UCONN-ECE ENGLISH LITERATURE & COMPOSITION Summer Reading & Writing Assignment

Waterford High School English Department 12AP/UCONN-ECE ENGLISH LITERATURE & COMPOSITION 2014-15 Summer Reading & Writing Assignment Welcome!  You ar...
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Waterford High School English Department 12AP/UCONN-ECE ENGLISH LITERATURE & COMPOSITION 2014-15 Summer Reading & Writing Assignment Welcome!  You are responsible for completing two reading and two writing assignments to turn in on the first day of your 12AP/UCONN-ECE English class.  At the beginning of the school year, you will also be given multiple choice quizzes and timed writings on the novels. (See examples of timed writing prompts after the college essay topics)  You are strongly advised to begin this assignment immediately. Take notes as you read the books on settings, characters, themes, plots, or anything else that strikes you as significant. THE READING ASSIGNMENT - TWO NOVELS: 1. REQUIRED TEXT - The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver 2. AND ONE WORK from the following choices: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy THE WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS - TWO COLLEGE ESSAYS: Most universities require you to write a personal narrative. Your essay must be authentic (i.e. it must genuinely represent you); it must be flawless (no typos, spelling or grammatical errors); and it must draw the reader into your life with an anecdote or a description that reveals something about you. Avoid merely telling, show your reader who you are as a person. It is appropriate to write in the first person narrative. Use language that reflects your voice, but avoid colloquialisms, slang and clichés! DIRECTIONS: choose ANY TWO of the following personal narrative topics (from either A, or B, or both). Type the EXACT WORDING of the prompt at the start of your essay. Follow the instructions below. Type your essay using strict MLA formatting: 12pt, Times New Roman font, double spaced. Provide a standard MLA heading on the top left side of the page. Give the word count in parentheses at the end of each essay. A. Write a college admissions essay for a specific school of your choice (locate the on-line application as soon as possible). Before you start your essay, type up the exact wording of the essay prompt, the name of the school, and length requirement. (This information is not part of the word count.) B. Common application essay: The essay demonstrates your ability to write succinctly on a selected topic and enables you to express yourself in your own voice. Ask yourself what you want the readers of your application to know about you, apart from courses, grades, and test scores. Choose the option that best helps you to answer that question and write an essay of no more than 650 words, using the prompt to inspire and structure your response. Remember: 650 words is your limit, not your goal. Use the full range if you need it, but don't feel obliged to do so. (The application won't accept a response shorter than 250 words.) The essay prompts are on the next page:

2014-15 Common Application Essay Prompts • Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. • Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn? • Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again? • Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you? • Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family. Appendix: THESE ARE EXAMPLES OF THE TYPES OF PAST OPEN-ENDED AP ESSAY PROMPTS THAT WILL BE USED FOR YOUR IN-CLASS, TIMED WRITING ESSAYS TESTS.

DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING THESE ESSAYS: Turn the essay topic into a question and make this the title of your essay. Avoid long-winded introductions that make sweeping generalizations. Be sure to include the title and author’s name in the introduction. Focus on answering the prompt from the start of the introduction. Your thesis statement makes an assertion or takes a position that answers the essay question; it should not merely parrot the prompt. In the body of your essay, refer frequently to specific evidence in the novel to support the points you are making. 1973. An effective literary work does not merely stop or cease; it concludes. In the view of some critics, a work that does not provide the pleasure of significant closure has terminated with an artistic fault. A satisfactory ending is not, however, always conclusive in every sense; significant closure may require the reader to abide with or adjust to ambiguity and uncertainty. In an essay, discuss the ending of a novel or play of acknowledged literary merit. Explain precisely how and why the ending appropriately or inappropriately concludes the work. Do not merely summarize the plot. 1977. A character’s attempt to recapture the past is important in many plays, novels, and poems. Choose a literary work in which a character views the past with such feelings as reverence, bitterness, or longing. Show with clear evidence from the work how the character’s view of the past is used to develop a theme in the work. 1981. The meaning of some literary works is often enhanced by sustained allusion to myths, the Bible, or other works of literature. Select a literary work that makes use of such a sustained reference. Then write a well-organized essay in which you explain the allusion that predominates in the work and analyze how it enhances the work’s meaning. 1983. From a novel or play of literary merit, select an important character who is a villain. Then, in a wellorganized essay, analyze the nature of the character’s villainy and show how it enhances meaning in the work. Do not merely summarize the plot. 1986. Some works of literature use the element of time in a distinct way. The chronological sequence of events may be altered, or time may be suspended or accelerated. Choose a novel, an epic, or a play of recognized literary merit and show how the author’s manipulation of time contributes to the effectiveness of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

1987. Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes or in traditions. Choose such a novel or play and note briefly the particular attitudes or traditions that the author apparently wishes to modify. Then analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader’s or audience’s views. Avoid plot summary. 1988. Choose a distinguished novel or play in which some of the most significant events are mental or psychological; for example, awakenings, discoveries, changes in consciousness. In a well-organized essay, describe how the author manages to give these internal events the sense of excitement, suspense, and climax usually associated with external action. Do not merely summarize the plot. 1989. In questioning the value of literary realism, Flannery O’Connor has written, “I am interested in making a good case for distortion because I am coming to believe that it is the only way to make people see.” Write an essay in which you “make a good case for distortion,” as distinct from literary realism. Analyze how important elements of the work you choose are “distorted” and explain how these distortions contribute to the effectiveness of the work. Avoid plot summary. 1990. Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict between a parent (or a parental figure) and a son or daughter. Write an essay in which you analyze the sources of the conflict and explain how the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work. Avoid plot summary.

1991. Many plays and novels use contrasting places (for example, two countries, two cities or towns, two houses, or the land and the sea) to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work. Choose a novel or play that contrasts two such places. Write an essay explaining how the places differ, what each place represents, and how their contrast contributes to the meaning of the work. 1992. In a novel or play, a confidant (male) or a confidante (female) is a character, often a friend or relative of the hero or heroine, whose role is to be present when the hero or heroine needs a sympathetic listener to confide in. Frequently the result is, as Henry James remarked, that the confidant or confidante can be as much “the reader’s friend as the protagonist’s.” However, the author sometimes uses this character for other purposes as well. Choose a confidant or confidante from a novel of recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you discuss the various ways this character functions in the work. 1994. In some works of literature, a character who appears briefly, or does not appear at all, is a significant presence. Choose a novel or play of literary merit and write an essay in which you show how such a character functions in the work. You may wish to discuss how the character affects action, theme, or the development of other characters. Avoid plot summary. 1996. The British novelist Fay Weldon offers this observation about happy endings. “The writers, I do believe, who get the best and most lasting response from their readers are the writers who offer a happy ending through moral development. By a happy ending, I do not mean mere fortunate events—a marriage or a last minute rescue from death--but some kind of spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation, even with the self, even at death.” Choose a novel or play that has the kind of ending Weldon describes. In a well-written essay, identify the “spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation” evident in the ending and explain its significance in the work as a whole. 1997. Novels and plays often include scenes of weddings, funerals, parties, and other social occasions. Such scenes may reveal the values of the characters and the society in which they live. Select a novel or play that includes such a scene and, in a focused essay, discuss the contribution the scene makes to the meaning of the work as a whole. 1999. The eighteenth-century British novelist Laurence Sterne wrote, “No body, but he who has felt it, can conceive what a plaguing thing it is to have a man’s mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strength, both obstinately pulling in a contrary direction at the same time.” From a novel or play choose a character (not necessarily the protagonist) whose mind is pulled in conflicting directions by two compelling desires, ambitions, obligations, or influences. Then, in a

well-organized essay, identify each of the two conflicting forces and explain how this conflict with one character illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. 2003, Form B. Novels and plays often depict characters caught between colliding cultures -- national, regional, ethnic, religious, institutional. Such collisions can call a character's sense of identity into question. Select a novel or play in which a character responds to such a cultural collision. Then write a well-organized essay in which you describe the character's response and explain its relevance to the work as a whole. 2004, Form B. The most important themes in literature are sometimes developed in scenes in which a death or deaths take place. Choose a novel or play and write a well-organized essay in which you show how a specific death scene helps to illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary. 2008, Form B. In some works of literature childhood and adolescence are portrayed as times graced by innocence and a sense of wonder; in other works, they are depicted as times of tribulation and terror. Focusing on a single novel or play, explain how its representation of childhood or adolescence shapes the meaning of the work as a whole 2011. In a novel by William Styron, a father tells his son that life “is a search for justice.” Choose a character from a novel or play who responds in some significant way to justice or injustice. Then write a well-developed essay in which you analyze the character’s understanding of justice, the degree to which the character’s search for justice is successful, and the significance of this search for the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot. Rubric for the AP Open-Ended Question/ Free Response Literature Questions 9 – 8: For those papers that are well written. a. The writer’s command of his/her material is exceptional. The argument offers an original and substantive interpretation. b. The essay shows a grasp of sophisticated analytical tools such as imagery, symbolism, narrative voice, irony and satire. c. The argument/discussion is illuminated by precisely chosen detail and quotation. The commentary provided is thorough and enlightening. d. The essay is well-formed, unified and coherent throughout. e. Ideas are clearly expressed. 7 – 6: For those papers that are less well written. a. The writer’s command of his/her material is commendable. The argument is substantive, though not entirely original. b. The essay makes some use of analytical devices but may apply them somewhat superficially. c. The argument uses detail and some quotation to develop major points. d. The essay is unified and coherent overall. e. Ideas are usually expressed clearly. 5 – 4: For those essays that are only adequately written. a. The writer’s command of his/her material is adequate. The argument offers no erroneous conclusions, but remains dependent on superficial discussion. b. The writer seems only occasionally aware of the relevant literary devices. c. The writer uses a minimum of relevant detail and uses few if any quotations. The commentary breaks down in one or two places. d. The coherence (or unity) breaks down in one or two places. e. The language is not always clear and precise. 3 – 2: For those essays that are poorly written: a. The writer’s command of his/her material reflects an important misunderstanding of the text and/or the discussion of it. The interpretation may also be entirely superficial. b. The writer seems unaware of the implications of important analytical devices that are relevant to the thesis. c. Ideas are not adequately supported with detail and quotation. Ideas are not adequately explained by commentary. d. The essay is poorly organized. e. The Language is wordy, vague and/or awkward. 1:

For those essays that are badly written:

a. The writer’s command of the material cannot be evaluated since the essay is too brief or unrelated to any of the assigned topics. The ideas reveal an incomplete or inaccurate reading of the text and provide no evidence that the student has attended to the discussions. b. The writer makes no mention of analytical devices, or else misuses them. c. The development is entirely inadequate, offering neither detail from the text nor interpretive commentary. d. The structure of paragraphs is consistently poor. e. The language is wordy, vague and awkward. Conversion Chart: Essay rubric Letter grade Conversion 9 A+ 8 A- to A 7 B+ 6 B- to B 5 C+ 4 C- to C 3 D+ 2 D- to D 1 F

Percentage Range 96.5 to 100% 89.5 to 96% 86.5 to 89% 79.5 to 86% 76.5 to 79% 69.5 to 76% 66.5 to 69% 59.5 to 66% 40 to 59%

Final AP Score (Depending on composite score) 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1

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