AP English Language and Composition was a class based heavily on the study of the language and how it is applied in various mediums. It was intended, nor was it taught as a literature class. In fact, we studied many other mediums as well, from poetry, to debate, even film. The class was all about discovering how one can use and manipulate language to strengthen and truly get across ones point, even though, sometimes this means achieving your effect by making your point implied, making the reader or listener think. In our experiences in this class we focused primarily on the topics of style analysis, practiced in enumerable prompts, discussions, and quizzes, argument, practiced again in prompts but also in an organized debate and a study of logic and persuasive techniques (some of them introduced in the context of advertising). Though, as stated, there where many other elements involved in the class, we still get through a wealth of literature during the year, notably:
- Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
- The Story of the life and journey of Chris McCandless as told by Jon Krakauer in Into the Wild
- The allegorical treatment of the Red Scare presented in Arthur Miller's The Crucible
- The real(er) world of the Puritans in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter
- The writings of Transcendentalists including many of the famous essays of Thoreau and Emerson and a dramatization of events in their lives in Lee's The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail
- The life of Richard Wright in Black Boy
- A dramatically portrayed clash between reason and religion in Inherit the Wind
- Returning to search for the American Dream with Steinbeck's Travels with Charley
- And finally a consideration of madness and relationships and literary analysis presented along side Faulkner's As I Lay Dying
Reflection: Overall looking at my writing from this year it appears that it is generally very high quality, but I do think it might have lost some of the creative flair that I really enjoyed in my 10th grade writing. This was a simple, foreseeable consequence of a year concentrating on writing formal style analysis and arguments based on formal thesis. I don't mean to say that it squelched my ability to write creatively, it simply put it within a more strict framework and limited the amount of creativity I naturally infused into a subject. As I move into the college application process, I would do well to regain this. Nonetheless, this formalization has some benefits as it makes me think more carefully about my writing and allows me to introduce symbolism and turns of phrase that would not have occurred to me before. Thus, I say that this year basically improved my writing.
(For a more formal analysis of my writing from this year, see the "Reflection listed to the right")
