AP English Language and Composition

Ms. Stevenson

Author Paper Guidelines 2014-15

For this assignment, each student will choose an author to read and research from the supplied list. A student must read at least three books by the author of his or her choice. Reading more works by that writer is better because it will give you a more authoritative and knowledgeable perspective in your essay. If possible, choose works from different stages in a writer’s career so that you have the opportunity to see growth and development in that writer’s work. In addition, when available, you should also read shorter works of fiction by your author; they often give useful insight into an author’s style and concerns. The essay must refer to all of the major works you read and some of the minor works. You may refer to other texts by the author as well if your analysis requires it.

The essay will be an analysis of the author’s fiction as a whole. The student may consider such issues as theme, setting, imagery, setting, character development, etc.

Sample topic suggestions:

Weak – Aspects of Steinbeck’s fiction

Better – Biblical reiteration in Steinbeck’s fiction

Best – The role of allusions to female characters from the Bible in Steinbeck’s fiction

In addition, I would strongly encourage students to read works of criticism about the author and texts they have chosen. I would also encourage students to use this criticism to inform and inspire your own analysis of the fiction your author has written. Feel free to extend the criticism you find, or even to disagree with the criticism. Be aware that there is a mountain of criticism available through the DLS library databases. There is also a wealth of criticism available in analog form (i.e. books) in the library; often these sources are better than the digital resources you may find because the editors of these collections have culled the best criticism from what has been written about these writers. We will spend time in the library looking for criticism and reviewing it during the second semester.

Students will engage in the same peer editing and student/teacher conferencing as they do for other essays. The Author Research Paper must be between 1500-2250 words. Essays must also follow MLA format.

Students must write the essay on the works of one of the following writers. This list is based on a variety of factors, including literary merit, and availability of quizzes in Accelerated Reader. The reading you do for the Author Research Paper will count toward your Outside Reading Requirement for the year. You will need to complete 14 points worth of AR quizzes per quarter to earn full credit. You can earn credit for short works as well by each of the authors, but those will be scored by a different system we will discuss in class.

Author choices:

Saul Bellow

Willa Cather

William Faulkner

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Henry James

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Ernest Hemingway

Sinclair Lewis

Toni Morrison

John Steinbeck

Mark Twain

Charles Dickens

Jane Austen

Salman Rushdie

George Eliot

Thomas Hardy

Virginia Woolf

Joseph Conrad

Fyodor Dostoevksy

Kazuo Ishiguro

Note: Due to the length and complexity of this assignment, it will take longer than two weeks to return all the essays.