Language and Composition
Summer Assignment 2015 -Bolin
The summer assignment for 2015 consists of three sections. Section one centers on a miniresearch paper using MLA guidelines as shown in your textbook, The Language of
Composition: Reading Writing Rhetoric. The second section is comprised of six questions
requiring detailed answers covering the book that you have read, and section three is a visual
project where you will be required to make a five minute film highlighting the key aspects of your
research paper, which you will show to the class during the first week of class.
Section One:
Select one of the following non-fiction works listed below and carefully read and take notes on
key historical, social, and cultural aspects discussed in your literary work. Once you have
completed summer reading, choose one aspect that you would most like to do a 2,000 to 2,500
word research paper synthesizing information from at least four separate educational sources
and using MLA Guidelines for citations within the text and list of works cited as explained in your
main textbook, The Language of Composition: Reading Writing Rhetoric Second Edition by
Renee H. Shea, Lawrence Scanion, and Robin Dissin Aufses. Before you begin working on the
research paper assignment section above, you should answer the six questions in section two
in detailed sentences drawing evidence from the non-fiction work that you have read this
summer.
List of Non-fiction Literary Works to Chosen from
1.The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and The Golden Age of
Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin
2. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
3. No Ordinary Time: Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris
Kearns Goodwin
4. The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys by Doris Kearns Goodwin
5. Washington’s Circle: The Creation of the President by David S. Heidler, Jeanne T. Heidler
6. Crucible of Command: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee—The War They Fought, the
Peace They Forged by William C. Davis
7. I Know Why the Caged Bird sings by Maya Angelou
8. The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
9. The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by
Daniel James Brown
10. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
11. Sea of Glory: America’s Voyage of Discovery -The U.S. Exploring Expedition 1838-1842 by
Nathaniel Philbrick
Section Two: Answer the six questions below concerning the non-fiction literary work that you
have read. Your answers should be detailed with evidence cited explaining how it illustrates
your point from the literary work that you have read.
1. Identify the primary purpose of your author’s work and how it is developed.
2. Identify your author’s thesis in the book that you have read; then list three major
arguments/reasons that the author uses to support his or her thesis.
3. Identify ethos, logos, and pathos and find four good examples of each from the book that
you have read this summer and explain how each illustrates that example.
4. Identify one place in the author’s work where he or she addresses the opposing or
counterargument and explain how he or she does this and where it occurs in your non-fiction
source.
5. The following are weaknesses that can occur in a writer’s thinking and writing. Identify them
and then if you find examples of these occurring in the book that you are reading list them and
explain how each fallacy negatively affects the literary work that you have read.
A. red herring
B. ad hominem
C. faulty analogy
D. straw man fallacy
E. either/or
F. hasty generalization
G. circular reasoning
H. post hoc ergo propter hoc
I. appeal to false authority
J. ad populum
6. Identify what first-hand evidence and second-hand evidence are and cite two examples
from the book that you have read this summer and explain.
Section Three: Using your IPad, video camera, or cellphone fill a five minute film presentation
highlighting the key aspects of your research paper, which you will present to the class during
the first week of class.