APENGLISHLANGUAGEANDCOMPOSITION20078.docVIP

AP ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION 2007/8 George Bebensee/Room 237/phone 389-7390 x522 gbebensee@ COURSE DESCRIPTION This is a college-level course in reading, writing, and rhetoric for motivated students, constructed in accordance with the current College Board AP guidelines. The major objective of this course is to help students “write effectively and confidently in their college courses across the curriculum and in their professional and personal lives.” (The College Board, AP English Course Description, May 2007, May 2008, p. 6) We’ll read and carefully analyze a broad and challenging range of texts--expository, analytical, personal, and argumentative essays; letters; speeches; images; imaginative literature--deepening our awareness of rhetoric and how language works. Through close reading and frequent writing, we’ll develop our ability to work with language and text with a greater awareness of purpose and strategy, while strengthening our own composing abilities. (See details below.) We’ll write in a variety of modes for a variety of audiences, developing a sense of personal style and an ability to analyze and articulate how the resources of language operate in any given text. Because we live in a highly visual world, we’ll also study the rhetoric of visual media such as photographs, films, advertisements, comic strips, and music videos. (See specific writing assignments below.) This course views writing as a process, so major writing assignments will include required drafts and revisions. We’ll review and discuss our works-in-progress during frequent class and group workshops. You’ll conference with me often as you write—at least once for each major writing project. In concert with the College Board’s AP English Course Description, we’ll learn to read primary and secondary sources carefully, to synthesize material from these texts in our own compositions, and to cite sources using conventions recommended by the Modern Language Association (MLA). Most