Submittal options for DRAFT #2 of the M-DE.

  1. Submit your paper at class-time on Wed.; 

or 2., by email attachment Wed. night; 

or 3., by 8:35 a.m. on Thursday, before 1^st Pd.

Please continue to bring your paper to class, whether you are handing it in or not.

Don't forget about Friday's vocabulary quiz:  40 words.

Cumulative Syntax in Essays and Stories We've Read in this Fall

"For more than twenty years I've had to live with it, feeling the shame, trying to push it away..." ~ Tim O'Brien, from "On the Rainy River."

"...and the trick was to maneuver the gun with your whole body, not lifting with the arms, just letting the rubber cord do the work for you."  ~  Tim O'Brien, from "On the Rainy River."

"The songs, books, poems, and films that arouse us in war are awkward and embarrassing when the conflict ends, useful only to summon up the nostalgia of war's comradeship."  ~ Chris Hedges, in "From The Destruction of Culture."

"And Tito's state pioneered the replacement of history with myth, forcing schoolchildren to memorize mythical stories about Tito's life and aphorisms."  ~  Chris Hedges, in "From The Destruction of Culture."

                    [I've highlighted the instances of cumulative syntax in italics. ~ PB]

For Monday, Oct. 28

Make Progress on Your Paper.

Also, please remember that we'll have a Grand Vocabulary Quiz this Friday, Nov. 1.

All 40+ Words from the first four Vocabulary lists will be fair game.  Therefore, please review our four lists in the right-hand column of this blog -- going back to Sept. 6 and 18.

And... PLEASE KEEP WRITING.  Your second draft should show significant improvement over your first.  Please check my comments on the two 2013 drafts now on ClassJump as well as the three sample essays from 2012.

For Friday, Oct. 25

Please look at the fresh batch of vocabulary words -- the words for next week, but also the 30+ words we've looked at in the past few weeks.  Our quiz next Friday will involve all 40+ words.

Also, I'll collect Exercises 1 and 2 from LOC this Friday.  If you haven't done these yet, tonight is it.

Homework for Wednesday, Oct. 23

Part I:  To score I-CE #3 -- the Nerds & Geeks essay -- please review the AP Scoring Guidelines, the three student papers on AP Central (2008 - FRQ #2), and the scoring commentary on the three essays.  See also, the WHS 8-essay on Nerds & Geeks from 2012 (on ClassJump, among the General Downloads).

Part II:  Study pp. 999-1004 in LOC.  Write out your responses to Exercises 1 and 2 and bring these to Wednesday's class.

MEA and Monday & Tuesday, Oct. 21 and 22.

I strongly suggest that you use part of the MEA break to work on your multi-draft essay of rhetorical analysis.

** AT 2:40 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 20, there are now three examples -- typed, multi-draft rhetorical analysis papers -- from 2012.  **  (To view these, go to ClassJump for our course and scroll all the way down to 'General Downloads'.)  It's fine if yours is shorter or longer than these when you hand it in this Tuesday -- the examples are simply meant to give you a general idea.

Your goal?  To choose two representative passages and write a coherent, thoughtful and revealing rhetorical analysis of each passage.

It's what we've been doing all along!  The only significant difference is that now you have more time -- time to write in relative seclusion, with no ticking timer-clock.

If you have questions after reading the instructions on ClassJump, please feel free to contact me via email.

Monday, October 21.
Please come to class fully up to speed in "On the Rainy River," by Tim O'Brien (LOC, pp. 961-973).
We will also score and review the Leonid Fridman I-CE essays (on Nerds & Geeks).

Tuesday, October 22.
First Drafts of the Multi-Draft Essay are due.  Please carefully consult the instructions on ClassJump.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday - Oct. 14-15-16

For Monday’s class, bring copies of the two contrasting passages you intend to write about for the Multi-Draft Essay.  Ideally, you’ll type them up and bring them to class in printed form.  Be sure your name is at the top -- I'll ask the Substitute to collect them as part of Monday’s class.

Also on Monday, I’ll ask the Sub to give you an AP Multiple-Choice reader’s quiz.  This will serve as rehearsal for the AP exam, so I’ll count it as a Participation credit, not as a “Right-or-Wrong” score – i.e., please relax and investigate the experience!  Take it with an open mind, and solve the intellectual puzzles as best you can.  We’ll talk about the results on Wednesday, Oct. 16.

On Tuesday, Oct. 15, it’s the next I-CE (#3).  Therefore, please get a good night’s sleep in advance! Review rhetorical analysis tips in Ch. 1 and 2 of The Language of Composition, including those most fundamental of Fundamentals, the Modes of Discourse -- Process Analysis, Compare and Contrast, and all the others.  Many of you would also do well to review the elements of a classical argument or essay -- introduction, examples, counterargument, call-to-action.  Also, it's always wise to  review rhetorical analysis prompts and student responses on A.P. Central.

For Wednesday’s class, Oct. 16, please read Tim O’Brien’s short story “On the Rainy River,” an excerpt from The Things They Carried (1990).  It’s a longer story, so you might do well to begin your reading over the weekend.  (LOC, pp. 961-973.)  Tim O'Brien hails from Worthington, Minnesota.  He was the class valedictorian at Macalester College, in St. Paul, in 1968.  "On the Rainy River" is set in northern Minnesota.  

For Thursday's Class, on Oct. 10: The Great Debate - Life in Canada vs. Life in the U.S.

3rd Period:

The illustrious Team A -- Brian, Justin, Mary, and Cece (the Affirmative side) -- will take on its worthy opponent, Team B -- Gozie, Ben, Ashley, and Abdi (the Negative side) -- in a refereed debate on the following proposition:

     AFFIRMED that, given the laws & policies of Canada in 2013, and those of the U.S. in 2013,
     Canadians stand to enjoy a higher and more satisfying quality of life than Americans do.

Team A (the Affirmatives) will argue to uphold the proposition; Team B (the Negatives) will argue against the proposition.

A panel of student judges will score the debate, determining a winner based on a 100-point scoring system; further, a small panel of student referees will join Mr. Bratnober in maintaining a level playing field for civil discourse.

See the right-hand column of this blog for Thursday's scoring system (subject to amendment in future debates if it doesn't work out!) and Thursday's debate structure & ground-rules (similarly subject to amendment in future debates).

Professional debater Dan Barker has claimed that "the real winner" of a formal debate "is the audience" (http://bobsiegel.net/news_debates_danbarker.shtml).

The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail

Read up to, and including, paragraph 35 (i.e., up to the break on p. 952).

For Tuesday, October 8

Please review paragraphs 1-16; then read paragraphs 17-27, on pages 946-950.  (Read up to the break on page 950.)  Also, please note that we have fresh vocabulary words, so you'd do well to begin your preparation for Friday's quiz.

For Monday, Oct. 7

Welcome to the new format!

For Monday's class, please be fully prepared in paragraphs 1-16 of Thoreau's essay "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience."  The essay is published in many places online, so this should be easy to find and read whether you left your LOC book at school or not.  In your reading notes, jot down key ideas, new vocabulary, and, not least of all, HDT's clever rhetorical strategies that jump out as you read.  We understand his purpose now, do we not?  (I.e., to explain his own civil disobedience in the face of the Mexican-American War.)  So... How and when does Thoreau invoke rhetorical strategies to reinforce this or other purposes in the essay?