THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF WRITING!
Essay Formats: R.D. #1 may be neatly hand-written. R.D. #2 and the Final Draft must be typed using Times New Roman font, 11
or 12-pt.
Assessment:
o
In-class and at-home prewriting activities (including clusters, bubble-maps, and outlines) are worth 15 points
each. You are required to complete at least one prewriting activity for each essay.
o
R.D. #1 is scored out of 50 points. If you have a completed R.D. #1, you will receive 50 points and get the
opportunity to peer edit in class.
o
You must peer edit two essays; each essay you read is worth 20 points, for a total of 40 points. Be sure to sign
your name at the bottom of your peer editing rubric for proper credit.
o
R.D. #2 is scored out of 100 points. This draft is due to day after R.D. #1. You will be handing in R.D.#1, your
rubrics, your Second Draft Evaluation, and R.D. #2. I will grade and provide feedback on R.D. #2 using the
essay standards rubric, and you will receive a letter grade in the roll book for this draft.
o
The Final Draft is due one week after R.D. #2 is returned to you. This is also out of 100 points. You will be
handing in all prewriting activities, all drafts, and all rubrics on the due date. The final draft is due on
turnitin.com.
T E M P L A T E:
R . D . #2 E V A L U A T I O N
* Note: You will complete this form on a sheet of your own paper*
Name:________________________________________________________________________
Assignment: ___________________________________________________________________
1. Before handing in the paper:
A.
Number your paragraphs.
B.
Underline your thesis
2. My intent of this paper is to (convince, illustrate, analyze, etc.):
3. A particular problem I am having in this paper is: (it can be a grammar problem, a problem with a
paragraph, a problem expressing an idea. Refer to your numbered paragraph)
4. The following are things I still need to work on:
5. Areas in the paper which are strong and can be used as a point of comparison:
6. List 3 questions in particular you’d like me to address when I review your essay:
AP
ENGLISH
C O U R S E O U T L I N E:
LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION
A/B
Fall Semester
I. An Introduction to All Things Literary (or: Why did I ever take this class in the first place?)
• Socratic Seminar:
• Does Great Literature Make us Better? Gregory Currie
• Reading Literature Makes Us Smarter and Nicer, Annie Murphy Paul
• The Critical Lenses of Literary Criticism (handout)
• Creative Assignment: Lenses and Fairy Tales
II. The Quest for Meaning: Existentialism and the Theater of the Absurd
The Stranger, Albert Camus
The Awakening, Kate Chopin
The Hollow Men, T.S. Eliot
The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
No Exit, Jean-Paul Sartre
Hamlet, William Shakespeare
Existentialism in Literature, Roy Arthur Swanson (handout)
Oh Me! Oh Life! Walt Whitman
The Tenets of Existentialism (notes)
•
Essay Prompt: University of Rhode Island philosophy professor Dr. Bob Zunjic describes Existentialism as “a
doctrine which (a) ‘makes human life possible,’ and (b) ‘declares that every truth and every action implies
human setting and human subjectivity.’ ” Using the five tenets of Existentialism, Dr. Zunjic’s assertion, and
Swanson’s definition that “existence precedes essence,” analyze the elements of human predicament these
texts illuminate. In short: what do these texts reveal about man’s condition in a rapidly changing world?
•
Creative Assignment: Existential Music Video!
Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett
- or Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard
•
III.
Essay Prompt: At the center of these works are questions similar to those found in existentialism, only now
the characters are stripped of all distinguishing characteristics, including their locations in the known world.
In a well-organized essay, examine the following questions in relation to these plays and the movement with
which they are associated: what is the symbolism behind the settings of these plays (or lack thereof)? the
dialogue? In thinking of the “bigger picture,” how is man to reconcile himself to the absurd world in which he
finds himself trapped?
The Darker Side of Humanity: The Gothic Movement
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
Frankenstein, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be, John Keats
•
Essay Prompt: In his afterword in the Signet Classics edition of Frankenstein, literary critic Harold Bloom
asserts that “all Romantic horrors are diseases of excessive consciousness, of the self unable to bear the self.”
Using the text and your notes on Romanticism (paying particular attention to the following sections: “The
Dark Romantics,” “The Contrast between the Age of Reason and the Romantic Era,” and “Romantic
Characteristics”) interpret Bloom’s statement, and address how it applies to either Victor and his creation or
Mr. Rochester.
•
Creative Assignment: Frankenproject!
Winter Break Assignment: Much Madness . . .
Excerpts from Ten Days in a Madhouse, Nellie Bly
The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
The Black Cat, Edgar Allan Poe
A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
• Essay Prompt: One definition of madness is “mental delusion or the eccentric behavior arising from it.” But
poet Emily Dickinson once wrote:
Much madness is divinest Sense –
To a discerning Eye –
Novelists and playwrights have often seen madness with a “discerning Eye,” and their works reflect
their sensitivity to what is perceived by many as insanity. Using the above works as a basis for
your argument, examine how the characters’ delusions or irrational behavior are crucial to the
thematic understanding of the texts as a whole. Make sure your thesis statement addresses the
following question: what defines madness? Moreover, how do these authors utilize madness in
their works? What “bigger picture” about the human condition do these texts present? Can the
characters’ delusions or eccentric behaviors ever be judged as reasonable?
Spring Semester
IV. Poetry in Motion
For this unit, you will be learning the essentials of poetic analysis. Our journey through poetry will include close
analysis of poetic diction, an in-depth exploration of figurative language and schema, and detailed examination of
theme in relation to structure. You will also be completing a comprehensive casebook revolving around a common
theme. More details will be given in class!
V. The Ironic Quest for Perfection: Dystopian Literature
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
The Dystopian Imagination, Theodore Dalrymple (handout)
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, Ursula K. Le Guin
1984, George Orwell
•
Essay Prompt: In the following passage, the contemporary social critic Neil Postman contrasts George Orwell's
vision of the future, as expressed in the novel 1984, with that of Aldous Huxley in the novel Brave New World.
Read the passage, considering Postman's assertion that Huxley's vision is more relevant today than is Orwell's.
Then, using your own critical understanding of both contemporary society and the texts from this unit as
evidence, write a carefully argued essay that agrees or disagrees with Postman's assertion.
We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn't, thoughtful Americans sang
softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened,
we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.
But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell's dark vision, there was another--slightly older, slightly less
well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the
educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an
externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their
autonomy, maturity, and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the
technologies that undo their capacities to think.
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to
ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of
information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.
Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of
irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture,
preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley
remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to
oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Huxley
added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure.
In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.
VI. The Lighter Side of it All: Satire
Various Fractured Fairytales
Excerpts from The Spectator, Joseph Addison
The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde
Episodes from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report
Episodes from The Simpsons
Assorted articles from The Onion
• Essay Prompt: Although satire is usually witty, and often funny, the purpose of satire is not primarily to elicit
laughter, but to criticize; the author may choose to target a particular event, a person or group of people, an
idea or attitude, or common social practice. First, what (or who) are the targets of the authors’ satire? Why did
these authors choose to isolate their subject? What key elements of human nature and society are these authors
illuminating through their works? How effective are their attempts to expose these elements through satire?
• Creative Assignment: Satire Project!
VII. Term Paper!
Directions will be given in class.