Due on the First Day of School NO EXCEPTIONS!

AP LANG SUMMER READING 2017-2018

Due on the first day of school—NO EXCEPTIONS!

Part I: Introduction to Rhetoric

You will need to create a Rhetorical Terms Handbook, which will not only prepare you for the course, but will serve as your very own reference guide for the rest of the year. You will need a comprehensive DEFINITION for each of the following terms:

Allusion
Analogy
Anaphora
Antithesis
Apostrophe (not the punctuation mark)
Asyndeton
Cliché
Colloquialism
Connotation
Denotation
Epistrophe
Ethos
Euphemism
Hyperbole
Idiom
Imagery
Irony
Juxtaposition
Logos
Metonymy
Oxymoron
Paradox
Parallelism/parallel structure
Parody
Pathos
Polysyndeton
Rhetorical question
Rhetorical triangle
Satire
Synecdoche
Tone
Understatement

After EACH definition, explain—in a complete, well-worded sentence—why a writer might choose to employ the technique in his/her writing. In other words, what effect do you think this device or tool has on a piece of writing?

Handbooks should be typed and organized. Please use Times New Roman, 12 point font.

Using parenthetical documentation please be sure to CITE your sources. Definitions may come from outside sources; purpose statements (part B) must be from YOU.

You are expected to have a basic knowledge of these terms at the beginning of the school year and you can anticipate being quizzed on them throughout the year. These quizzes may be unannounced and will continue throughout the school year.

Part II: The Lost Art of Letter Writing (aka Knowing Your Audience)

DESCRIPTION

“If your audience isn’t listening, it’s not their fault. It’s yours.” –Seth Godin

“The fool tells me his reasons. The wise man persuades me with my own.” --Aristotle

The power of rhetoric rests on the simple belief in the power of audience. “Know your audience” is something you have probably heard, and in AP Lang, you will hear it—in a variety of fashions—an awful lot. We’d like to see how well you already understand this adage, and ask that this summer you compose TWO letters. Both letters should ask the SAME question but to two different audiences, with the hopes of receiving some sort of response.

We will use these letters--not only as writing samples--but also during the first few weeks of class as a way to introduce you to the rhetorical triangle, SOAPStone, and the elements of argument.

Ultimately, they will become your first major writing assignment for Lang and will be sent to their intended recipients.

For examples of provocative, creative, funny letters, please explore:

ASSIGNMENT:

Compose TWOLETTERS—each one to a famous, important or influential personasking him or her a question(questions must be the same—you are simply writing to two different audiences).
You may choose anyone who is:
Alive
influenced you in some fashion and
not related to you.
Your letter must ask a stimulating, thought-provoking question. Questions can be about anything that might elicit a response as long as they are not frivolous or insulting. Remember, this is a chance to engage in a conversation with someone important. If you’re not excited about the person(s) you are writing to then pick someone else or ask a more provocative question. Again, questions should be the same—audiences are different.

REQUIREMENTS:

1 page for each letter
Typed
Double-spaced
12 point font, Times New Roman
Header
Page Numbers
Salutation/Closing

RUBRIC: Student Name: ______Period: ______

SOAPStone (Focus and Purpose): / Weak / Average / Strong
Does your letter ask a stimulating question?
Is your purpose clear?
Is your intended audience appropriate for your purpose?
Logic, Organization, and Format:
Is there a clear beginning, middle, and end?
Does your letter contain appropriate and smooth transitions between sentences and paragraphs?
Aristotelian Appeals (Ethos, Logos, Pathos)
Does your letter use appeals appropriately and effectively?
DIDLS (Style and Detail):
Does your letter contain pertinent and necessary details about specific people, events, and so on?
Are the details relevant to your purpose and audience?
Is the sentence structure purposeful and appropriate?
Is the diction purposeful and appropriate?
Is the overall tone purposeful and appropriate?
Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics:
Contains no more than one minor error in grammar and usage
Contains no more than one error in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation
Following Directions
Has the paper been formatted correctly?
Paper submitted to Turnitin.com and RECEIPT ATTACHED!

Final Grade:

Here are two examples of particularly effective letters (make sure to read the follow-up article and introduction)—keep in mind we do not expect you to write a letter with such effect or gravity—we just wanted you to see that letter writing with a keen understanding of audience can be incredibly powerful. 

First Example

September 4, 1990 President Saddam Hussein c/o Ambassador al-Machat

Dear Mr. President:

I am writing to you to send my student son, Thomas Hart Benton Ewald, home to his family. He was taken, I think, from the SAS Hotel in Kuwait City. I feel I have the obligation to appeal to you for two reasons. First, my family has been a staunch friend to the Arabs. My husband, Tom’s father, was on the White House Staff when President Eisenhower caused the French, British, and Israelis to pull out of Suez. One of the first non-Arab meetings at the Washington Mosque was the one which I, as president of the Radcliffe (Harvard) Club of Washington, arranged to explain Muslim culture. I am also a poet who has written about Arabia. I have sent my youngest, well-loved son to work in an Arab country, hoping he would help bring peace between our cultures. Instead, after two days, he was caught up in war. It seems unjust that I, who have given to you so generously, should have my son taken away from me in return. You have the power to right that wrong. Second, my son is asthmatic, so severely crippled as a child that we thought we could never raise him, He needs medication and a doctor’s care. I beg you, in the name of Allah, let my son go.

Yours truly, Mary Ewald

September 18, 1990, New York Times

CONFRONTATION IN THE GULF; A Mother's Plea to Hussein Frees Her Son By ANDREW L. YARROW

Never underestimate a mother's influence.

That's what Thomas Hart Benton Ewald, a 25-year-old American who was held hostage in Kuwait and Iraq, learned. A direct appeal from his mother to President Saddam Hussein of Iraq won his release this weekend.

Mr. Ewald, who is a distant descendant of both the late Missouri Senator and the painter, arrived in Kuwait two days before the Iraqi invasion to take a one-year job with Al Ahli Bank.

On Saturday he flew from Baghdad to Baltimore, via London, after more then five weeks in hiding in Kuwait City and a period in captivity there and as a ''human shield'' at an Iraqi installation in Baghdad.

Mr. Ewald's release was prompted by a letter from his mother, Mary E. Ewald, from Greenwich, Conn., to the Iraqi President, in which she called her family ''a staunch friend of the Arabs'' and said that her son, an asthmatic, ''needs medication and a doctor's care.''

Eisenhower Speech Writer

Mrs. Ewald said that, after getting little information from the State Department, she and her husband, William - who was a speech writer for President Dwight D. Eisenhower -tried some personal diplomacy.

''I was in despair,'' she said. ''I'd opened the refrigerator, and found all of Tom's asthma medicines he'd left behind, and I thought of him being at that chemical factory with his allergies and no medical support.''

So, on Labor Day weekend, the couple went to the Iraqi Embassy in Washington and asked an official if he would help transmit letters to their son and to Mr. Hussein. ''I said I wanted to get my son out,'' she said. ''And they said they would get the letter to him. They were very friendly.''

''I am a poet who has written about Arabia,'' the letter said, mentioning that William Ewald was on the White House staff during the Suez crisis. ''I have sent my youngest, well-loved son to work in an Arab country hoping he could help peace between our cultures. Instead, after 10 days, he was caught up in war. It seems unjust that I, who have given to you so generously, should have my son taken away from me in return. You have the power to right this wrong.''

'In the Name of Allah'

The letter then noted that her son needs medication and added, ''I beg you to, in the name of Allah, let my son go.''

Barely a week later, Mrs. Ewald, got a call from Khalid Shewayish, the deputy chief of the mission, saying that her son would be released.

Thomas Ewald described his captors as alternately fearful, brutal and solicitous, and said that Kuwaitis were mounting a determined but unorganized opposition.

He said that in the days after the invasion, there was widespread looting and reports that Iraqi soldiers had raped foreign women. But he also said that many troops seemed confused.

''Many Iraqi soldiers I talked to didn't know they were being sent to Kuwait, and three soldiers even asked me to charter a boat to get them out,'' he said. ''When I asked them what would happen if there was a war, they said, 'We'd all die.' ''

Kuwaitis Resisting

Thomas Ewald said that the Kuwaitis were resisting the Iraqis, destroying their cars, killing several dozen soldiers a day and sheltering hundreds of foreigners.

After spending the first 17 days after the invasion Aug. 2 in his bungalow in the S.A.S. Hotel, he went into hiding, sheltered by Kuwaitis. On Aug. 30, he returned to the hotel with a long letter that he hoped a Westerner would be able to take to his parents and the American press.

But he was detained, and found himself in a villa that had been converted into an Iraqi military base. He was interrogated at gunpoint and taken on a 12-hour bus trip to Baghdad.

During his eight days there, he said that he and other foreigners were ''treated very nicely,'' although there were ''morale problems'' among the hostages.

Thomas Ewald said that although he was happy to be home, he was worried about friends still held hostage and said: ''It's a little embarrassing getting out with a letter from my mother. I thought after age 10, letters from your mother didn't help anymore.''

Second Example

In 1934, a New York copywriter by the name ofRobert Piroshquit his well-paid job and headed for Hollywood, determined to begin the career of his dreams as a screenwriter. When he arrived, he gathered the names and addresses of as many directors, producers and studio executives as he could find, and sent them what is surely one of the greatest, most effective cover letters ever to be written; a letter which secured him three interviews, one of which led to his job as a junior writer at MGM.
Fifteen years later, screenwriter Robert Pirosh won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his work on the war film,Battleground. A few months after that, he also won a Golden Globe.
Dear Sir:
I like words. I like fat buttery words, such as ooze, turpitude, glutinous, toady. I like solemn, angular, creaky words, such as straitlaced, cantankerous, pecunious, valedictory. I like spurious, black-is-white words, such as mortician, liquidate, tonsorial, demi-monde. I like suave "V" words, such as Svengali, svelte, bravura, verve. I like crunchy, brittle, crackly words, such as splinter, grapple, jostle, crusty. I like sullen, crabbed, scowling words, such as skulk, glower, scabby, churl. I like Oh-Heavens, my-gracious, land's-sake words, such as tricksy, tucker, genteel, horrid. I like elegant, flowery words, such as estivate, peregrinate, elysium, halcyon. I like wormy, squirmy, mealy words, such as crawl, blubber, squeal, drip. I like sniggly, chuckling words, such as cowlick, gurgle, bubble and burp.
I like the word screenwriter better than copywriter, so I decided to quit my job in a New York advertising agency and try my luck in Hollywood, but before taking the plunge I went to Europe for a year of study, contemplation and horsing around.
I have just returned and I still like words.
May I have a few with you?
Robert Pirosh
385 Madison Avenue
Room 610
New York
Eldorado 5-6024