AP LIT Book talk

AP Literature Book Talk Rubric Component Points Possible My Points and notes Body Language- good posture, use of gesture and eye contact to connect with audience. Points deducted for fidgeting, slouching, staring at cards, 15 Voice-speaks at an even rate of speed, at a volume which is loud enough for everyone to hear, uses inflection to make language sound natural. Speaks fluidly as if speech is memorized 15 Visual Aid- either a poster or a powerpoint which supports the content of your speech and engages the audience 15 Content- Follows the model. Contains information about the author, the historical context of the text, its impact, the plot of the book, an analysis of its style and summaries of literary critics opinions of the work 40 Preparedness- Speech runs 3-5 minutes, is written on notebook cards, sounds and looks as if it has been rehearsed. Good Morning. My Name is Erika Eckart and I’m here to discuss the book The Handmaid’s Tale by Margeret Atwood. To begin, let’s discuss the author, Margaret Atwood. Born in 1939 in Ottawa, Canada. She attended Harvard and Radcliffe after first self publishing a book of poems in 1961. The beginning of her career coincided with the protest era of the 60’s which greatly influenced the content of her work. Many of her texts are identified as feminist works. For example in her book Life before Man a woman returns to an animal state to escape the expectations of patriarchy. One of my favorite poems plays on the traditional themes of love poems in saying: “You fit me, like a hook into an eye/a fish hook/an open eye.” This demonstrates her combative attacks on the traditional expectations of passive female writers. The handmaid’s tale is no exception. Published in 1985, it received several science fiction awards, which offended Margaret Atwood who instead considers the novel speculative fiction. She distinguishes the two by saying that speculative fiction describes works that contain things already possible, whereas science fiction has as its subject things which are not yet possible. The format of the book is a diary found 100 years after a dystopian society has collapsed. The story is told from the point of view of Offred, a handmaid or concubine. After the collapse of society and the takeover by a Christian dictatorship women are stripped of all rights. The revolution that created the new republic of Gilead was in part a response to environmental degradation that caused a drop in birthrates. Offred is captured taken from her family and forced to live as a sexual servant for the commander in hopes that she can reproduce. The story describes her struggle to live in the role and what life is like in this dystopian universe. It ends ambiguously; we do not know if she has escaped or been captured. Critics have compared the text to other dystopian texts from earlier in the 20th century, 1984 and Brave New World. While many talk about its position in the feminist canon, Atwood resists this classification, saying that she is not deliberately producing feminist work. It also viewed as a criticism of racism and Christian fundamentalist movements. Thank you so much for your time today. I hope that I have tempted you to read The Handmaid’s Tale.

More sources for Fat City Essay

The True cost of obesity: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47211549/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/t/study-obesity-adds-billion-health-costs/ Farm Subsidies and their impact on price and diet: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/dont-end-agricultural-subsidies-fix-them/ What are farm subsidies: "An agricultural subsidy is a governmental subsidy paid to farmers and agribusinesses to supplement their income, manage the supply of agricultural commodities, and influence the cost and supply of such commodities. Examples of such commodities include wheat, feed grains (grain used as fodder, such as maize or corn, sorghum, barley, and oats), cotton, milk, rice, peanuts, sugar, tobacco, and oilseeds such as soybeans." (Wikipedia)

AP Lang Fat City Essay

AP Language and Composition Multi-draft Argument Essay Rough draft due Oct 23, 2012, Final Draft due Oct 26, 2012 Compose a 500-750 word argument essay on the following topic. Your rough draft can be hand written or word processed and must be in class for Peer editing on Oct 23rd and your final draft is due on Friday Oct 26th. Your final draft must be word processed using MLA style for formatting and citation and submitted in printed form or by email. Yyou will be judged on grammar formatting, use of the drafting process, but mostly on the quality of your argument. This means how well you employ ethos, pathos and logos; how well you develop and organize your ideas; how well you use relevant, compelling, specific evidence to support your claims Fat City As a nation we are in a self-created health crisis. More of the country is obese than ever, and the projections are bleak. Diseases caused by obesity and poor diet are on the rise, such as type II diabetes, heart disease, hypertension. Obesity can even increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and Stroke. All told this is costing our society a fortune, because many of these health care costs associated with these illnesses are being picked up by Medicaid, Medicare, or in the case of those who can’t pay their bills, they are being absorbed by hospitals and increasing people’s insurance rates. Disturbingly, in a society where people are supposed to have an equal shot at The American Dream, Obesity and its consequences disproportionately impact poor communities and communities of color. As you will see in the attached sources, people have developed many solutions to this problem. Some suggest we need to fix food desserts, some want to tax foods which are bad for you like we do cigarettes and alcohol, some contend food stamps should only be redeemable for healthy foods, some want to promote healthy eating through education and exposure. Some even want to hold people responsible for their weight through health monitoring programs. What is the solution and why is that the appropriate solution? How will it help us s a nation to control our healthcare costs and give everyone a fair shot at the American Dream? Websites to use • CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/index.html • (you can navigate from this main page and find lots of data) • Let’s Move campaign: http://www.letsmove.gov/ • Article about taxing junk food: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/opinion/sunday/24bittman.html?pagewanted=all • Article about food desserts http://www.marigallagher.com/site_media/dynamic/project_files/Chicago_Food_Desert_Report.pdf • Article about not allowing junk food to be purchased with food stamps: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-06-20/news/ct-nw-food-stamp-spending-20120620_1_food-stamp-junk-food-supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program

AP Language rhetorical terms

Here's a link to a glossary of terms to study for the test: http://www.cvsd.org/university/classes/eng/alentz/documents/rhetorical%20vocab..pdf

Full text of Professions for Women by Virginia Woolf

find it here

http://www.sfu.ca/~scheel/english338/Professions.htm

Where to go to make your own blog!

https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount?hl=en&continue=http://www.blogger.com/create-blog.g&service=blogger&naui=8



Visit here to begin the blog making process.

How to cite sources

Here's the best source for MLA style internet.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

Another Source for CHA drug testing

CHA plan for required drug testing of residents called ‘a slap in the face’ Taken from Chicago Sun Times on November 27, 2011

BY MAUDLYNE IHEJIRIKA
Staff Reporter/mihejirika@suntimes.com
Last Modified: Jul 3, 2011 01:39PM

The Chicago Housing Authority wants to require all adults who currently live in, or apply in the future for housing in any of its developments, to be tested for drugs — including senior citizens.
The blanket policy proposal for anyone 18 years or older has residents and housing advocates crying foul.
The American Civil Liberties Union charges the public agency seeks to place a double standard on the poor.
“It’s such an insensitive proposal to even bring to the table,” said Myra King, a resident of the Far South Side Lowden Homes development. She chairs the Central Advisory Council of tenant leaders from CHA properties all across the city.
“Singling us out for this type of humiliation is a slap in the face of what this whole ‘Plan for Transformation’ supposedly is about,” King said. “CHA says they’re doing this plan to make us privvy to the same standards as any other citizen in any other community. If that’s true, why are we the only citizens to be drug tested?”
The measure is among several changes to the lease and CHA’s Admissions and Continued Occupancy Policy proposed by CEO Lewis Jordan. Under the policy, a positive drug test would subject leaseholders to eviction proceedings.
Agency officials argue they need more tools to fight crime, particularly the drug scourge, in CHA developments.
Also controversial is a proposed elimination of the so-called “innocent tenant defense,” referring to evictions initiated when a drug-related or violent crime has been committed by a relative or guest of the leaseholding tenant — but the tenant was not involved nor had knowledge of the crime. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled housing authorities may evict under such “innocent tenant” circumstances, so CHA would be within its rights. But former CHA chief Terry Peterson had negotiated an agreement with tenants that had continued to allow the defense if it could be proved in court.
Jordan, who took over the agency in 2008, declined to be interviewed on the proposals.
Spokeswoman Kellie O’Connell-Miller pointed out several CHA mixed-income properties currently require drug testing.
“These are policies to help strengthen and improve the safety of our public housing communities,” O’Connell-Miller said.
“We’re constantly hearing from law-abiding residents that they want us to hold the non-law abiding residents more accountable. We’re trying to tighten up our lease with some of these issues. Drug dealers won’t come where there are no buyers. If you remove the folks who are interested in drugs, hopefully it will remove some of the problems,” she said.
The policy would apply to 16,000 families living in family and senior public housing. The agency has not yet explored the cost associated with the proposal, O’Connell-Miller said.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development here said as federal policy prohibits drug users from public housing property, authorities nationwide are free to enforce that rule as they see fit. HUD does not track such enforcement, so it could not say if any other housing authorities had such a blanket policy, nor could CHA.
“The ACLU opposes drug testing in the absence of suspicion as a condition of residency in public housing,” said senior lawyer Adam Schwartz.
“From our perspective, drug testing without suspicion is humiliating. It’s stigmatizing. There’s a double standard here,” he said. “All across our city and our country, when most of us who are in whatever income bracket rent housing, we don’t have to take a drug test. This is an emerging one standard for poor people and another standard for everyone else.”
However, a 1999 ACLU case filed against the state of Michigan may not bode well for such a proposal, Schwartz noted.
In Marchwinski vs Howard, the head of that state’s Department of Public Aid mandated blanket drug testing for a sub-population of public aid recipients. The ACLU won an injunction that was later upheld by an appellate court.
The proposed changes, unveiled May 17, are open to public comment through June 16. A public hearing on the changes is scheduled to be held at 6 p.m. June 2nd, at the Charles A. Hayes Center, 4455 S. King Drive. If adopted, the proposal then has to go before the CHA Board and chairman Jim Reynolds for approval, then HUD.

Junior English Project

Junior English Research Paper
Requirements: • A minimum of three pages typed using MLA format for in text citations.
• Works Cited Page following MLA standards
• A clear intro, discrete body paragraphs which center on one topic each, and conclusion
• Uses transition words to create an orderly flow
• A counterargument
• Grammatically sound
• Take a position on the issue and use evidence to support that opinion


The leadership at the Chicago Housing Authority has suggested mandatory drug testing for all residents over 18. A positive test result would result in mandatory drug counseling and evictions. Read the sources and then synthesize at least 3 sources to evaluate the consequences of drug testing CHA residents.
Or
Not Interested? Think about an issue that does interest you and develop a research question of your own and synthesize at least 3 sources to answer the question. Your research question must be approved by your teacher and you must follow the validity guidelines for gathering sources. Extra Credit will be given for students who use the CPS database to gather their sources.

CHA drug tests?
June 03, 2011—accessed from the Chicago Tribune website November 28, 2011
This is an editorial, authored by the editorial board of the paper

The Chicago Housing Authority is in the midst of a transformation that has rescued its residents from high-rise hells and allowed them to live with more safety and dignity in mixed-income, low-rise apartments. The demolition of Cabrini-Green, once the symbol of everything wrong with public housing, has just been completed.
The CHA has a new and controversial proposal that is intended to promote the safety and dignity of its residents: mandatory drug tests for all adults who apply for a CHA lease or renew a lease. If a tenant tests positive for drugs, he or she will be steered into city-funded drug treatment. If a tenant refuses treatment, he or she can be evicted.
This gives us pause, because broad drug testing that's not triggered by evidence of abuse does infringe on privacy. Chicago would be the first city to require drug testing for all public housing residents. The CHA currently tests residents in nearly half of the 45 mixed-income developments that blend public housing residents with people who pay market rates to buy or rent.
The proposal has gotten mixed reviews from public housing residents. Minnie Jefferson, who lives in a CHA senior building, is all for getting drugs out of her neighborhood. She had to kick out two younger relatives over their drug use, she said.
But she doesn't like this idea. "If someone can give me a logical reason why drug testing will reduce crime, I can live with that answer. I still haven't heard one," she told us.
Others, though, welcome the proposal as a way to weed out drug-abusing neighbors who bring down the quality of life in a community.
We think the CHA should try this for a year. Let's see if it meets three tests: Is it cost-effective, does it make public housing safer and does it improve the quality of life in communities where CHA has a presence.
If it does not meet those three standards, the CHA should scrap it after a year.
The agency's proposal still is not fully formed. Officials could not say how much the testing and treatment would cost. The CHA needs to fill in those blanks while it takes public comments, through June 16.
The agency will learn from experience if drug users are deterred by the threat of eviction or if they can easily evade detection from a scheduled test. In CHA's current, limited testing, only 1 of 51 residents who tested positive was evicted. Others submitted to treatment.
Public housing is at a crossroads. The ongoing transformation is giving people a better chance to live in developments that are not overwhelmed by gang rivalries and drug dealers, as the high-rises often were.
CHA officials do not want to fritter away this opportunity to build vibrant communities, so they have come up with this unconventional idea. CEO Lewis Jordan says the agency is undertaking this initiative not as a punitive hammer but to promote healthy citizens and healthy communities. The treatment component is key; it gives residents a chance to get off drugs. That is good for them and for their neighbors.
"For the sake of peace and tranquility, they want us to do something," Jordan told us.
Let's give it a try.

________________________________________
Editorial: Silent majority back drug testing by CHA
Accessed from the Chicago Sun Times on November 28th, 2011
Editorials
Last Modified: Jul 7, 2011 01:58PM

The Chicago Housing Authority has floated the idea of making drug testing a condition of occupancy for all adults living in public housing.
Drug testing to get in. Drug testing to stay in.
On this thorny issue, which raises the hackles of civil libertarians and public housing advocates, we are siding with what we believe is the silent majority of CHA residents.
We think they want drug testing.
Not to punish poor people for living in public housing. And not to stigmatize anyone, though we appreciate that is a real risk.
We’re tentatively backing drug testing because it can potentially make newly revamped CHA developments safer and set a tone that illegal activity is simply not tolerated.
Because God knows that wasn’t the case with the old public housing projects. Over the last decade, the CHA has torn down its projects, displaced thousands of residents and begun to rebuild. The last thing it wants is to recreate the high-rise ghettos it once had.
Mandatory drug testing could be one small part of a larger effort to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Top officials at the CHA tell us the drug-testing idea grew out of conversations with residents yearning for a safer environment. Most public housing families, it goes without saying, can’t afford to live elsewhere. They can’t move if their next-door neighbor is abusing drugs. Instead, they want the CHA to do everything it can to prevent that from happening.
CHA chief Lewis Jordan insists this isn’t about finding new ways to throw tenants out. Already, the CHA does drug tests at a handful of mixed-income communities and, over the last decade, there has been just one eviction — a market-rate tenant, not a CHA renter. Some CHA adults tested positive, but the CHA offered them drug treatment and no one was evicted, the CHA says.
That is encouraging, though it doesn’t necessarily reflect what might happen if the CHA started testing tens of thousands of adults at all its developments.
Before the CHA moves forward with this proposal — which apparently would make it the first large public housing authority in the country to require drug testing — many issues still must be resolved:
† Safety: Is there any research to prove that drug testing will make developments safer or are other strategies more effective?
† Costs: How much would drug testing cost? Would those costs be worth the benefits?
† Treatment before eviction: Any new policy must spell out that residents who test positive would be offered treatment as a first step before any talk of eviction.
† The leftovers: The drug-testing rule would inevitably prompt some residents to leave public housing, with many using subsidized vouchers to rent elsewhere. How will CHA make sure parts of the South Side and West Side that already house a disproportionate share of former CHA residents are not further overrun?
In addition to drug testing, the CHA also wants to eliminate the “innocent tenant defense” in eviction cases. This allows residents facing eviction because a family member or guest is arrested for a drug or violent offense to avoid eviction by arguing in court that they were unaware of the illegal activity. The CHA says residents can still try to persuade the CHA before going to court, thus potentially avoiding conviction. But the CHA says eliminating the defense in court could speed up an eviction where it’s warranted. We’re not convinced. The CHA should continue to give poor residents facing eviction every legal remedy available.
The CHA is wisely taking it slow with both proposals. There is a 30-day public comment period, with a possible vote in July.
Chicago Housing Authority passes annual budget
By Natalie Moore | Dec. 21, 2010—Accessed from WBEZ website November 28th, 2011-
The Chicago Housing Authority board of commissioners passed a $917 million budget on Tuesday as the agency continues to revamp its properties.
In its 12th year, the Plan for Transformation has created mixed-income developments and rehabbed existing family apartments. CHA officials say 85 percent of the Plan will be completed under this 2011 budget.

“The overall budget is generally stable,” said CHA Chief Financial Officer Elias Rosario. The budget is slightly lower than last year because federal stimulus dollars will be used up. Most of CHA’s overall budget comes from federal funds.

The agency has set out to deliver 25,000 units by 2015. It will expand its portfolio by buying acquiring 60 foreclosed properties with three or more bedrooms.

“We’re going out and finding foreclosed properties throughout the city and we’re trying to bring those back to handle some of the needs of larger families,” Rosario said.

In addition, CHA will make 646 rentals via vouchers available through assistance programs.

And this source:

http://www.aclu-il.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ACLU-IL-comment-re-proposed-FY11-ACOP-6-3-11.pdf

Apostrophe Practice and English Geek Humor

First, check out this hilarious website.

Then, this is a super challenging Apostrophe Quiz. Please try it and see how you do!

Today's Woolf Analysys Notes

First here's the link to a copy of Woolf's essay: http://s.spachman.tripod.com/Woolf/professions.htm
Now here's today's notes

AP Language—December 2nd
Bellringer—Please respond on your own paper in several sentences. Include a proper heading.
Why is the Virginia Woolf essay giving you trouble? What, to you, does “Analysis” mean?
Here are some anonymous examples of what not to do:

What’s wrong here??
Through out the speech Woolf speaks of a metaphorical Angel, which illustrates her inner thoughts. She says “the shadow of her wings fell on my page” – which means the angel impaired her ability to write. The angel symbolizes what a woman should be: pure sympathetic, and mindless. These are not good qualities for a critical writer to possess.

How about here??

Woolf’s tone in the “Professions for Women” speech was both humorous and serious. Her humorous tone is demonstrated when she says “all I have to do with my money is buy persian cats .” Then Woolf becomes serious when the Angel in the house whispers in her ear “flatter, deceive, use all the arts of your sex”—essentially lie. Woolf becomes even more serious when she tells us she “caught her by the throat” and killed her. By beginning with a light and humorous tone and transitioning to a serious tone Woolf emphasizes the poignancy of her Angel and its necessary murder.

Outline (AGAIN)
Intro-1 paragraph only
Body paragraphs—each relating to your intro
Conclusion- repeats ideas throughout

Writing Out loud.
How to construct a literary analysis paragraph… (Yes, write this down)
• Start with a topic sentence
• Keep everything in the paragraph relevant to the topic sentence
• Integrate your Quotes
• Every paragraph should be unique
• Paragraphs should build on one another
Do Not
• Flatter
• Blabber
• “Plop” quotes

AND, another thing
• Do not use MY writing verbatim-I’m giving you examples to help you create your writing. You are mistaken if you think I will accept this as “your work”—other than the fill-in-the-blank thesis your writing should be your own

Let’s Practice Together

Topic Sentence.
In “Professions for Women” Woolf depicts a metaphorical “angel” who early in her career threatened her ability to succeed as a writer.
Elaborate—Integrate quotes if you can
The Angel “whispers in her ear” and coaxes her to “flatter, deceive,” in essence lie when she attempts to review a novel written by a man.
Continue to elaborate—try to answer the questions how and why.
Woolf realizes she cannot become a successful writer without killing the angel. She claims to have murdered her out of self-defense—“If I hadn’t have killed her she would have ripped the heart out of my writing.” Woolf uses a sardonic tone to capture her young, admiring audience when she describes grabbing her “by the throat” and killing off the angel.
Start a new paragraph that connects to the previous one
The angel Woolf refers to is for her purposes in this speech an embodiment of the definition of femininity at the dawn of the 20th century. The angel “was intesnesly sympathetic. . . charming. . . unselfish. . . above all she was pure.” The angel was in fact an allusion to a poem by Coventry Patmore her audience would have been familiar with.
Here are some anonymous examples of what not to do:
What’s wrong here??
Through out the speech Woolf speaks of an Angel, which resembled her inner thoughts. The angel was used as a metaphor in her speech. Quoting “the shadow of her wings fell on my page.” The angel was to symbolize what a woman should be. Also, that the angel was to be purity and gracefulness.

How about here??

Woolf’s tone in the “Professions for Womemn” speech was all different tones. There were two of which humorous and serious. Her tone of humorous “all I have to do with my money is buy persiam cats.” Then Woolf turns around and becomes serious when the Angel in the house tried to whisper in her ear. The tone of the speech set the speech off in a whole different way.

Your Task.
Working with a partner or alone try to create one solid analysis paragraph, or edit one of your paragraphs based on this lesson.

Finals preview

Hey AP darlings,

Here's the link to AP central, where you can read all the questions and sample essays with comments. Our final will be question 1 from the 2009 exam. Happy reading!

Works Cited Page Example

Click on this link to see what a proper MLA works cited page looks like

Research Link

Hello, AP Students and happy last day before break. Today's class will be spent reading research, making notecards, and perhaps printing articles in the library. If you've already done all that you can begin to compose your summary paragraphs.

Here's a better link to the CPS library databases

Once you've gone to the above link click on Student Resource Gold, put in our school name or school code and you're in business.

Happy researching!!!

Remember the blog is always here, even when school is out. This paper is due Tuesday January, 5th!! email me at emeckart@cps.edu if anything is unclear.

Research summary

Hi, today we will be using the blog as our text!
name="GENERATOR" content="OpenOffice.org 2.4 (Win32)">

Week 16 day 1

AP Language

Bellringer(1-2 sentence journal)

How do you decide what is real on the internet and what isn't?

Objectives: I will be able to use library databases to find academic articles; I will be able to find the main idea and extract useful quotes from complicated academic articles; I will be able to make an MLA works cited page.

Agenda

• Bellringer

• Objective and agenda review

• What is an academic article?

• How to read an academic article and keep notecards?

• How do I cite an article in a works cited page?

• How do I use the school library databases?

• Assign Research Survey (due upon return from Christmas break)

• Student research time

• Exit ticket: One complete notecard.

What is an academic article: An article found in an academic journal. This can be done through an electronic database

Like this one:
Hip Hop is now: an evolving youth culture. Carl Taylor, and Virgil Taylor.
Reclaiming Children and Youth 15.4 (Wntr 2007): p210(4).

COPYRIGHT 2007 Reclaiming Children and Youth

Emerging from Rap music, Hip Hop has become a lifestyle to many modern youth around the world. Embodying both creativity and controversy, Hip Hop mirrors the values, violence, and hypocrisy of modern culture. The authors dispel some of the simplistic views that surround this evolving youth movement embraced by millions of young people who are struggling to find meaning in communities that too often lack hope and pathways to purpose.
**********
Recently during a focus group interaction, a young college woman was asked what Hip Hop was. This young neatly dressed, articulate student thought for a moment before responding in a way that was very matter of fact. "Hip Hop is now; it's in your face, and it's real and honest." When asked what separated herself and her peers from adult culture she pondered for a moment and then responded, "We're not all that different from older adults except that ya'll were punks and we're not." Punks! The adults in the discussion did not like being referred to as punks but managed to contain their composure in order to try to understand the meaning behind this young woman's words.
Hip Hop, the latest form of youthful expression by thousands of young people around the world, has evolved over the last twenty years. Once exclusively related to rap music, this form of expression has now become a lifestyle. The influence of Hip Hop can be seen in fashion, electronic design, auto design, movies, music, literary works, and hundreds of other mediums in every facet of modern society.
The idea that older adults are "punks" revolves around the belief that adult culture is hypocritical, that older adults did the same things that young people do now but were afraid to admit their indiscretions. Compounding the problem is the fact that indiscretions committed by adults, not only in the past but also including current sins, are routinely focused on in the news and in historic accounts of individuals' pasts. Hip Hop is a vast and varied collection of ideas and values that are continuously fueled by new truths as well as misinformation and lies, rhetoric, and ever changing ideology and concepts that are relayed in the varying forms of Hip Hop music.


Use the sample article to practice writing a citation
How to make a MLA Works Cited page: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/05/

This is the schools library databases--which can be accessed from any computer with internet:

http://www.accessmyschool.com/cps/home.php?id=cps1860



Research Summary
Your objective for this assignment is to find, read, evaluate, discuss and cite three sources on one issue. For each source you must write a detailed paragraph-long summary, integrating (weaving) quotes with paraphrase. Finally, you must compose a two paragraph interpretation of the issue based on your reading of the three sources. All your sources must be cited in a properly formatted Works Cited page.

Here are your topic choices:

Education and racial inequality: Is there a educational genocide taking place?
Sweatshop Labor: Are your shoes worth it?
Factory Farming: If we knew what our food went through would we eat it?
Hip-hop and gender
Hip-hop and violence
The moral implications of Stem Cell research
Conflict in post-colonial Africa

AP Updates

Hello students,

Visiting the blog just like I asked, that's why I like you guys. Here are some likes I've been talking about:

First of all here's a link to AP central--where you can find the penny question, along with student work. The Penny question is essay question one from the 2008 exam. Make sure to read the student work and scoring guide!

Also here's Grammar Girl's website for all you comma and clause needs.

Don't say I never gave you anything!

Professions for Women

Hey AP students! I miss you guys and I especially miss talking about analysis and gender. Little baby Ella is not that interested in discussing Literature yet. (see image to the left)

Alright so you got this paper on Virginia Wolff to write and you're starting early, right?

Here's the prompt: You will write a 4-5 page analytical essay on Woolf's “Professions for Women” that will answer the following questions: Virginia Woolf is careful to acknowledge the unmeasured and immeasurable value of the labor women have traditionally done, yet she also projects a future in which women will have access to all kinds of careers. Does Woolf come down in favor of one or the other of these lifestyles? What does she take to be the pros and cons of each? Do you think her predictions have come to fruition? How does her philosophy apply to today's gender landscape?

Also you need to look at sarcasm and irony.

Let's unpack the above question: What does she say in the essay and how does she say it? What obstacles exist for women who want to become doctors, or writers? How does she use sarcasm? (btw--to the right a pic of Woolf)

These are just a few questions you need to answer for yourself before writing a thesis. However, know that you thesis should not be a laundry list of the answers, rather it should be an arguable statement about what Woolf meant, and how she achieved that meaning. You can then proceed to prove your thesis with answers like the above.

Your thesis might sound like this "In the essay 'Professions for Women' Woolf used sarcasm, understatement and self-deprecating humor to convey her message: that women face both phantom and tangible obstacles to joining the ranks of men- and that we can not call it equality just because there is no law preventing women from running for office or practicing medicine."

Then your essay would follow through proving the above assertion using direct quotes, paraphrase and summary. Easy, right??
Comment here if you need specific help. Remember don't use your full name.

bell hooks

This is an awesome article. It may help you with your essay. Just remember if you use hooks' ideas or words you must credit her with a citation.

Extra Credit: Write a 2 page anlysis of hook's argument. What is her rehtorical strategy and what is its effect on the reader?

Society for the prevention of misused apostrophes

Sorry, I seem to have gotten a little blog happy, but this is awesome.

It's a blog dedicated to pictures of misused, and clearly abused apostrophes--check it out.

MLA Citation

Here is an awesome site for MLA citations. I really love the color coding. You are lucky, because our database does most of the hard work for you; however, if you are using sources from elsewhere this guide can help.