Summer Reading : AP Literature 2014-2015
The tasks outlined below are designed to give you a head start on your Advanced
Placement Literature and Composition experience. Every task will feed into a
summative evaluation in the class and it is my expectation that you will complete each
one.
Please read each task carefully. Please bring your COMPLETE Task #1 to the first day of
class in August.
Be aware that Task #2 has its own due date.
Assignment #1: Short Story Selections
 You will read each of the five short stories in the packet. For each story, you will
write a one-page analysis of how the stylistic elements specified in the handout
contribute to the piece’s meaning. Limit yourself to the most prevalent stylistic
devices and use appropriate textual evidence to support your points.
Format:
 The assignment must be typed, double-spaced and in 12pt Times New Roman or
10pt Calibri font.
 Please include a cover page with your name, assignment title (Summer
Reading), and class period.
Assignment #2: College Application Essay
 The personal statement essay is central to the college application process. It is
the one place where you get to show an admissions officer that you are
something other than a GPA, an ACT score, and an application fee. It’s your only
shot to show them who you are.
 Using a topic from the application of a college you want to attend, write a welldeveloped essay (approx 200-250 words) that is typed, double-spaced, 12pt
font, with 1-inch margins. The goal is an essay that sounds like YOU. It should
say something about who you are as an individual.
 If the college to which you are applying requires a different length essay, follow
their directions.
 MAIL this essay, along with the essay prompt and requirements from the college
application to D. Gipe, William J. Palmer High School, 301 N. Nevada Ave,
Colorado Springs, CO 80903, postmarked no later than August 13th, 2014.
 If you want to be accepted into a college or university, you must submit your
application by the deadline. Think of this as practice.
 If your essay is not postmarked by the above date, I will still accept it, but there
will be consequences just as if your college application was not sent on time.
Analyzing Style and Stylistic Devices
Style in literature is the literary element that describes the ways that the author uses
words — the author's word choice, sentence structure, figurative language, and
sentence arrangement all work together to establish mood, images, and meaning in the
text.
Diction (word choice)
 Are the words short (implying simple content) or long (difficult content)?
 Are the words formal or informal?
 Do they have any “extra” meaning? (“Chubby” vs. “Fat,” etc.)
 Do they sound pleasant or harsh?
Syntax / Sentence Structure
 How long are the sentences? (Short sentences are called “telegraphic”
sentences.)
 Are they declarative? Imperative? Interrogative? Exclamatory?
 Are they natural (subject, then verb) or inverted (verb, then subject)?
 Do the sentences have parallel structure? (Similar arrangement of parts?)
 What types of sentences are used?
o Simple=one subject and one verb
o Compound=2 independent clauses* joined by a conjunction or
semicolon
o Complex=Independent clause and one or more subordinate clauses
o Compound-complex=2 or more principal clauses and one or more
subordinate clauses
*A clause is a group of words that contains a verb and its subject and is used as part of a sentence. It may
or may not express a complete thought.
An independent clause expresses a complete thought and can stand by itself as a complete sentence.
I took the aluminum cans to the recycling center.
A subordinate clause does not express a complete thought and can’t stand alone as a sentence.
That we collected
A complex sentence combines an independent clause and one or more subordinate clauses.
I took the aluminum cans that we collected to the recycling center.
You don’t need to freak out about this clause business, but it is important to know. The
basic rule is that more complex sentences usually imply more formal style (and often a
more serious, or in the case of Dickens, satiric tone).
Treatment of Subject Matter
 Does the author treat the subject matter in a subjective way (making
conclusions based on opinion or personal feeling)?


Does the author treat the subject matter objectively (in an impersonal and
scientific way)?
How well does the author seem to support his main ideas?
Figurative Language (a short list)
 Metaphor (comparison of two unlike things or of a concrete item and an
abstract item)
 Personification-giving human characteristics to non-human things; the opposite
of personification is de-personification, though this isn’t an official literary
term. To describe human beings using comparisons to inanimate objects or nonhuman animals is to, in effect, de-personify them.
 Hyperbole-exaggeration for serious or comic effect
 Understatement-deliberately representing something as less than it really is
 Paradox-a seemingly self-contradictory statement (for example, “the more you
know, the more you know you don’t know”)
 Oxymoron-a form of paradox that combines two contrary terms into a single
expression (“sweet sorrow”)
 Irony-stating one thing but meaning another (or the opposite)
 Sarcasm-a form of irony in which what looks like praise is actually an insult
 Apostrophe-addressing something absent, dead, non-human, or inanimate
 Allusion-reference to a mythological, literary, artistic, historical, or Biblical
person, place, or thing
 Synecdoche-using a part to represent the whole (“all hands on deck”)
 Metonymy-using an object or place to represent something with which it is
associated (“I love Shakespeare” means you love the works of William
Shakespeare; “The office called you on the intercom” means that someone in the
office called you on the intercom).
And don’t forget these “classic” literary devices to cover:
 Tone
 Imagery
 Repetition
 Use of details
 Juxtaposition (placing seemingly unassociated ideas, images, or phrases next to
one another to make a statement through contrast)