#5) PREPARE+PRACTICE=PERFECT

                                                      ★PREPARE+PRACTICE=PERFECT ★

If you have the three best Priends, you will succeed in AP Lang.  

So who are my three best Priends? Prepare+Practice=Perfect. 

Do you want to succeed? than prepare and practice! This is the best way to succeed and survive in AP Lang. When I say the 'essay', it is not just a simple, wordy, and boring essay. There are different types of essays which requires higher level of thinking. What are they? They are argumentative essay, synthesis essay, compare and contrast essay.If you do not practice, writing an essay will not be easy. In AP Lang, you will get lots and lots of homework to practice. AP Lang homework is not something you can do in five minutes nor copy off from your friends nor finish it in the hallway before class starts. You have to think and take out every single cells in your brain that functions in a critical thinking way. Homework is the best resources to practice your writing skill and critical thinking skills. If you do your homework and prepare, you will be ready to jump up to the next level. By doing homework, it will lead you to have a clear perspective of the argument. 

Doing your homework in the first place will not be easy because 

you are not used to "think" hard while you do your homework. When i first did my homework I did not have a good sense of how to do it. However I practiced and prepared every class and tried my best. Now, even if homework takes time, I can finish my homework with much better ideas and preparedness. 

These two pictures proves how much I improved from doing homework!

My first quarter soap time..I could not feel out all the boxes.
So I practiced more and more!

This is my Second quarter soap time. See the difference?

Practiced writing an essay!

Here is a video that is really helpful when you write an essay.

#4) YOU! Do you know well enough about you?

AP Lang is all about how YOU think, how YOU analyze, how YOU understand, and how YOU argue. So? Be yourself and speak up your beliefs now. 

If you do not have a good amount of thinking about what you believe in , now is the time to  think about how you view the world. I was extremely excited when i read my summer assignment title. "ARGUE WITH ME". Really? I can actually argue with the teacher, society, friends through writing an essay? I have heard from my parents, teachers ad friends "Don't argue with me." However AP lang gave me chance to speak up and share my ideas, experience, anecdote and opinions. If you have an opinion and strong beliefs, speak up! The stronger you argue about your opinion, the more effective your essay will be. Socratic seminar is not an exception. No one will judge you on what you say. Because in AP Lang, people are very open minded and respect other people's opinions. If you  say something you do not believe in but to only "sounds" smart, that would not last long. None of our work is done by one little fancy sentence. You have to build your argument based on evidence. In order to find the evidence, and have a strong beliefs about it, you have to have a strong voice to persuade the audience.
If you truly become yourself, I guarantee that as you write any kind of argumentative essay, you will start to realize your thinking has changed. This is because you started to build your thoughts in a more concrete way. You started to avoid cliche ideas. You started to think what is right or wrong. You will start to realize who you are as a person.  
Some people are afraid of speaking up because of various reasons; however, how are you going to survive in the jungle without showing your strength and wisdom by crying out like a fierce tiger? 


This song is "I want to be myself" by 3 Doors down. Don't let anything, or anyone stop you from becoming who you are.

#3) How to succeed in timed writing

"you have forty minutes from now on! Ready? Get set, go!" 

Timed writing can be extremely stressful and difficult in AP LANG. In order to succeed in timed writing, you have to have a good time managing skill.When i have timed writing in class, I always bring my watch with me so I can keep track of time. 

Before we start, Do we all know what timed writing is? It's simple. You get a prompt, and write an essay about  in forty minutes. Does forty minute sounds like a lot to you? NO!!! many students in AP lang, including myself, complain about how we do not get enough time to write an essay. The best way to manage your time when you timed write is to read the prompt no more than five to seven minutes to understand and analyze, the author's main argument. Make sure you annotate important importation or evidence as you read along because this will help you to find evidence easily by looking at your notes. After finish  reading the prompt, you can pre-write or go straight to your final paper. However I strongly suggest you to pre-write and plan out your essay first. you will have about 25 minutes, write your final essay, skim through and correct errors for two to three minutes. 

 What should you think about when we time write?

1. what is the main argument of the prompt?
2. what is my thesis going to be?
3. Am I answering the right question?
4. what are my support types?
5. what are my evidence?
6. what is my tone?
7. and how much time do I have left? (important?)   

Here are the list of things NOT do do when you time write

1. Do not zone out! you do not have time!
2. Do not go out of subject! (this happens very often due to the lack of time and stress, results you to write random craps that does not even make sense)

Don't write something as your thesis about something you can not prove in twenty minutes

This picture shows how timed writing is graded. 

If you never had timed writing yet, I will show you two examples of how the prompt looks like. notice how I annotated? This will help you to understand the text more when you timed write. 

Sometimes you have to find the deep hidden meaning of the prompt, but do not over analyze it. Find key words, and the tone of the author. Most of the times, main ideas are often repeated in the prompt. Try to understand the prompt by reading closely and think WHY the author wants to argue about the idea.

Here is the video of how to write a good timed essay

#2) How to annotate your text effectively

                                 Annotate? What should I do ?


When you read, analyse, or time write, annotating the text can be extremely helpful. As you will find out, that reading texts in AP Lang class will not be the easiest things to understand. Because the texts requires higher level of thinking , annotating is one of the important thing to do. By annotating your book, you can look back and see what was important. Annotating is helpful when you time write because you can easily go back and use the underlined sources as your evidence. So! what do we look for when we annotate? I will list things you need to consider when you annotate a text to make it simple and straight forward.



* think about the vocabulary lists. what kind of devices did the author used in order to convey his argument?
*what is the purpose, structure, mode and the approaches?
*what kind of support type did the author used? are they experience? facts? authority? or values?
*Is there Appeals? what kind of appeals? are hey motivational? emotional? need? or slogan?
*Is there logical fallacies? what kind of fallacies? ad hominem? false analogy? generalization? non sequitur? post hoc? slippery slope? 
*Is there diction? what kind of a word choice did the author used to convey his tone?
*Is there Imagery? what kind of scene are you imagining? 
*Is there detail? what kind of language did the author used to describe his details? 
*Is there syntax? what kind? How did the author play with his sentence structure?
*Is there figurative language? Euphemism? metonymy? adage? apostrophe? metaphor? and how do they effect the texts?
*Do you see the repeated idea? is that the main argument?
*Is there important quote? what is the quote talking about and why are they important? 



As you read my list, did you realize that you will not be able to annotate well if you do not know these vocabularies? I strongly suggest that you study and learn all the vocabularies in order to annotate them and use them. Also when you annotate, you have to remember that finding main idea is also important. Think about how the devices, tones, and the purpose relates to main idea. 



Here is my example of how to annotate! I annotated the speech of Barack Obama's Audacity of Hope. 
This was such a great text to annotate because Obama utilizes many rhetorical devices to persuade the American voters.

Here is another example of how to annotate! 

#1) what are ethos,Logos, and pathos?

RHETORIC AND ARGUMENTATION BASICS

      knowing the basic argumentation is the most important thing before you write an argumentative essay. Have you ever heard about the -os family? if you have not yet, I will teach you what they are and how they are used in the argumentative essay. the members of the -os family are ETHOS, PATHOS, AND LOGOS.

1)ETHOS-first of all, let me introduce to you who ethos is. ethos is the smart one. ethos is the quality of character, intelligence, and goodwill in an arguer that contribute to an audience's acceptance of the claim. by using ethos, your argument will be stronger and effective because of the well- organized and the language is much more concrete.  

here is the example of ethos!

http://pathosethoslogos.com/-this is the URL

this was my homework that i did, where i had to write about in what ways Henry and Buckley utilized Ethos.

2) Pathos-now we are on to paths! so who is pathos? pathos is really emotional and sentimental guy. pathos is the quality in a work that prompts the readers to feel PITY. If you want to make your audience to accept your argument, evoke their pity!  Have you ever heard "They need a shelter, place to stay, loving family and true love?"pathos are seen by many of the animal shelter commercial. They evoke people's pity by emotional effects to make your eyes wet. 

This is my example of how+when+why use pathos.

This video is another example of pathos. This video will simply make your eyes cry and evoke pity.(I guarantee) 

3)Logos-Finally, we are on to Logos! Who is logos? logos is the guy who never talk nonsense. Logos is the quality in a work that is based on reason and evidence. I have noticed from myself, and my friends who takes AP Lang, that able to tell the difference between logos and ethos are confusing. However, all you have to remember is that logos goes by logic and true evidence, while ethos shows the intelligent of the writer in order to gain the acceptance from the audience.

here is the link to the examples of logos

http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/logosterm.htm

http://courses.durhamtech.edu/perkins/aris.html

And this video is really helpful if you watch it ! it explains all the aspects and characteristics of all the -os family ETHOS, PATHOS, AND LOGOS in one video! :)

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/video/persuasive-techniques-advertising-1166.html

AP LANG Christina's second quarter reflection

    1/25/2012                                                         

                                                        AP LANG- Second quarter reflection

             First quarter, I argued, and argued and re- argued about my opinion.  Second quarter, I analyzed and analyzed and re- analyzed the given prompt in order to improve and understand the meaning of American experience.  As I learn more about the American experience, my opinions about the American experience has completely changed. When I thought of an American in the first quarter, I considered American people as people who do not speak up for their right. I used to think that American people tend to follow everyone else by following the old tradition weather the choice is right to be made or not. For example, my summer assignment was to read the “lottery” by Shirley Jackson. The text suggests that American people easily kill their neighbors without a reasonable reason and without even questioning “why?” simply because it is their tradition. Another example can be found in ‘Why Don’t We Complain?” by Buckley. Buckley argued that American people do not complain because Americans expect someone else will speak up about the problem. I was persuaded by Jackson and Buckley that American people’s opinions and speaking ability is hampered by close- minded thoughts. However, my thinking has changed throughout the second quarter. I strongly think that American experience is finding one’s freedom and fighting for individual rights.

American people often argue and question what is right or wrong in order to speak up for their right. This is proven throughout the historical period especially in the Civil rights movement.  When African American people were treated like an animal, African American people stood up and dissented. For example, in the book ‘narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass’, Douglass learned how to read and right and eventually succeed in becoming a freeman.  While I was reading the ‘narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass’, I was amazed by how Douglass was incredibly brave and how he walked his way to search his own life. Compare and contrast was one of the major writing techniques I learned in second quarter of AP Lang ; So I compared and contrasted Frederick Douglass and William Buckley. Douglass and Buckley both lives in America. However, Frederick Douglass made tremendous amount of more impact in American society by helping African American people to gain freedom and helping the political leaders to free the enslaved Africans. Frederick Douglass could have faced death because of the hard obstacles; however, Douglass never gave up and became a leader among the African slaves while Buckley just wrote about why people do not complain. Because Frederick Douglas made more impact on the society, American history, and to all the colored people, this proves that American experience is searching one’s brighter future by dedication to one’s belief.