Caged Birds and a Different Kind of Freedom

The best of a Google image search for “caged bird.”

Amid the clamor of grade abatement this past week, you were given a series of questions on rhetoric and style for Francine Prose’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read.” Your assignment was to answer the questions, zeroing in on the ones you believe (being metacognitive, as always) you need help with.

Here is the key: Francine Prose, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read” — Questions on Rhetoric and Style

The questions are reprinted, along with guiding commentary for each response. Read the entire thing. Don’t just skim it. Teach yourself from this. Let this feedback settle in you a bit (like bricks or dead words, as Maya Angelou would say). And keep in mind the following:

• This is meant as (and is, obviously) preparation for the AP exam.
• It must be done entirely at home, since we are using class time for writing work.
• Only by reading and processing this key can you ask me to help you with individual questions.
• You should be ready at this exact moment to look at this key and apply it to your answers.

That last one is probably most important to those of you who are sort of collapsing under the realization that everything you did last quarter was (1) noted by your teacher and (2) part of the grade abatement profile. Everything counts. If you didn’t read Prose and/or complete the QORAS I gave you, you have failed to juggle your responsibilities.

Send me your questions about the Prose QORAS over email. I’ll arrange feedback in small groups or individually based on that. Get this done by Tuesday; we’ll be moving on to other reading on reading at that point.

Po Bronson’s “Learning to Lie” + Notes on Rhetoric

First, a serious mea culpa: When I introduced this essay on Monday, I referred to Po Bronson as “she” during the entire prefatory speech. I don’t really have any explanation for this, except that my immune system is attempting to murder me; serious disorientation tends to play with one’s self-editing. Our next author is a woman, and I got ahead of myself. And if that mistake, careless as it was, doesn’t seem like it deserves to be at the top of this post, know this: The details matter.

(Well, some details matter. Misspelling a word here or there isn’t a big deal; screwing up the gender of the author you’re studying sort of is. More on the distinction between the forest and its trees below.)

Now to the text: We’re using Bronson’s essay, “Learning to Lie,” for two reasons: first, to segue into next quarter’s study of lying as a cultural phenomenon; second, as fodder for midterm practice. You’ll get a formal outline of the midterm when we’re closer to the date; for now, just note the two halves of the exam:

1. A set of questions on rhetoric and style for a full-length essay; the essay will be given the week before, but the questions will be held until the exam date
2. A timed synthesis essay written to a prompt of your own creation

Bronson will help you prep for the questions on rhetoric and style. Load the essay through one of the two links below; read carefully, annotating it as you would any text; and then bring your observations and analysis to class on Wednesday. You’ll be able to use the comments section here to ask questions and hold conversations generated by our in-class discussion. You’re also encouraged to use Google Groups to extend our in-class work.

After the jump, you’ll find a brief review of what to look for in a text like this. Here is the essay:

• “Learning to Lie” online at New York Magazine
• “Learning to Lie” formatted as a PDF

Now to the forest:

QORAS: Edelstein’s “Now Playing”

The following article and attendant set of questions on rhetoric and style have been edited and altered somewhat from the unit overview. Use these in place of those.

• Reading: “Now Playing at Your Local Multiplex: Torture Porn” by David Edelstein (2006)
• Thinking and Writing: Adversarial Questions on Rhetoric and Style (Edelstein)

You’ll have a day to read the article and start to answer the questions, and then we will break up a collective read-through by addressing as many of them as we can. This will be done as an adversarial, which means that you will be called on directly; after the initial attempt, you will be able to work in groups to flesh out answers, and you will earn points both individually and in groups toward a Q2 adversarial score. On Friday, you will be able to choose which of these questions we begin with; if you prepare in advance, you can accelerate your learning of the material by quite a bit.

Because next week is truncated by Thanksgiving, we will revisit our plans then. We may continue with Edelstein, switch to Dustin Rowles and Captivity, or break entirely for three days on Native American mascots. Regardless of the decision there, you can use the comments section of this post to earn adversarial credit for discussing and refining your understanding of these questions. [Note: Comments closed 11/28 at 7:30am.]

Note: You may also with to create a Google Drive document in which you collaborate in groups or as an entire class on these questions. That kind of work will earn you adversarial credit; just make sure to share the document with me before you get going.

Rhetorical Analysis: King’s “Horror”

On 11/13/12, you wrote a timed rhetorical analysis essay. Here is the free-writing guide to this kind of prompt, which was distributed in class on Friday, and here is the prompt itself:

Complete this response after reading and annotating “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” a 1982 article by horror writer Stephen King. Read King’s argument carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze the rhetorical strategies King uses to develop his position about why we crave horror movies.

Guidelines:

• You may use any notes and handouts you like while writing this response.
• You must obviously use your copy of the text.
• Refer as much as possible to specific paragraphs; number them quickly before beginning your response.
• Outline your response first.
• Remember to use quotations and specific details as necessary and efficacious.
• Try to include sentences that utilizes a version of the subject-verb-object construction given to you in your free response preparatory materials. As you write these sentences, underline them in your response.
• Include an explicit thesis statement in your introductory paragraph.

 Q1 note: The content grade for this response may be held in abeyance until the start of second quarter. That depends on whether or not I can find enough time to score these during the week. You may also receive a separate content score on your approach, specifically the thesis and introduction of your response.

You read King’s essay on Wednesday the 7th; then you had two days to consider his strategies and the essential questions answered by his essay. Over the weekend, you had time to focus more on those essential questions and review a guide to writing rhetorical analysis essays. Your performance on this essay reflects your understanding of King, your ability to control an essay analyzing his rhetorical strategies, and—most importantly—your investment in a process that spanned most of a week.

This should ring familiar as you read the many other pieces of feedback here, in class, through your email, and through Google Drive; we are interested, as we turn the corner into Q2, in your level of investment and the fruit it bears.