• STUFF I’VE BEEN READING

    BOOKS READ:

    Heavy:

    • Stuff from the list, or, stuff that should be on the list.

    Light:

    • Stuff I know would not be on the list. Reading I do for fun.

    OTHER STUFF:

    Magazine/ News Articles (Online or in print):

    • New York Times
    • The New Yorker
    • Harpers

    Online:

    • A good blog
    • Interesting web site

    Poetry:

    • Poetry form the internet
    • Poetry from books

    Other encounters with the word:

    • Lectures I attended
    • Poetry readings

    *Please fess up to any items you have read as an assignment for another class, as in:

    • “Disquisition upon the greenness of fresh peas” Le Géant Gai de Gren, Comte de Forêt de Brocolis (Read in Advanced Organic Chemistry)

     

     

    OK, so here’s our monthly assignment. First, please read the copies of Hornby’s column which I have posted on my website and on the assignments folder. Overall, I want these essays to be a record of your engagement with your reading. We will take Hornby’s essays as a loose model for your essays, mostly in tone and narrative style, though hold back on the tangents, please. As such, I want you to avoid the standard book report/literary essay stuff, while including some of the more interesting elements of Hornby’s columns.

     


     

    Stuff to Avoid

    • Book reportese
    • Summaries of texts
    • Discussion of literary elements
    • Critical lens
    • Anything boring
     
     
     
     

    Stuff to Include

    • Your original voice
    • Informal tone
    • I (Yeah—you)
    • Discussion of your reading process
    • Your real opinion
    • Connections between things you have read (not a la critical lens)
    • Narrative of why you chose this  month’s selections
    • Relationship between your reading and your “real” life
    • Discussion of why you ditched a book

     

     

     

     



     


    Hornby is a fun writer, who writes honestly and in an entertaining way. Even though you may take him as a model, keep your writing school appropriate. This is a formal essay with a less formal tone, meaning it is a very well structured essay with a clear purpose (to tell me about your reading), which happens to be written in a conversational style. (Conversational: as in conversation between two reasonably intelligent people who speak English. Not IMese, or Valley girl, or thug-ian, or any other linguistic variant not recognized by the College Board™ or anyone over 40.) 

     

     As this is an assignment which assesses both your writing as well as what you have read, so a major part of your paper should deal with your heavy book of the month. Weaving in a discussion of how some of the other reading stems from, or relates to the main reading would help make it a strong paper, if and when that is appropriate. I want you to read widely and with conviction, which means, at times it will be scattered and random, and other times, it will be focused on something that is on your mind. Both are fine. The main thing is that you read, and write about the entire experience of reading—making choices, reacting to the author, thinking about the act of reading itself, reflecting on what authors have to teach you, even digressing on some random point your reading brings up. Read. Think. Write.

     

    Numbers, etc:

    • 2,000—2,500 words (Hey, you wanted to take AP)
    • Due Dates TBA (Roughly every six weeks)
    • Times New Roman, or Garamond, 12 point font, double spaced
    • Electronic hand-in via email (jrigney@ktufsd.org) or via hand in folder
      (N:\KW\Hand_In_Folder\Rigney\Ap Language\Stuff I've Been Reading October)
    • Late work (not due to illness) accepted Monday following Due Date only: 20 % penalty

     
Last Modified on September 26, 2016