This is my Apology DeLaCruz.

So I have DeLaCruz a really hard time this year. Geoff Cho and I did random stuff that blow DeLaCruz's cork. A lot. I didn't do any of it to hurt or anger DeLaCruz or disrupt the class, cuz DeLaCruz rocks and you will all listen to him next year if you have any brains in your head. Which clearly I don't . Or Geoff. Geoff sucks worse than me. Seriously, like if brains were dynamite, he'd be a freakin' moron. Anyway, DeLaCruz is an awesome dude and he did in fact teach us a lot, even though we made it as hard for him as we could.

You've already signed up for AP, which means you can't get out. Which is too bad. But since you're here anyway, listen up. There's a chance you can get out after the second nine weeks. TAKE THAT CHANCE. I didn't find out until it was too late. Seriously. 3 nine weeks is hellish. But if you stay in, which I assume you will, listen close because it's pretty much one of the smartest classes you'll ever take. You will find sex in every essay ever, every poem, and death with the sex. Death sex. Yeah. You laugh, but it's everywhere. But once you start seeing sex or death everywhere, don't fight it, it means you've started becoming the analytical genius that AP is supposed to make you into. And it does. Seriously, I'm grateful to everything DeLaCruz did and put up with, making me a much better student then I was, if not a better person. You begin to analyze everything, even other classes and TV shows. You may not like seeing underlying connections and meanings in your MTV or Dawson's Creek or whatever the young Folk watch today, but it'll happen anyway, and you end up being really good at it, which helps when you're totally unloaded on by DeLaCruz's Bat-Crap Loco projects. Which were kinda fun. Like Ernie Joad. You'll get what I'm talking about later. It's worth it to be in this class, not only for the college credit but the experience. Even if you do have to deal with Emily Dickenson. I did like this class, despite everything, and I assume you will too, class of ought 9. Good Luck. You're gonna need it.

Geoff Sucks.

Seriously, like you paid him to or something.

I'm Scared, Dave. Will I dream?

So, Mr. DeLaCruz said we're supposed to write a five hundred word thing on AP English. All in all, this was a pretty dope class. Dope as in good, not dope as in marijuana, or stupid people. I gave DeLaCruz a lot of crap. A lot of crap. Please don't be like me. I argued pretty much everything ever, but it super pisses him off. Not a lot of thought went into it on my part. Also, don't listen to anything Zeko writes. Except the Frankenstein essay, that thing's a piece of gold transcribed onto a computer.

You really do learn a pretty good amount of stuff in this class. It's also-

Oh, crap. There's the bell. Gotta run!

Good Luck

I hope by now that all of you have realized that Advanced Placement English will not be an easy grade. By the end of this class you will cry with joy, pain, sorrow and anger. Your frustration will overcome your love of the English language, and you will be left with an emptiness that swallows any joy that you might find in reading a book. But, if you were expecting an easy class, I hope that Advanced Placement English shows you wrong. Coming into class the first day, you will have a fresh outlook on the class, and will probably love Mr. DeLaCruz in the beginning. However, that is just the beginning and I have no doubt that you are not prepared for the end.
So maybe it would not be that bad for all of you, however, for the most of you be prepared to not get an A for all that you have done. Advanced English requires all of your mind, body and soul in order to do good. If you are not ready to give it all, then get out while you are still alive. You will be reading enough books and poetry throughout these up and coming 32 weeks that you will find no joy in them after the class. Furthermore, every night you go home you will have around three hours of homework and maybe even more depending on how Mr. DeLaCruz was feeling that day.
Let me be honest to you all, you will have fun. However, the times that you will not have fun outweigh the good times. Throughout these 32 weeks sparknotes will be your best friend....good luck and I hope that you survive to take the Advanced Placement English test.

Farwell to AP by Gwinn

Dear incoming Ap persons,

Now that you have chosen to take AP English you are in for a giant treat! You get to read books, write essays, have timed writes every Friday, read thousands of poems....haha. No, but really that is what you do, but it is not as bad as it sounds. Once you get through your summer blogs (and you really should read the books or at least know a lot about them because there is a lot of conversation on them once class starts.) it is just like a regular challenging class. Be sure to participate in class because when it comes time for grades it will give you a boost, it almost always raises my grade. When it comes time to read poems you might find out a little bit more about each other than you want to, for example you will come to find out that all Mr. D can think about while he is reading a poem is death and sex, so dont be shy. One of the more interesting things about this class is you can talk about sex as much as you want and you can swear. Mr. D doesnt like you to swear but it's an AP class...you can do what you want. Plus it adds a lot of humor.

The books you read in class or sometimes really good and sometimes really bad.The Handmaids Tale and Catcher in the Rye are good ones to read. The Heart of Darkness and The Scarlet Letter will make you want to drink mercury, but im sure you will figure out what is going on. If I was given the chance to take this class again I definable would because you start to make connections to real life references to shakespeare and other books in the literary cannon that really are everywhere but you never notice them until you start this class. Maybe I am just in love with this class because I had AP History 1^st hour (bad decision), but I learned a lot and this class will deff help me in college. When it comes to reports make sure to take time on it and really put a lot of effort into it, but most importantly listen to what Mr. D wants. He tells you exactly what he wants on that essay and exactly how he wants it done, so follow his instructions. On the bright side your writing skills improve SO much. Anyways, the class is good, you will learn a lot, just do your best to take a deep breath not to stress out.

AP English Review )

Though a long and grueling process, I can safely say that the 27 weeks of AP English polished my writing technique and improved how I analyze a work of literature. Since this class, I have found myself striving to find deeper meanings in everything from a Shakespearean play to television sitcoms.

I have had a love hate relationship with AP English. While I have learned extremely useful information that will defiantly assist me next year in a college course, it was still a lot of work that most of the time I was not in the mood to do. It wasn't just the hundreds of essay packets that allowed me to become a better writer. In fact, I found that my ability to write increased with the more experiences and background knowledge I had to pull from.

Though not carefully spelled out in the curriculum, time management was a very important part of this class. Through even those hateful timed writes every Friday, the skill to pull out an established essay in 40 minutes is one of my most prized accomplishments. Before, it took me an average of three days to write a well established essay. Now I am able to write at a heightened skill level in a shorter period of time. This will help me so much next year at college. The amount of reading we had to do in short periods of time also helped me to become a better reader. No longer am I obsessively trying to grasp every single concept of the book. Getting the general picture from skimming pages and having the ability to pick out important parts of the work has really been the way to go.

Overall, this class wasn't as bad as we all made it out to be. Sure no one really wanted to write an essay on the last day before the weekend break, and I will admit that I did wince every time a new project was brought up, but all in all every part of this class positively affected my knowledge of English literature in some way. The groans before timed writes, the stress of the participation hash marks, short lived relief finishing a book before getting a new one, biggest text book with the smallest words, and strange stories from even stranger authors will be missed; but somehow I will have to go on. :)

Good luck future bloggers! Buckle up. You're in for a long ride.

Final Farwell

Dear Aspiring AP English Students,

To start I would like to wish you good luck This class will challenge you and in the mist of your AP English experience I guarantee you will find yourself asking “Why am I in this class, it is consuming my life?!” Trust me, its going to happen many times and you really won't find the answer until you are sitting in my seat typing up a letter to the class following in your shoes. As I sit here and reflect on all this class has consisted of, I realize that it has affected me more than I thought. I acquired skills in analyzing literature and finding the “overall meaning.” Through class discussions and in depth thinking I have conditioned my mind to shift through all the details and find meaning out of the most minute. Reading is just merely skimming the surface, this class will assist you in a total submersion into literature and equip you with tools to expand your intellect. Not only did my comprehension and analyzing abilities improve but with lots of practice my writing's development and communication has made a complete 180 degree turn.

You are truly in for lots of hard work but nothing that you can't handle. There will be times of complete exhaustion but you will also be perfecting lots of skills that will help you become successful when analyzing literature. Again good luck, and try to enjoy it. Only 27 more weeks after you finish you summer assignments!

Your's Truly,

Jessica Hodges

Finally, we're done.

Finally, AP English has come to an end. To get these out of the way, here are some good things about the class.

• Analyzing books, movies, etc. with the AP perspective is something I actually enjoyed, since prior to the class I used to analyze media anyways. The class allowed me to improve my analyzing skills.
• While I hated timed writes, the class did help me improve my writing, which will be useful for future classes or career opportunities.
• I enjoyed some of the books we read, like Handmaid's Tale, Catcher in the Rye, 1984, and Huckleberry Finn. Outside of this class, I probably would not have bothered checking out these books in the first place.
• Discussion was always interesting, and I wish that we could have had more time. Although I didn't necessarily participate as much as I should have, it was still interesting to hear everyone's different opinions.

NOW WHAT I HATED.

• Heart of Darkness is a terrible, terrible book. It's sh*t.
• Emily Dickinson should not be read in schools because she is a crazy b**ch.
  
• Too much busywork! TOO MUCH BUSYWORK!
  
• Stupid packets that had no point.
• Timed writes. TIMED WRIIIIIIIITES.
• The Scarlet Letter? More like Scarlet Douchebag.
• Geoff.

It's not that bad of a class though, future AP English students. I'm just glad I'm not you.

-SungWon Cho

A.P english in a nutshell

The last day of A.P English is here, and I am ready to view the world differently with my new knowledge. Much reading, writing, and discussing has gone on during these past twenty-seven weeks and I feel I have reaped the rewards, (and the exhaustion) of it all.
If I am going to be perfectly honest I feel I must tell you to be prepared to work hard over the summer. There is a lot of reading to do, and even more writing to be done during those warm summer nights when you would rather be out of doors. Fortunately, there are many good books to choose from on the list so you should have at least a decent experience. Just remember to choose your books wisely. I have just realized that by the time you are reading this, you probably have already picked out your books so that was rather pointless.
You might be a little nervous about that first day of A.P, but then you walk in to discover all of your classmates feeling the same way. It really is not that bad once you get used to the amount of work that must be done daily. Really the only thing that you will need to get used to is the dedication and organization needed to do well. If you are a hard worker you'll do just dandy. If you are more of the slacking, procrastinating type, then you should become a hard worker. It's as simple as that.
Mr. DeLaCruz is a good guy. Don't be all scared of him because he actually is quite funny, and a very good singer. Ask him to sing some Emily Dickinson for you, I'm sure he'd oblige. If Poet's Corner continues next year, Mr. DeLaCruz will most certainly pick out some interesting poems, so be prepared for that.
The best part of class was the mock trial for Tale of Two Cities. I really understood the book after that, which is saying a lot since it is Dickinson after all.
I really think you will end up liking A.P. I really do believe that. It is a lot of hard work, but it really pays off in the end. So, sit back, don't relax, and start those blogs!! Have fun now!

Ellie Hundt

AP English Reflection - Kiley Kyser

Overall, I feel as if I have benefited greatly from taking the AP English course. At times it was extremely painful, but I'm thankful that I wasn't doing busy work. I learned to read materials that I wouldn't normally read, and analyze works as well as relate them to current issues. Analyzing text is what I think most benefited me, because before this class I would read but never look into the text for further meaning. I was always surprised as to how many meanings could be found within one work. That was my favorite part of the class: listening to opinions of other people as to what they thought the work meant. I also realized that each story has a different meaning to every person.

The most beneficial class project was the critical perspectives posters. Those were important to learn for the rest of the class period, even into the 26th week. :-( At times, I found AP English to be exhausting, but Mr. DeLaCruz always knew how to mix it up with new activities. The beginning of the year was much more fun than the end because the class was just beginning to know each other. It was great how we all stepped out of our box, and at the end of the class I didn't want to work with my closer friends on projects, but rather other classmates. Towards the end of the looooong class, I felt as if I was more prepared for college life and had something that other high school seniors did not. The challenge was worth it. I learned how to cram better every night, prepare for big tests, and work with all different people on huge projects.

My least favorite part of the class was the summer blogs, mostly because I wanted to party on Friday and Saturday nights of my summer instead of write about books. It made me think about school, though, during the summer months, so starting all of my classes was not as difficult because I already had a good work ethic and routine started. The novels I enjoyed were "Things Fall Apart," "The Handmaid's Tale," and many of the poems analyzed during class, especially the songs.

Myself and other classmates realized that we were beginning to have many "AP moments," which got extremely annoying towards the end of the class. However, once I'm out of this school I'm sure that the AP moments will be better and I will realize that my literature knowledge is above the rest of my classmates.

Words of wisdom to incoming classmates:
-READ your assignments, no matter how late you have to stay up
Once you are behind on reading, it is much harder to catch up and you will need to remember all materials read for the end of the year and the big AP exam.
-Take lots of time on writing assignments
My writing skills were way above the rest in English 3, but when I got to AP English it was very hard for me to advance to that next level. Mr. DeLaCruz is hard to impress when it comes to writing and requires much more than other teachers, especially at a college level.
-Relate everything you read and do in the class to your life
Finding connections made everything worthwhile.....even Shakespeare.



Kiley Kyser
Senior '08....can't wait to graduate

Farewell

AP English, ah good memories. For those who are taking the class in the future, prepare to analyze. An AP English student analyzes every little detail of life. One learns skills like; vocabulary, ability to analyze, and writing composition. These skills will take much strain and painstaking practice on part of both the students and teacher. However, all the hard work will pay off. You will come out of the class with profound understanding for the literary world. Along the way there will be a lot of AP moments outside of class. This is when the things you learn in class carry over to your life outside of class. Just wait, you'll be watching a movie with friends and suddenly in your mind you will be analyzing the movie. Relating what you learned in class to your personal life must mean that the teacher of the class is doing something right. AP English is extremely helpful. From learning how to work in groups through your Hamlet Project to writing timed writes every Friday. The class will help you enhance your writing skills. The lessons learned in AP English will show up in your writings for other classes as well, generally improving your grades. While the class does prove to be helpful, there are challenges along the way. Often times an AP student feels immense pressure and an overload of work. The expectations are high and the grading may seem harsher than most. However, it is to help you benefit more from the class. If you have a positive attitude, step up to the challenge, and just grind through it you will be a successful AP student. I am still amazed today by the amount of high school students that do not know what it means to analyze a work. After having AP English a student learns many things and can say that they know how to analyze anything you put in front of them. The skills learned in AP English will carry a student through not only the exam, but life after high school.

There is sex everywhere....by Chestnut

Dear New Student,

Welcome to Advanced Placement English. You chose this class because you think you are very advanced in the English department. Well, you may want to rethink that. This class will challenge you in many ways that you have never experienced before. At times you will be like I am so happy I took this class and other times you might be like I wish I would have taken Senior English. You will experience these moments a lot. At the end of the 27 long weeks of this class though, you will be happy you took it because now you can get college credits without actually going to college. It is nice.

You will learn many skills that you will use in ways that sometimes you wish you wouldn't. You will watch every movie and start trying to find a deeper meaning behind it. Every time you see black vs. white you will always think of bad vs. evil. You will always end up thinking about things more than you should. You will also be able to relate everything to death and sex now. Mr. De la Cruz likes to do this a lot. Once we read a children's poem for our Poet's Corner, and we ended talking about the sexual lines and tones related to it. You will learn there is sex every where. Not only is sex every where, there is death. Many times we will talk about it, and Mr. De la Cruz will have a smile on his face, and will laugh afterwards. This is pretty normal, or at least it is to us. You learn so much in this class, and they are skills you will use in ways that you never imagined. It is really a lot of fun.

When we would use our AP skills out of class we referred to them as AP moments. After every break, sometimes even weekends, Mr. De la Cruz would ask Did anyone have any AP moments? Of course at least half the class would then raise their hands. It was a lot of fun. One of my AP moments was when my friends and I were watching America's Next Top Model, and the girls decided to have a wrestling match. The girl we liked had all white on, while the other girl we did not like had black on. Obviously this was good vs. evil and we all yelled out AP moment. Of course our few friends who weren't in this class felt a little left out, but they should have been smart like you and I to take this class. I also now have a lot of AP moments during movies. I used to just fall right asleep when it started, but now I am just thinking so much about the symbols and motifs and what the deeper meaning is that I can't fall asleep...sometimes I wish I could just fall asleep, but my boyfriend likes me better now that I can stay awake.

The most useful project was probably the paper we had to write comparing The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin and The Catcher in the Rye. It was very challenging for me, and I actually did quite well on it. I normally do very well on my papers and I don't really try that hard, but this one I did and I was really happy with my eight page result. There aren't very many huge projects, some of them suck, some of them are fun. You get to color in a lot of them, mainly just the posters though. I liked those. Overall the big projects were challenging, but you are normally happy with the end result because it turned out so well.

My challenges in AP English were getting called on and trying to find the same meaning in a poem as everyone else in the world. I almost never got called on during discussion. I raise my hand every time Sheila did and she had almost twice as many points as me. Mr. De la Cruz obviously was not a fan of me talking. If this happens to you, just keep raising your hand and sometimes you may need to yell a few times. You will at least though come out with an A if you do this. My other challenge was trying to find the same meaning as everyone else. THe things I found in poems were never the same as anyone. But I did find support in the poem, but it was never good enough. I now learned to just BS it. It works very well, and every once in a while people would like my meaning better.

So here you go Advanced Student have a ball. You'll love it and hate it, but you will be glad you took it.

Hayley Chestnut

Wait. What? There is Sex in a Children's Poem by Frederixon

Hello,

For all you lucky kids who have chosen to take AP English next year, Good Luck. This class will challenge you more than all your other classes you have other taken combined. At times you will love the class and at other times you will wonder why you have to spend you Saturday night at home writing your blog, which is due at midnight. While your other friends are talking about how much they love their easy schedule you will be stress about a 200 point project due the next day over a book you barely understood. Also, you will find that Mr. De la Cruz has an uncontrollable urge to always discuss death, then laugh. Don't worry, this is normal...we think?

However, despite all the complaints about this class, you will learn valuable things that will help you later in life, whether it is on the AP test or on Spring Break-you never know when your trivia knowledge about random literature will come in handy. You will find that the analytical skills you learn will invade the rest of your life. For instance, you may be at the movie theater on a date and all of a sudden you find your self wondering what the girl's red coat symbolizes, or you will be watch America's Next Top Model and realize the girl you hate is wearing black-symbolizing evil-and the girl you love is wearing white-symbolizing purity. This all may sound crazy to you now but give it a few months. Soon, you too will find your self in these situations.

You will learn many useful skills in this class as well. You will learn everything from TPCASTT and SOAPStone to no one every just writes what they mean in poetry. These skills may seem silly now, but they will help you when you have to lead your poets corner. If you ever get stuck on a timed write about what the meaning of the work is just remember "when doubt it is about death". You will also learn about how to find the meaning behind works of literature. Basically to do this, you make stuff then use the text to make your idea seem legitimate.

This class will also be filled with many projects. Most of them aren't to bad, but you will get ones that suck beyond all belief. My advice about the Hamlet Project, don't do it the night before its due. If you don't listen to me be prepared to stay up till 3 a.m. working on it. My favorite project was the project where you do the mock trial. It is the fun and you will actually understand Dickens after it. However, don't be one of the lawyers. It is way to much work. If you get a lawyer, trade!

All in all, this class is not too bad, but after 27 weeks be prepared to stop trying. Mr. De la Cruz will hate me for saying this, but its true. You will stop caring.

Sheila

Death and Sex. It's everywhere.

To all you lucky kids who have chosen to partake in AP English,

I wish you the best of luck. This class will affect how you think about literature and life as you know it. It will make you frustrated and blissfull. It will be easy at times, until you are busy with other things, then the class will become more difficult than ever before. It will challenge you and Mr. DeLaCruz won't let you slack for even a moment.

This summer you will be sitting in the sun thinking about how happy you are that one, or more, of your classes will not be affecting your GPA. Then, you will realize that it is Saturday afternoon and you haven't read your book yet and you have to write a 1000 word or more paper on it before midnight.

When winter break eventually comes around and all your non AP English friends are talking about going away for the weekend to ski and want to know if you can come with, don't feel bad when you have to say no because you have a five page paper due about contrasting elements in two books you have not read yet. We've all been there. You are not alone.

However, the class isn't all bad. As you go on you will see symbolism wherever you go. Even where you least expect. For instance, last night I was watching ANTM with some fellow AP Englishers and there were two models fighting. Now, the first thing we think is "Oh, the girl we hate is wearing black and the girl we like is wearing white. It's good versus evil!" Yes. It gets that bad. Everything you see and think about will be in AP English terms.

AP English will change the way your write, analyze and read anything. It will challenge you more than ever before. You will have huge papers and projects about books that are apparently in the "Literary Cannon" but have never heard before. You might even be able to use your literary knowledge to win a $20 trivia bet with creepy guys on Spring Break.

In conclusion, despite my complaints about this class, you will love it. You will learn so much about literature and realize that, at least according to Mr. D, everything in the world has to do with death and sex (two topics that Mr. D loves talking about. If he talks about sex, then laughs, don't worry, he's just weird). The class is a lot of fun and makes you step out of your comfort zone and definitely prepares you for the upcoming AP exam.

Best of luck to each and every one of you!
Samantha Ruiz
PS-
My advice: read the books. If you don't spark notes them, read both the summary and the analysis. If not both, just the summary. And when it comes to Shakespeare, No Fear Shakespeare is way easier to understand than the fatty text book, which you can leave in your locker most of the time. Once again, good luck!

Reflection

Now, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. -Winston Churchill

I just wanted to start my thing with a Churchill quote. I figured it'd make it seem important. But yeah, about AP English... It's a strange experience, sitting here on the last day of this class, typing to all you seniors-to-be. I put a lot of time and effort into this class, needless to say, and I got a lot out of it in return. Granted, in ten years I probably won't have any need to know the difference between metonymy and synecdoche (and I still can't keep them straight as it is), but who's to say? The important stuff I learned was taken more from the overall messages of the books and discussions than from any particular definition.

I'll be honest: some of the books you'll read (or avoid reading) will be far from your tastes. For example, while I was reading A Tale of Two Cities, I really despised Dickens' writing style, and it made the book really difficult to read. But once we started discussing the book in class, I began to pick up on what the book was actually about, and I realized that I actually liked it. I'm sure many of you will have a similar experience with that novel.

If you asked me what my favorite things from AP English were, I would start with Catcher in the Rye. Now, I know that this is a very controversial book, but I'll just say that Holden, while wrong in his applications, has some interesting ideas. That particular novel articulated certain frustrations I had myself, and showed me how not to take them out on everyone else.

A quick note here: when you come into this class, realize that everything is either about sex or death. In the class, there's really no taboos. If you think a poem or something is all about sex, say so. One of the worst mistakes you can make in this class is being afraid to say what you think. Who knows? You might be right.

The only real gripe I had with the class (besides Heart of Darkness) was the workload. Granted, this was a fairly big gripe. You do a lot of stuff in this class, and it really eats your free time. On multiple occasions I had to stay up until 3 a.m. to finish a project for the next day. I'd tell you not to do that, except it worked for me. I wouldn't exactly recommend trying it if you need your eight hours of sleep (that means you, Liz), but if that's how you function best, then go for it.

All in all, AP English was a good experience. Unpleasant at times, sure. But I think I'm glad I took it.

Advanced Placement English Blog Directions

Over the course of the summer, you have agreed by contract to read a number of books for our AP English class. Good for you! In correlation with this work, you will need to participate in a team weblog -- or blog -- where you will write about some open-ended topics related to your summer reading or to literature in general. Here are directions and information for this assignment.

First things first: your participation in this blog is your first assignment, and it alone will comprise 20 % of your first nine week's grade.

Second, you must participate in 6 out of the 8 weekly blog sessions. Each week there will be a different objective to fulfill. The sessions start the first full week in July and end near the end of August. I will begin each session with a detailed explanation of the week's objective and, very likely, an example of what I'm looking for. Weeks begin on Sunday and end on Saturday. The weekly dates and topics are the following:

· Week 1 - July 1 - 7: Reflect on the most influential book in your life

· Week 2 - July 8 - 14: Comment on what Sparknotes says about a summer reading book

· Week 3 - July 15 - 21: Write 3 Poems inspired by a summer reading book

· Week 4 - July 22 - 28: Relate themes in a summer reading to current political/societal events

· Week 5 - July 29 - Aug 4: Compare and Contrast the literary style of two authors of your summer reading books

· Week 6 - Aug 5 - 11: Discuss and Explain Classical Allusions and Archetypes in a summer reading book

· Week 7 - Aug 12 - 18: Compare and Contrast two characters from different books in your summer reading

· Week 8 - Aug 19 - 25: Go back and comment on 3 other student postings

Third, now that you know what you must do in general, you must create a member ID to post to our blog. After receiving this document over email from me (my email address is: delacruz@dewitt.edzone.net), you will receive an email from the blog service inviting you to join our blog. Please follow the directions in that email. You can make a user at blogger.com and reach our specific blog page at dewittapeblog.blogspot.com.

Those are the first few steps you need to take. I want you to do just 6 of 8 because it allows some flexibility depending on your summer schedule. Make sure you carefully read the explanation I will post at the start of each week. Aim for between 700 to 1000 words per blog posting. (To check word count, type using Word or Works, go to tools and then Word Count on the menu bar). Each entry will be graded on the following:

Quality of Thought and Expression – The depth and detail of your analysis and how well you express/explain your assertions. How you use vocabulary, sentence structure, and examples.

Length – Aim for between 700 and 1000 words per posting.

Using Quoted Material Correctly and Citing it Correctly

You DO NOT have to write using the 5-paragraph form but should include some sort of introduction with an opinion stated as a fact and a conclusion. If you have a question about anything I have mentioned, LOOK UP THE ANSWER! There are countless free sources of info on the web. I’ve found the following sites useful:

http://www.dictionary.com/ (Check out the language resources link)
owl.english.purdue.edu/
grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/general/glossary.htm

There are other useful websites out there. The point is: be proactive, be resourceful, be the best you can be!

Want extra credit? Okay then, go beyond week eight’s 3 comments and comment on 3 more student posts. The comments should be at least 250 words long a piece. Print out the each comment and the post it corresponds to.

If you have any questions, just contact me. Have a fabulous summer and remember, a good attitude will make this seem like a whole lot more fun! Woo-hoo!