Education Reform Paper Resources

The Prompt and Due Dates

  • More information to come, but the assignment is located here.
  • The final draft of the paper is due on December 11th, printed in class. The last date for first drafts will be Sunday, December 3.

Resources for Writing a Research Paper

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AP Language Revisions, Revisions, Revisions

We’ve got a number of revisions floating out there this week in AP Lang. The due dates are as follows:

  • Thursday for any straggling civil disobedience drafts and media sensitivity revisions.
  • Friday for welfare revisions.

Plan to spend some time on these. Revisions need to be more than adding one or two sentences in a paragraph. Often, they mean rewriting an entire section or completely developing the argument from a new point of view. Too many revisions of the last set were half-hearted and many included new grammatical and spelling errors that proofreading would have caught.

It’s time to bear down on the essential skills of these essays: crisp, interesting claims supported by both an obvious organizational structure and well-developed proof. Make sure you are putting in the time to make that happen.

Revision guides for the welfare essay are available in the downloads folder and there definitely wouldn’t be any harm in reviewing the guidelines for essays and revisions here.

Tuesday, we’ll talk about some common errors that need to get fixed.

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AP Language Writing and Revision Policy Reminder

Revision Policy

  1. All revisions are at Mr. Pogreba’s discretion. He may decide that you cannot revise a paper because you:
  • did not proofread your paper carefully.
  • did not make substantial revisions of the paper between drafts.
  • fell significantly short of the requirements of the assignment.
  • violated the sacrosanct ten rules of paper writing.
  • failed to incorporate class discussion/notes about the paper.
  1. All revisions will include previous drafts.

The Ten Rules of Paper Writing

The most important principle to keep in mind is that the paper I receive from you should not be a first, rough draft. It should reflect careful attention and editing.

  1. You will not submit a paper in the incorrect format.  It will be double-spaced, in 10-point or 12-point font. This includes following the naming conventions for your file.
  2. The paper will meet the minimum requirements for words and/or paragraphs.
  3. You will attach all previous drafts when submitting revisions.
  4. You will include a header that provides your name, period number, the revision number, and the date the paper was submitted.
  5. Your paper should have at least an attempt at a clear thesis statement that previews the argument of the paper.
  6. You will not include filler phrases like “I believe”, “I think”, or “I will prove…”
  7. Your paper will demonstrate careful proofreading and editing.
  8. Your paper will not include the word “you” unless extraordinary circumstances arise.
  9. Your paper should reflect all of the suggestions offered by the teacher in previous drafts. If you don’t understand something, it’s your obligation to ask.
  10. The paper will include a works cited page and appropriate in-text citation, if required.

Late Policy

  1. You will have a 30-minute grace period before a paper is considered late.
  2. A late paper can be still be submitted, but you will not be able to revise it for a higher grade, nor will you receive feedback other than a score.
  3. Late papers can be submitted until the end of the quarter with no penalty. Once a paper is late, it must be submitted in a print format, handed to Mr. Pogreba in class.

Sample Header

Sample Student

Mr. Pogreba

Media in War Time Draft 3

04 October 2017

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AP Language: Great Gatsby Exam

The Gatsby exam will be on Wednesday. You’ll be expected to write two brief essays (2-3 paragraphs, plus a thesis) in response to two of these questions:

  1. F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said that “there are no second acts in American lives.” Do the life and death of Jay Gatsby demonstrate this claim or refute it? Does the novel ultimately argue that one can never re-invent himself?
  2. How does the motif of accidents reflect the cynicism of the Modernist worldview?
  3. What is ultimately the most to blame for the tragic end of the novel: Tom’s philandering, Gatsby’s nostalgic desire for the past, Daisy’s selfishness, or Nick’s silence?
  4. Fitzgerald is known as the preeminent chronicler of the Jazz Age, perhaps better depicting its excesses and virtues better than anyone. How does Nick Caraway demonstrate both attraction to and repulsion from the lives of the incredibly rich inhabitants of Long Island?
  5. Does the novel argue that Jay Gatsby is a tragic hero responsible for his own downfall or is it a critique of a society in which romanticism is no longer allowed/permitted?
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