**ATTENTION AP LANGUAGE SPRING SEMESTER '19: ASSIGNMENT DUE DATE/INSTRUCTIONS and EXTRA CREDIT OPTION**

AP LANGUAGE CHRISTMAS BREAK

**
ASSIGNMENT DUE:

• For EXTRA CREDIT by 11:59 Thurs. 1/3 

• OR: THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS FRI. JANUARY 4th (NO extra credit)! 

1) Thoroughly read O'Brien's fictional Vietnam account, The Things They Carried (TTTC)

2) By 11:59 pm, THURSDAY, JANUARY 3rd, those of you who email me via WORD.DOC or share via GOOGLE DOCS/Drive your THREE (3) EXTENDED PARAGRAPHS will receive an EXTRA CREDIT 100% to begin the class! YAY!!!

3) ***Please use the TTTC ASSIGNMENT SHEET with information/instructions you were given in May/this past month RE: the assignment requirements, general MLA style, formatting reminders, etc. (***copied below)

***AS USUAL, BE PROACTIVE AND DO YOUR BEST WORK...BUT, DON'T WORRY: 

We'll spend the first week of class revising your responses, learning the 'basics' and 
adding to your understanding of RHETORICAL ANALYSIS 

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PRE-COURSE Reading Response WRITING

AP Language and Composition

The Things They Carried, O’Brien

Your commitment to AP Language and Literature sets you apart from your peers; it acknowledges you as one who welcomes an academic challenge.  I applaud your decision and look forward to a productive year.

I’ve included here your summer reading and writing assignment: to begin our class, we will study O’Brien’s fictional (yet all-too-real) text exploring the realities that coincide with war and our perhaps misguided perceptions of the battlefield; read The Things They Carried with the following concepts in mind:

• take into account the author’s audience, purpose, and context
• recognize strategies and tactics employed to broaden the civilian understanding of the atrocities of war
• understand the myriad of ethical dilemmas associated with war and the

different perceptions of TRUTH and reality that arise within the text

**PRE-COURSE Reading THREE EXTENDED ¶ RHETORICAL ANALYSIS RESPONSES

After reading, choose THREE (3) chapters from the text that strike you as significant and  complete a TYPED reading analysis response on EACH ONE (MLA heading/“text” citations (#), double-spaced, ONE extended ¶/8-12 sentences).**  As we discuss this summer writing the first week of class, these preliminary responses will become the basis for revision and more advanced, AP Language-driven assignments. NOTE: This assignment is NOT to be mistaken as a forum to rant about your personal opinions/responses to the text!  Stay within the realm of rhetorical analysis; we will have other personal response assignments this semester to serve as 1^st person, argumentative writings.

AP Language serves to broaden students’ understanding and use of rhetoric in writing; or, simply put, the art of speaking or writing effectively.  According to Aristotle, rhetoric is "the ability, in each particular case, to see the available means of persuasion." While writing your journals, consider the following helpful concepts and strategies to guide you through rhetorical/close reading analysis of the text:

·       HOW authors create meaning in the text

·       techniques in the text that help achieve rhetorical appeal

·       appeals to the three main forms of rhetoric; ethos, pathos, logos;  for a basic primer on these, go to:  
The OWL: Understanding Rhetoric
The OWL: Aristotle's Rhetorical Situation (Ethos/Pathos/Logos) 

·       SOAPSTone/DIDLS Close Reading Strategies

·       identifying rhetorical terms, schemes, tropes as appropriate for the text

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SAMPLE EXTENDED PARAGRAPH *DRAFT* WITH PROPER MLA STYLE

LAST NAME 

Your Name

Krieger

AP Language

5 January 20--

TTTC: “Night Life” DRAFT

            The statement ‘War Is Hell’ emerged as a popular saying during the middle of the twentieth century.  Likewise, the Vietnam War became the natural backdrop for continued national division; citizens were against one another over U.S. involvement in other nations’ affairs.  Everyone from conscientious objectors to soldiers who had seen combat had a say in what constituted the ‘true war experience.’  Tim O’ Brien’s stories in The Things They Carried illustrate the ideas of the hellish realities of war and the bitter impressions left upon those who fight.  Clearly playing to the pathos of the audience, O’Brien’s descriptions of the Vietnam War shock readers, especially through his frequent use of disturbing figurative language to convince an audience how war can transform anyone into the enemy.  In “Night Life,” O’Brien, as the narrator, has received a wound at the hand of a platoon mate, Jorgenson.  As a result, O’Brien cannot fight; he feels a sense of alienation from those he has grown to know in combat, and plays a prank on Jorgenson which causes him to “swell with immense power” (  ).  O’Brien imagines, “I [he] was the land itself…the cool phosphorescent shimmer of evil—I was atrocity—I was jungle fire, jungle drums…I was the beast on their lips—I was Nam—the horror, the war” (  ).  Here, O’Brien morphs into the enemy, and it terrifies him.  As rhetorical elements, these descriptions convince the audience that there are no clear battle lines.  Overall, O’Brien’s realization of his own capacity for cruelty to his own platoon mates ultimately causes him to experience a mental breakdown. 

Work Cited

O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. Mariner, 2009.