AP: Invisible Man Blog Topic

If you are thinking about a blog topic to make up a quiz, this might be a good one. Was Tod Clifton's decision to sell the Sambo dolls:

  • a deliberate attempt to parody his existence as a puppet in the Brotherhood?
  • a rejection of his former life?
  • a crisis brought about by realization that the Brotherhood had betrayed him/Harlem?
  • Something else altogether? 
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AP Literature News and Notes

Some AP Literature News and Notes:

  • If you can't sign up for a blog the normal way, you can blog here on the main site. Just login to the main site and click on "Write a blog entry" on the left side of the page, on the user menu.
  • You can see the literary terms here, and there will be a handout later this week,
  • For the essay this week, you should only do Invisible Man essay #1. If you get an A on it, you may not have to do essay #2.
  • Hey, how about reading the book?
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Annoyed English Teacher…

Read in the voice of an annoyed AP English teacher…

From this moment, forward, each of these infractions will lead to a 20% per cent reduction in your essay grade:

  • failure to include your name inside the file
  • failure to double space the essay
  • failure to use 10 point font

The penalties are cumulative. I will also no longer accept late work on anything submitted online. The same few people keep abusing the system, and it's not terribly fair to the people to do the work on time.

Thanks. 

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Twelve Writing Tips from George Orwell

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 

  1. What am I trying to say?
  2. What words will express it?
  3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?
  4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

And he will probably ask himself two more:

  1. Could I put it more shortly?
  2. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?

One can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase, and one needs rules that one can rely on when instinct fails. I think the following rules will cover most cases:

  1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
  2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
  3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
  4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
  5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
  6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.  
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AP Language Class Assignments for 22 February

The AP Language Class assignments for this week are:

  • Reading: "Letters from a Birmingham Jail"
  • Writing: Synthesis Essay 2 

Both are available in the AP Language downloads section .

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