Advanced Placement English Language and Composition 1
Instructor: Michael Thornton, DSA, Room B202
September 8, 2010
Representative Authors Assignment
Research:
For the following list of authors, each student will be required to research four writers, usually within a single category. For the research, find essays, writings, journal entries, opinion pieces, or criticism by your assigned authors. Collect from various sources – the Internet, the library, books of essays that the instructor might have on hand – at least one article from each author.
Focus on nonfiction writings, and try to find representative examples. You will no doubt peruse many writings by these authors in an attempt to find an example that will be helpful to share with the class. Most books of essays will excerpt the more important sections of an author’s major works. Try to keep the articles or excerpts that you choose to a modest length – one or two pages. You cannot use any articles anthologized in 50 Essays or Everything’s an Argument.
When you choose your authors from the list, try to include at least one from the 18th or 19th centuries. It will benefit you to become familiar with language that is somewhat antiquated. (Check the last page of this assignment to find pre-20th century authors.)
Presentation:
After collecting these writings, make a minimum of two copies: one to turn into the instructor and one to use as reference for a presentation to the class. (You will also need a class set of copies of one of your authors to distribute to students for your presentation.) Students will work with other students who are covering writers in the same category. In the group presentation, each student will focus on one of their writers and instruct the class as to what makes this particular writer a diarist, a historian, a journalist, or a science writer – whatever category was chosen. Quote from your article to support your analysis. Develop guidelines for identifying the genre of writing, based on your research.
Each student should distribute to other members of the class at least one copy of one author’s writing which illustrates the stylistic tenets of the category (count on 24 copies). This copy should be annotated, with parts of the piece underlined or explained in the margins, to illustrate why you consider this writer as representative of the category to which they been assigned. Students may make reference to the other writers that they researched, but should focus on one author for the presentation.
Copies of your selected articles and the group presentation are tentatively due during the week that the syllabus lists for our focus on your assigned group of writers. Groups must ask the instructor for time in advance to organize their presentation. One hour per group will be set aside for members to prepare in the week prior to their scheduled presentation.
REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS LIST
Autobiographers and Diarists (September 13-16)
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 Wright, Anzia Yezierska
Biographers and History Writers (September 13-16)
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 (September 21-24)
Paula Gunn Allen, 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 (September 27-October 1)
Joseph Addison, James Agee, Margaret Atwood, Francis Bacon, James Baldwin, G. K. Chesterton, 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, 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, Richard Steele, Shelby Steele, John Updike, Alice Walker, Eudora Welty, Terry Tempest Williams
Journalists (October 4-8)
Roger Angell, Maureen Dowd, Elizabeth Drew, Nora Ephron, M. F. K. Fisher, Frances Fitzgerald, Janet Flanner (Genet), Ellen Goodman, David Halberstam, Andy Logan, John McPhee, H. L. Mencken, Jan Morris, David Remnick, Red Smith, Lincoln Steffens, Paul Theroux, Calvin Trillin, Tom Wolfe
Political Writers (October 11-15)
Hannah Arendt, Simone de Beauvoir, William F. Buckley, Jean de Crèvecoeur, W. E. B. DuBois, Margaret Fuller, John Kenneth Galbraith, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Thomas Hobbes, Thomas Jefferson, George Kennan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Lewis H. Lapham, John Locke, 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 (October 18-22)
Edward Abbey, Wendell Berry, Jacob Bronowski, Rachel Carson, Charles Darwin, Gretel Ehrlich, Loren Eiseley, Stephen Jay Gould, Evelyn Fox Keller, Barry Lopez, Peter Matthiessen, Margaret Mead, John Muir, David Quammen, Carl Sagan, Lewis Thomas, Jonathan Weiner
Pre-20th Century
Joseph Addison, Matthew Arnold, Francis Bacon, James Boswell, Thomas Carlyle,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Jean de Cre`vecoeur, Charles Darwin, Thomas De Quincey,
Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Benjamin Franklin, Margaret Fuller,
Edward Gibbon, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, William Hazlitt, Thomas Hobbes, Harriet
Jacobs (Linda Brent), Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Johnson, Charles Lamb, John Locke,
Thomas Macaulay, Niccolo` Machiavelli, John Stuart Mill, John Milton, Michel de
Montaigne, Thomas More, Thomas Paine, Francis Parkman, Walter Pater, Samuel
Pepys, John Ruskin, George Bernard Shaw, Richard Steele, Jonathan Swift, Henry
David Thoreau, Alexis de Tocqueville, Oscar Wilde, Mary Wollstonecraft
20th Century to the Present
Edward Abbey, Diane Ackerman, James Agee, Paula Gunn Allen, Roger Angell,
Natalie Angier, Gloria AnzalduÅLa, Hannah Arendt, Michael Arlen, Margaret Atwood,
James Baldwin, Dave Barry, Melba Patillo Beals, Simone de Beauvoir, Lerone
Bennett Jr., Wendell Berry, Sven Birkerts, Susan Bordo, Jacob Bronowski, David
Brooks, William F. Buckley, Judith Butler, Rachel Carson, G. K. Chesterton, Winston
Churchill, Kenneth Clark, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Jill Ker Conway, Arlene Croce, Richard
Dawkins, Vine Deloria Jr., Daniel Dennett, Jared Diamond, Joan Didion, Annie
Dillard, Maureen Dowd, Elizabeth Drew, W. E. B. Du Bois, Leon Edel, Gretel
Ehrlich, Loren Eiseley, Richard Ellmann, Nora Ephron, Niall Ferguson, Timothy
Ferris, M. F. K. Fisher, Frances Fitzgerald, Janet Flanner (Gene^t), Tim Flannery,
Shelby Foote, Richard Fortey, John Hope Franklin, Antonia Fraser, Thomas L.
Friedman, Paul Fussell, John Kenneth Galbraith, Mavis Gallant, Henry Louis Gates Jr.,
Atul Gawande, Ellen Goodman, Nadine Gordimer, Stephen Jay Gould, Stephanie
Elizondo Griest, David Halberstam, Elizabeth Hardwick, Elva Trevino Hart, Chris
Hedges, John Hersey, Christopher Hitchens, Edward Hoagland, Richard Holmes,
bell hooks, Zora Neale Hurston, Pauline Kael, Evelyn Fox Keller, Helen Keller,
George Kennan, Jamaica Kincaid, Martin Luther King Jr., Barbara Kingsolver,