came to be such an unhappy place, Faber tells Montag that they “are living in a time when flowers are

trying to live on flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam” (83). This shows how Faber contains

valuable insights into what has become of society. He knows that if free thought keeps deteriorating, the world

will become a wretched place. Faber also mentions that Christ is now used to make “veiled references to certain

commercial products that every worshiper absolutely needs” (81). He is one of the few left in the country who

realizes what is happening to the world. With the television taking over the majority of the people’s lives, not

many are left that retain the ability to fight the “brainwashing” of Bradbury’s futuristic society, and those few

that are able to resist are shunned by the populace and weeded out by the controlling government. Still another

logical declaration Faber makes is that “the magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the

universe together into one garment for us” (83). Faber understands that the ideas and ugly truths concealed

within the books are vital, not the books themselves. If nothing is left to remind us of the bad things that

happened in the past, there is nothing to prevent those atrocities from happening again.

Assertion

Evidence (notice the punctuation

and citation of

page number.)

Co

mm

enta

ry

Co

nte

xt

additional chunk

6

Synthesis Essay: The Prompt A new word has entered the American vocabulary: affluenza. A 1997 PBS documentary titled Affluenza introduced this

new term and defined it: “n. 1. The bloated, sluggish, and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses. 2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste, and indebtedness caused by dogged pursuit of the American Dream. 3. An unsustainable addiction to economic growth.” Since then, scholars, journalists, political leaders, artists, and even comedians have made America’s ever-increasing consumption the subject of dire warnings, academic studies, social commentary, campaign promises, and late-night TV jokes. Carefully read the following sources (including any introductory information). Then, in an essay that synthesizes at least three of the sources, take a position that supports, opposes, or qualifies the claim that Americans are never satisfied. They are constantly wanting new things and are never content with what they have. There is a superabundance of “stuff,” and Americans have lost their sense of meaning. As Sheryl Crow’s 2002 lyrics state, “it’s not having what you want. It’s wanting what you’ve got.” Make certain that you take a position and that the essay centers on your argument. Use the sources to support your reasoning; avoid simply summarizing the sources. You may refer to the sources by their letters (Source A, Source B, etc.), or by using the descriptions in parentheses.

Source A (Aristotle) Source B (The Declaration of Independence)

Source C (Mill) Source D (Cartoon) Source E (O’Neill) Source F (Lapham) Source G (Carnegie)

Certainly the future is obscure to us, while happiness, we claim, is an end and something in every way final…If so, we shall call happy those among living men in whom these conditions are, and are to be fulfilled.

Happiness is desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else. But honor, pleasure, reason, and every virtue we choose indeed for themselves, but we choose them also for the sake of happiness, judging that by means of them we shall be happy. Happiness, on the other hand, no one chooses for the sake of these, nor, in general, for anything other than itself. Happiness, then is something final and self-sufficient.

He is happy who lives in accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for some chance period but throughout a complete life.

To judge from the lives that men lead, most men seem to identify the good, or happiness, with pleasure: which is the reason why they love the life of enjoyment. The mass of mankind are evidently quite slavish in their tastes, preferring a life suitable to beasts.

With regard to what happiness is (men) differ, and the many do not give the same account as the wise. For the former think it is some plain and obvious thing, like pleasure, wealth, or honor. They differ, however, from one another—and often even the same man identified it with different things, with health when he is ill, with wealth when he is poor.

From the opening paragraph of The Declaration of Independence.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights: that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers form the Consent of the Governed . . .

The following is an excerpt from Chapter 2 entitled “What Utilitarianism Is.”

. . . The creed which accepts as the foundation of moral, Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure . . .

. . . no intelligent human being would consent to be a fool, no instructed person would be an ignoramus, no person of feeling and conscience would be selfish and base, even though they should be persuaded that the fool, the dunce, or the rascal is better satisfied with his lot than they are with theirs. They would not resign what they possess more than he for the most complete satisfaction of all desires which they have in common with him. It they ever fancy they would, it is only in cases of unhappiness so extreme, that to escape from it they would exchange their lot for almost any other, however undesirable in their own eyes. A being of higher faculties [humans] requires more to make him happy, is capable probably of

Source A Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics

Source B The Declaration of Independence

Source C From Utilitarianism, written by John Stuart Mill, an eighteenth-century British philosopher, in 1863.

7

more acute suffering, and certainly accessible to it at more points, than one of the inferior type [animals]: but in spite of these liabilities, he can never really wish to sink into what he feels to be a lower grade of existence. . . . Whoever supposes that this preference takes place at a sacrifice of happiness—that the superior being, in anything like equal circumstances, is not happier than the inferior—confounds two very different ideas, of happiness and content. It is indisputable that the being whose capacities of enjoyment are low, has the greatest chance of having them fully satisfied; and a highly endowed being will always feel that any happiness which he can look for, as the world is constituted, is imperfect. But he can learn to bear its imperfections, but only because he feels not at all the good which those imperfections qualify. It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than the fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question. The other party to the comparison knows both sides.

This cartoon appeared in a recent issue of The New Yorker.

The following is adapted from passages in Jesse H. O’Neill’s book and from the mission statement of The Affluenza Project founded by O’Neill. Available at http://www.affluenza.com.

The mailaise that currently grips our country comes not from the fact that we don’t have enough wealth, but from a terrifying knowledge that has begun to enter our consciousness that we have based our entire lives, our entire culture and way of being on the belief that “just a little bit more” will finally buy happiness. Although many people in our culture are beginning to question the assumptions of the American Dream, we still live in a time of compulsive and wasteful consumerism.

Statistics to consider:

Per capita consumption in the United States has increased 45 percent in the past twenty years.

Source D Cartoon by Jim Sizemore Available at http://cartoonstock.com/blowup.asp?imageref=jsi0087&atirist=Sizemore,+Jim&topic=consumerism.

Source E O’Neill, Jesse H. The Golden Ghetto: A Psychology of Affluence, The Affluenza Project: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1997.

8

During the same period, quality of life as measured by the index of social health has decreased by roughly the same percentage.

The average working woman plays with her children forty minutes a week—and shops six hours.

Ninety-three percent of teenage girls list shopping as their favorite pastime.

The following is a passage from Mr. Lapham’s text.

I think it fair to say that the current ardor of the American faith in money easily surpasses the degrees of intensity achieved by other socieities in other times and places. Money means so many things to us—spiritual as well as temporal—that we are at a loss to know how to hold its majesty at bay . . . Henry Adams in his autobiography remarks that although the Americans weren’t much good as materialists they had been “so deflected by the pursuit of money” that they could turn “in no other direction.” The natural distrust of the contemplative temperament arises less from the innate philistinism than from a suspicion of anything that cannot be counted, stuffed, framed or mounted over the fireplace in the den. Men remain free to rise or fall in the world, and if they fail it must be because they willed it so. The visible signs of wealth testify to an inward state of grace, and without at least some of these talismans posted in one’s house or on one’s person an American loses all hope of demonstrating to himself the theorem of his happiness. Seeing is believing, and if an American success is to count for anything in the world it must be clothed in the raiment of property. As often is not it isn’t the money iteself that means anything; it is the use of money as the currency of the soul. Against the faith in money, other men in other times and places have raised up countervailing faiths in family, honor, religion, intellect and social class. The merchant princes of medieval Europe would have looked upon the American devotion as sterile stupidity; the ancient Greek would have regarded it as a form of insanity. Even now, in the last decades of a century commonly defined as American, a good many societies both in Europe and Asia manage to balance the desire for wealth against the other claims of the human spirit. An Englishman of modest means can remain more or less content with the distinction of an aristocratic name or the consolation of a flourishing garden; the Germans show the obscure university professors the deference accorded by Americans only to celebrity; the Soviets honor the holding of political power; in France a rich man is a rich man, to whom everybody grants the substantial powers that his riches command but tho whom nobody grants the respect due to a member of the National Academy. But in the United States a rich man is perceived as being necessarily both good and wise, which is an absurdity that would be seen as such not only by a Frenchman but also by a Russian. Not that the Americans are greedier than the French, or less intellectual than the Germans, or more venal than the Russians, but to what other tribunal can an anxious and supposedly egalitarian people submit their definitions of the good, the true and the beautiful if not to the judgment of the bottom line?

The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship. The conditions of human life have not only been changed, but revolutionized, within the past few hundred years. In former days there was little difference between the dwelling dress, food, and environment of the chief and those of his retainers. The Indians are today where civilized man then was. When visiting the Sioux, I was led to the wigwam of the chief. It was just like the others in external appearance, and even within the difference was trifling between it and those of the poor of his braves. The contrast between the palace of the millionaire and the cottage of the laborer with us today measures the change which has come with civilization.

This change, however, is not to be deplored, but welcomed as highly beneficial. It is well, nay, essential for the progress of the race, that the houses of some should be homes for all that is highest and best in literature, and the arts, and for all the refinements of civilization, rather than that none should be so. Much better this great irregularity than universal squalor. Without wealth there can be no Maecenas2. The “good old times” were not good old times. Neither master no servant was as well situated then as today. A relapse to old conditions would be disastrous to both—not the least so to him who severs—and would sweep away civilization with it. But whether the change be for good or ill, it is upon us, beyond our power to alter, and therefore to be accepted and made the best of. It is waste of time to criticize the inevitable.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Late nineteenth-century American capitalist and philanthropist 2. Patron of the arts in ancient Rome

Source F Lapham, Lewis. Money and Class in America: Notes and Observations on Our Civil Religion, Grove Press: New York, 1988.

Source G The following is an excerpt from “Wealth” written by Andrew Carnegie1. published in North American Review, CCCXCI, June 1889.