Just Mine Now

Everything you needed to know about argument - Here I'm presenting you with another idea to prepare you for the school year. Watch/analyze the argument present in the Monty Python Argument Clinic   YouTube video. ;)

Interesting article in The Atlantic where you can view a video of how Van Gogh's self portrait becomes like a photograph.  It might also give you some insight into this style of paining to a small degree.  Scroll down towards the bottom of the page.  Enjoy! 

Next year you will learn that there is no one writing process that works for everyone, and/or for every writing situation.  Instead through trial and error, you will find out what makes this process easier for you, and that's what you will run with when writing essays for just about any class, including this one, and still meet the requirements of the writing assignment.  Granted you might find this explanation a bit simplistic.  Granted some ways are more accessible than others when dealing with particular situations like timed writings, and making sure you have responded to what you've been asked.  However, this article is a good read, so should you be so moved to do so, do read it.  You can find it here: Q & A: The writing process .

It's time to begin thinking about prepping yourself for the beginning weeks in AP English Language and Composition.  So I'm going to begin making suggestions of what I'd like you to complete before school starts in August. In preparation for one of the major types of analysis you will be studying in this course, you must learn to identify the rhetorical situation in what you read.  So, I'm asking you to think deeply about what you have read in Ten Letters: The Stories Americans Tell Their President .    In order to do this, visit Rhetorica .  This web site provides an accessible explanation of what I'm asking you to do.  I suggest that you write down the questions for each of the elements listed, so that you have them readily accessible when analyzing texts in class later in the semester.  Then, address each element listed, answering the questions for each chapter as specifically as you possibly can.  Please include the epilogue in your a...

Because analyzing visuals is a part of AP English Language and Composition, this video called "The Anatomy of a New Yorker Cartoon" might be a starting place for you to begin to see the kinds of things you might want to look at when analyzing cartoons from other sources as well.  It's a little over 20 minutes long.

I may have been in error, inviting all of you to explore Beston's The Outtermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod with me.  Usually when I have read about recommendations for reading from other AP teachers, their choices have been good ones.  This one doesn't seem to be.  I'm afraid that many of you might find the text dry (even I did in parts), filled with descriptions which may or may not interest you.  It appears geared more toward an older, adult audience.  It even reminds me of something Audubon would write about birds, a bit stiff in parts.  But there are some interesting parts.  I read the entire book on my flight back to CA after the AP Reading and visiting afterwards.  I thought of some exercises you might want to try.  In reference to the waves chapter, his description of the sound and voice of waves breaking are quite different from what you'll find in Southern California.  Perhaps you'd like to try taki...