Summer Reading for AP Language and Composition
This is a college level class that will require participation, commitment, and hard work. Upon successful
completion of this course and receiving a satisfactory score on the AP exam in May of 2018, students
may earn up to 6 college credits.
Summer reading is required. This packet should give you a thorough explanation of your summer
reading assignment. Although this book and the downloadable files on the school website are the only
required reading over the summer, you are strongly encouraged to read more non-fiction and various
columnists over the summer.
You will read. I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb (the regular edition,
not the young reader’s edition. This novel can be purchased at any bookstore, checked out at your
local library, or downloaded as an e-book. After you read the novel at least twice, you will need to do
following in order to complete the summer reading assignment:
Your written assignments will be due on the first day of class
Before Beginning Your Summer Reading:
Before beginning any other reading for the summer, print and carefully read the following documents
which will be posted on the School Website:
1. Interrogating Texts: 6 Reading Habits to Develop in Your First Year at Harvard
2. “What Do Students Need to Know About Rhetoric?”
3. Formal Writing Rules
4. SOAPSTone
5. Representative Authors for AP Language students
Please annotate your readings according to the instructions in the Harvard guide, especially those parts
that pertain to the questions you must answer as well as those parts that help you to understand the
meaning of the text on an analytical basis. You will be expected to know and to be well-practiced at
using the reading techniques described in the links above. Please be aware that we discuss additional
questions based upon I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai during Socratic Seminars or Fishbowl
discussion forums.
In AP Language and Composition, we analyze everything we encounter, whether it is a
conversation, advertisement, documentary, body language, cartoon or text (fiction and non-fiction). As
you read through “What Do Students Need to Know About Rhetoric?” you will understand that a
working knowledge of rhetoric teaches us to notice how an author uses rhetorical devices to create
impact, build persuasion through the use of appeals, and controls the rhetorical triangle to communicate
meaning. Additionally, as you complete the summer reading assignment, you will learn the skills needed
to enter into the conversation of AP Language and Composition.
Rhetoric in and of itself is something that we all use on a daily basis, but generally do not use this
particular terminology. Think of it this way – when you have something to relate to someone, you adjust
your wording and demeanor based upon whom you are talking to. This is what is called the rhetorical
triangle. You the speaker or writer have adjusted your persona and what you are saying (subject) based
upon your listener or reader (audience) because you are trying to convince your audience of your point.
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Summer Reading for AP Language and Composition
With this in mind it is your task to read I am Malala and to analyze the novel in regard to its
rhetorical meaning. You will then answer all of the following questions. You may answer these
questions in paragraph format.
1. Malala’s mother, Tor Pekai Yousafzai, cannot read or write. How do you think this has impacted
Malala’s life and her view of education for females?
2. Malala says that her father “believed that lack of education was the root of all of Pakistan’s
problems” (41). Does education cure all problems? How does it make life different/
better? What does education not do? How do you relate these ideas to your own education?
3. The focus of Malala’s message is that an education is worth dying for, but what is Malala’s
perspective of education? How is that perspective the same or different than how we, in
America, view education? What might Malala think about our understanding of education? Is
her only goal to get a job?
4. At what point in Malala’s life experience do you think that the fight for girls’ education became
her fight, as opposed to her father’s fight?
5. Malala is known for her passion for education and women’s rights. How does her passion for
education shape her life? Do you have a particular cause that you care about deeply? Discuss.
You must use MLA format. Please do not use a cover page or folder.
Rhetorical Terms Flashcards
For the following words make flashcards that have the word and the definition on one side of the
card and an example from either I am Malala, another book you have read or an on-line resource on
the other side. Please use 4x6 cards, you will add additional examples and other terms during the
year. Please purchase a ring to keep your notecards together.
Allusion
Analogy
Antithesis
Connotation
Denotation
Diction
Ethos
Imagery
Juxtaposition
Logos
Metaphor
Oxymoron
Parallelism
Pathos
Personification
Rhetorical Question
Syllogism
Syntax
Your grade for this assignment.
Your grade will be based upon how well you are able to analyze the novel. You must support
your assertions using appropriate quotes and examples. Remember no disembodied quotes.
Delivery
Bring a hard copy of your assignment to class on the first day of school. The essay will be
checked in on that day and you will then post the assignment to “Vericite” that night (first
homework grade).
Doug Hernandez
Teacher
Pre-IB AP English
[email protected]
Maria Lyons
Teacher
Pre-IB AP English II
[email protected]
Emily Padilla
Teacher
AP English
[email protected]
Nicole Rottler-Wysong
Assistant Principal
[email protected]
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Writing Rules for Formal Writing
1. Never write in the first person (I, me, us, we) or second person (you, your, yours).
Always write in 3rd person
2. Always write in the present tense when writing about literature.
3. Never write contractions or any type of abbreviation. Use formal language at all times (not Scout’s dad,
but Scout’s father). Do not use slang or clichés. “Avoid them like the plague” 
4. Quotations from the primary source MUST be used to support your points. Punctuation always goes
inside the quotation mark. NO DISEMBODIED QUOTES!!!! You cannot quote entire sentences and
stick them in your essay as stand-alone sentences. Keep quotes short and integrate them into a
sentence you are writing.
5. All titles for short pieces of literature (short stories and poems) ~ Quotation marks for “The Raven” or
”The Scarlet Ibis”
All titles for long pieces of literature (novels) ~ Underline when handwriting ~ Things Fall Apart or
Italicize when typing ~ Things Fall Apart.
7. Thesis statement is always the last sentence in the introduction.
All topic sentences must support the thesis.
8. Don’t editorialize. Don’t praise the writer or the text (Knowles does an excellent job...). It just indicates
that you have nothing of substance to say and are hoping the teacher will not notice if you pretend you
really like the book.
9. Take a break from your work before you proofread. Read your writing aloud when proofreading.
10. Two spaces after all periods.
11. Titles need to be a bit creative.
 It should tell the reader the topic, yet the title should not be the title of the literary work (“The
Raven”).
 You didn’t write “The Raven.”
12. Never start a sentence with a coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS ~ for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so).
Exception: Used as an interjection (Example: So, you think you want to be a writer? Writing Fiction)
13. Do not use fickle words – probably, might, seems, maybe, possibly, could.
Sound as if you know what you are talking about. Be definite.
14. NEVER WRITE: “I am going to write about,” “the reason I am writing,” or “I just wrote about.”
JUST WRITE IT. No one cares about your reasoning.
15. Use strong transitions. Transitions are not used exclusively at the beginning of a paragraph.
Transitions can and should be used throughout your writing. See transition sheet for good examples.
Forbidden transitions are as follows: first of all, secondly, thirdly, in conclusion. They are weak and
juvenile.
16. Avoid the forbidden words: like, a lot, stuff, things,
Interrogating Texts: 6 Reading Habits to Develop in Your First Year at Harvard
Critical reading--active engagement and interaction with texts--is essential to your academic success at Harvard, and to your
intellectual growth. Research has shown that students who read deliberately retain more information and retain it longer. Your
college reading assignments will probably be more substantial and more sophisticated than those you are used to from high
school. The amount of reading will almost certainly be greater. College students rarely have the luxury of successive rereadings of material, either, given the pace of life in and out of the classroom.
While the strategies below are (for the sake of clarity) listed sequentially, you can probably do most of them simultaneously.
They may feel awkward at first, and you may have to deploy them very consciously, especially if you are not used to doing
anything more than moving your eyes across the page. But they will quickly become habits, and you will notice the difference—
in what you “see” in a reading, and in the confidence with which you approach your texts.
1. Previewing: Look “around” the text before you start reading.
You’ve probably engaged in one version of previewing in the past, when you’ve tried to determine how long an assigned
reading is (and how much time and energy, as a result, it will demand from you). But you can learn a great deal more about
the organization and purpose of a text by taking note of features other than its length.
Previewing enables you to develop a set of expectations about the scope and aim of the text. These very preliminary
impressions offer you a way to focus your reading. For instance:
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What does the presence of headnotes, an abstract, or other prefatory material tell you?
Is the author known to you already? If so, how does his (or her) reputation or credentials influence your perception of
what you are about to read? If the author is unfamiliar or unknown, does an editor introduce him or her (by supplying
brief biographical information, an assessment of the author’s work, concerns, and importance)?
How does the disposition or layout of a text prepare you for reading? Is the material broken into parts--subtopics,
sections, or the like? Are there long and unbroken blocks of text or smaller paragraphs or “chunks” and what does this
suggest? How might the parts of a text guide you toward understanding the line of inquiry or the arc of the argument
that's being made?
Does the text seem to be arranged according to certain conventions of discourse? Newspaper articles, for instance,
have characteristics that you will recognize; textbooks and scholarly essays are organized quite differently Texts
demand different things of you as you read, so whenever you can, register the type of information you’re presented
with.
2. Annotating: Make your reading thinking-intensive from start to finish.
Annotating puts you actively and immediately in a "dialogue” with an author and the issues and ideas you encounter in a
written text. It's also a way to have an ongoing conversation with yourself as you move through the text and to record what
that encounter was like for you. Here's how:
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Throw away your highlighter: Highlighting can seem like an active reading strategy, but it can actually distract from
the business of learning and dilute your comprehension. Those bright yellow lines you put on a printed page one day
can seem strangely cryptic the next, unless you have a method for remembering why they were important to you at
another moment in time. Pen or pencil will allow you do to more to a text you have to wrestle with.
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Mark up the margins of your text with words and phrases: ideas that occur to you, notes about things that seem
important to you, reminders of how issues in a text may connect with class discussion or course themes. This kind of
interaction keeps you conscious of the reasons you are reading as well as the purposes your instructor has in mind. Later
in the term, when you are reviewing for a test or project, your marginalia will be useful memory triggers.
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Develop your own symbol system: asterisk (*) a key idea, for example, or use an exclamation point (!) for the
surprising, absurd, bizarre. Your personalized set of hieroglyphs allow you to capture the important -- and often
fleeting -- insights that occur to you as you're reading. Like notes in your margins, they'll prove indispensable when
you return to a text in search of that perfect passage to use in a paper, or are preparing for a big exam.
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Get in the habit of hearing yourself ask questions: “What does this mean?” “Why is the writer drawing that
conclusion?” “Why am I being asked to read this text?” etc. Write the questions down (in your margins, at the
beginning or end of the reading, in a notebook, or elsewhere. They are reminders of the unfinished business you still
have with a text: something to ask during class discussion, or to come to terms with on your own, once you’ve had a
chance to digest the material further or have done other course reading.
3. Outline, summarize, analyze: Take the information apart, look at its parts, and then try to put it back together again in
language that is meaningful to you.
The best way to determine that you’ve really gotten the point is to be able to state it in your own words.
Outlining the argument of a text is a version of annotating, and can be done quite informally in the margins of the text,
unless you prefer the more formal Roman numeral model you may have learned in high school. Outlining enables you to
see the skeleton of an argument: the thesis, the first point and evidence (and so on), through the conclusion. With weighty or
difficult readings, that skeleton may not be obvious until you go looking for it.
Summarizing accomplishes something similar, but in sentence and paragraph form, and with the connections between ideas
made explicit.
Analyzing adds an evaluative component to the summarizing process—it requires you not just to restate main ideas, but
also to test the logic, credibility, and emotional impact of an argument. In analyzing a text, you reflect upon and decide how
effectively (or poorly) its argument has been made. Questions to ask:
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What is the writer asserting?
What am I being asked to believe or accept? Facts? Opinions? Some mixture?
What reasons or evidence does the author supply to convince me? Where is the strongest or most effective
evidence the author offers -- and why is it compelling?
4. Look for repetitions and patterns:
The way language is chosen, used, positioned in a text can be important indication of what an author considers crucial and what
he expects you to glean from his argument. It can also alert you to ideological positions, hidden agendas or biases. Be
watching for:
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Recurring images
Repeated words, phrases, types of examples, or illustrations
Consistent ways of characterizing people, events, or issues
5. Contextualize: Once you’ve finished reading actively and annotating, take stock for a moment and put it in perspective.
When you contextualize, you essentially "re-view" a text you've encountered, framed by its historical, cultural, material,
or intellectual circumstances.
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When was it written or where was it published? Do these factors change or otherwise influence how you view a piece?
Also view the reading through the lens of your own experience. Your understanding of the words on the page and their
significance is always shaped by what you have come to know and value from living in a particular time and place.
6. Compare and Contrast: Set course readings against each other to determine their relationships (hidden or explicit).
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At what point in the term does this reading come? Why that point, do you imagine?
How does it contribute to the main concepts and themes of the course?
How does it compare (or contrast) to the ideas presented by texts that come before it? Does it continue a trend, shift
direction, or expand the focus of previous readings?
How has your thinking been altered by this reading? How has it affected your response to the issues and themes of the
course?
Susan Gilroy, Librarian for Undergraduate Programs for Writing, Lamont and Widener Libraries 10.23.13
Copyright © 2013 President and Fellows of Harvard College
SOAPSTone
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Originally conceived as a method for dissecting the work of professional writers, SOAPSTone provides a concrete
strategy to help students identify and understand the main components of writing, including their own writing.
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SOAPSTone (Speaker, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Subject, Tone) is an acronym for a series of questions that
students must first ask themselves, and then answer, as they begin to analyze texts and/or plan for their own writing
assignments.
Who is the Speaker?
The voice that tells the story. Whose voice is going to be heard? Whether this voice belongs to a fictional
character or to the writers themselves, students should determine how a writer develops the
personality/character/credibility of the speaker or narrator that will influence the overall meaning of the text.
Think about: What assumptions can you make about the speaker? (e.g. age, gender, emotional state, etc.) What is
the speaker’s point of view?
What is the Occasion?
The context and circumstances of the piece that prompted the writing. Writing does not occur in a vacuum.
All writers are influenced by the larger occasion: an environment of ideas, attitudes, and emotions that swirl
around a broad issue. Then there is the immediate occasion: an event or situation that catches the writer's attention
and triggers a response. What is the rhetorical occasion of the text (to relate a memory, a description, an
observation, an argument, a critique?) Think about: What is the setting? What is the intended emotional effect?
What else was going on in the world when the author was writing? What is the rhetorical occasion of the text (to
relate a memory, a description, an observation, an argument, etc.)
Who is the Audience?
The group of readers to whom this piece is directed. Successful writers must determine who the audience is
that they intend to address. It may be one person or a specific group. This choice of audience will affect how and
why writers write a particular text. Think about: Who does the author want to be affected by the text?
What is the Purpose?
The reason behind the text. Writers need to clearly consider the purpose of their text in order to develop the
thesis or the argument and its logic, or in the case of fiction, to develop a theme. Writers should ask themselves,
"What do I want my audience to think or do as a result of reading my text?" What is the writer’s message and
how does he convey it?
What is the Subject?
Students should be able to state the subject in a few words or phrases. This step helps them to focus on the
intended task throughout the writing process. Subjects, or topics, are then developed into full ideas, arguments, or
themes. What is the speaker literally saying?
What is the Tone?
The attitude of the author toward his/her subject. The spoken word can convey the speaker's attitude and thus
help to impart meaning through tone of voice. With the written word, tone is created by conscious choices in
diction, syntax, figurative language, imagery and selection of details to extend meaning beyond the literal. The
ability to manage tone is one of the best indicators of a sophisticated writer. Think about: Diction – is the writing
tight and efficient (economical) or elaborate and long-winded (expansive)? Does the writer use proper and formal
language? Tone – What is the speaker’s attitudes about the subject? About the audience? Does the speaker seem
sarcastic, aggressive, wistful, pessimistic, hopeful, bitter, reflective, skeptical, etc.?
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Representative Authors
There is no recommended or required reading list for the AP English Language and Composition course. The
following authors are provided simply to suggest the range and quality of reading expected in the course.
Teachers may select authors from the names below or may choose others of comparable quality and complexity.
Autobiographers and Diarists
Melba Patillo Beals, James Boswell, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Jill Ker Conway, Thomas De Quincey, Frederick
Douglass, Benjamin Franklin, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Elva Trevino Hart, Harriet Jacobs (Linda Brent), Helen
Keller, Maxine Hong Kingston, T. E. Lawrence, Frank McCourt, Samuel Pepys, Richard Rodriguez, Richard
Wright, Malcolm X, Anzia Yezierska
Biographers and History Writers
Lerone Bennett Jr., James Boswell, Thomas Carlyle, Winston Churchill, Vine Deloria Jr., Leon Edel, Richard
Ellmann, Niall Ferguson, Shelby Foote, John Hope Franklin, Antonia Fraser, Edward Gibbon, Richard Holmes,
Gerda Lerner, Thomas Macaulay, Francis Parkman, Arnold Rampersad, Simon Schama, Arthur M. Schlesinger,
Ronald Takaki, George Trevelyan, Barbara Tuchman, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Critics
Paula Gunn Allen, Gloria Anzaldua, Michael Arlen, Matthew Arnold, Sven Birkerts, Susan Bordo, Judith Butler,
Kenneth Clark, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Arlene Croce, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Louis Gates Jr., William
Hazlitt, Christopher Hitchens, bell hooks, Samuel Johnson, Pauline Kael, Joyce Carol Oates, Walter Pater, John
Ruskin, Edward Said, George Santayana, George Bernard Shaw, Susan Sontag, Cornel West, Oscar Wilde,
Edmund Wilson
Essayists and Fiction Writers
Joseph Addison, James Agee, Margaret Atwood, Francis Bacon, James Baldwin, G. K. Chesterton, Joan Didion,
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Paul Fussell, Mavis Gallant, Nadine Gordimer, Elizabeth Hardwick, Edward Hoagland,
Zora Neale Hurston, Barbara Kingsolver, Jamaica Kincaid, Charles Lamb, Philip Lopate, Norman Mailer, Nancy
Mairs, Mary McCarthy, N. Scott Momaday, Michel de Montaigne, V. S. Naipaul, Geoffrey Nunberg, Tillie Olsen,
George Orwell, Cynthia Ozick, Francine Prose, Ishmael Reed, Adrienne Rich, Mordecai Richler, Sharman Apt
Russell, Scott Russell Sanders, David Sedaris, Richard Selzer, Leslie Marmon Silko, Richard Steele, Shelby
Steele, Henry David Thoreau, John Updike, Alice Walker, Eudora Welty, E. B. White, Terry Tempest Williams,
Virginia Woolf
Journalists
Roger Angell, Dave Barry, David Brooks, Maureen Dowd, Elizabeth Drew, Nora Ephron, M. F. K. Fisher,
Frances Fitzgerald, Janet Flanner (Genêt), Thomas L. Friedman, Ellen Goodman, David Halberstam, John
Hersey, Paul Krugman, Alex Kuczynski, Andy Logan, John McPhee, H. L. Mencken, Jessica Mitford, Jan Morris,
Donald M. Murray, Susan Orlean, Rick Reilly, David Remnick, Red Smith, Lincoln Steffens, Paul Theroux,
Calvin Trillin, Cynthia Tucker, Tom Wolfe
Political Writers
Hannah Arendt, Simone de Beauvoir, William F. Buckley, Jean de Crèvecoeur, W. E. B. Du Bois, Margaret
Fuller, John Kenneth Galbraith, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Chris Hedges, Thomas Hobbes, Thomas Jefferson,
George Kennan, Martin Luther King Jr., Naomi Klein, Lewis H. Lapham, John Locke, Niccolò Machiavelli, John
Stuart Mill, John Milton, Thomas More, Thomas Paine, Olive Schreiner, Jonathan Swift, Alexis de Tocqueville,
Gore Vidal, George Will, Garry Wills, Mary Wollstonecraft
Science and Nature Writers
Edward Abbey, Diane Ackerman, Natalie Angier, Wendell Berry, Jacob Bronowski, Rachel Carson, Charles
Darwin, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Jared Diamond, Annie Dillard, Gretel Ehrlich, Loren Eiseley,
Timothy Ferris, Tim Flannery, Richard Fortey, Atul Gawande, Stephen Jay Gould, Evelyn Fox Keller, Aldo
Leopold, Barry Lopez, Peter Matthiessen, Bill McKibben, Margaret Mead, John Muir, Steven Pinker, David
Quammen, Carl Sagan, Lewis Thomas, Jonathan Weiner, E. O. Wilson
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