AP English Language & Composition Exam Prompts (1981 to 2017)

YEAR Question 1 (Synthesis) Question 2 (Rhetorical Analysis) Question 3 (Argumentative) 1981 “The Rattler”- analyze effect on reader – George Bernard Shaw letter – describe Thomas Szasz – argue for or against his consider organization, point of view, writer’s attitude toward mother & her position on the struggle for definition. Use language, detail. cremation – diction and detail readings, study, or experience.

1982 A reading on happiness – summarize his Analyze the strategies or devices Describe a place, conveying feeling reasons for his opinion and explain why (organization, diction, tone, detail) that through concrete and specific detail. you agree or not with his opinion make Gov. Stevenson’s Cat Veto argument effective. 1983 A quote on change - Select a change for the Excerpt from Thomas Carlyle’s Past and Agree or disagree with the position in the better that has occurred or that you want to Present – define Carlyle’s attitude toward passage on living in an era of language occur; analyze its desirable and undesirable work and analyze how he uses language inflation by considering the ethical and effects to convince…. social consequences of language inflation. 1984 Explain the nature and importance of two Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Milton – A passage on a boxing match between or three means by which you keep track of two very short quotes on freedom – Benny Paret, a Cuban, and Emile Griffith – time and discuss how these means reveal describe the concept of freedom in each; Analyze how diction, syntax, imagery, and your person. (Hint given about “inner discuss the differences. tome produce an effect on the reader. clocks.”) 1985 Contrast stylistic and rhetorical differences Discuss the probable reasons for an Defend a position or one or more issues between two passages on the Soviet Launch anonymous writer’s additions and raised in the passage about the state of of the first space satellite deletions and the ways in which those television in the United States. revisions change the effect of the paragraph. Two drafts that record the writer’s thoughts on how the experience of war affected his attitude toward language. 1986 Explain how the two passages below by N. Choose one or more pairs of words from a Evaluate the truth of the assertion in the Scott Momaday and Dee Brown, which list and discuss and elaborate on the quotation that human nature wants describe similar landscapes, reveal the distinctions between the paired words. patterns, standards, and structures of differences in the authors’ purposes. Consider how, when, why, and by whom behavior. Consider diction, syntax, imagery, and tone. each word might be used.

YEAR Question 1 (Synthesis) Question 2 (Rhetorical Analysis) Question 3 (Argumentative)

1987 Agree or disagree with E. M. Forster’s view Analyze how Zora Neale Hurston enriches Describe some major features of the that personal relations are more important our sense of her childhood world through language used in one specific group – than causes or patriotism. her diction and manipulation of point of occupational, ethnic, social, or age, etc. view. Indicate the purpose these features serve or what influences they reflect. 1988 Evaluate Alexis De Tocqueville’s assertions Analyze Frederick Douglass’ language, Pretend to contribute to a magazine or about democracy and aristocracy and his especially the figures of speech and newspaper; write an article describing a assertion that democracy “throws [man] syntax, to convey his states of mind upon place you know well that might be of back forever upon himself alone.” escaping slavery and arriving in New interest to readers. Define the York in 1838. significance, use descriptive detail to make attitude clear. 1989 Argue for or against the validity of the Describe the rhetorical purpose of Martin Missing implied criticism of a church bulletin [text Luther King’s Why We Can’t Wait. Analyze given] reprinted without other comment in its stylistic, narrative, and persuasive a magazine under the heading “The devices. Religious Life.” 1990 From an autobiography of a professional Analyze stylistic and rhetorical Vividly and concretely describe one woman pilot in Africa, analyze how the differences between two nineteenth person seen at two different times or in author’s juxtaposition of ideas, choice of century descriptions of the Galapagos two different situations so readers details, and other aspects of style reveal her Islands understand the difference in your personality. attitude, thus proving perceptions of people differ according to people’s attitudes and circumstances 1991 Analyze the language and rhetorical devices Analyze how Richard Rodriquez’s Write a persuasive essay that defends, Igor Stravinsky uses to convey his point of presentation of the events in the passage challenges, or qualifies the assertion that view about orchestra conductors. suggests his attitude toward his family “For in much wisdom is much grief, and and himself. Consider narrative structure, increase of knowledge is increase of detail, manipulation of language, and sorrow” (Ecclesiastes). tone. 1992 Analyze Queen Elizabeth I’s diction, Using your observation, experience, or Considering the choice of the word imagery, and sentence structure to achieve reading, defend, challenge, or qualify “cripple” and other rhetorical features, her purpose in her speech to her troops at Joseph Addison’s assertion that men use such as tone, word choice, and rhetorical Tilbury, 1588. ridicule to “laugh men out of virtue and structure, analyze how Nancy Mairs, who good sense.” has multiple sclerosis, presents herself.

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1993 Compare the rhetorical strategies – such as Defend, challenge, or qualify H. L. Read the paragraph for E. M. Forster’s arguments, assumptions, attitudes, diction Mencken’s views about the artist’s 1936 essay “My Wood.” Define Forster’s – used by characters from Jane Austen relation to society. Refer to particular attitude toward the experience of owning (1813) and Charles Dickens (1865). writers, composers, or other artists. property and analyze that attitude; Comment on both intended and probable consider Forster’s word choice, effects of the proposals on the women being manipulation of sentences, and use of addressed Biblical Allusions 1994 From an excerpt of Sir George Savile’s essay Defend, challenge, or qualify Barbara Characterize and analyze Joan Didion’s about King Charles II (1630 – 1685), define Tuchman’s claim that “wooden- view of the Santa Ana winds. Consider her the attitude Savile would like us to adopt headedness plays a remarkably large role stylistic elements, such as diction, about Charles II and analyze the rhetorical … in human affairs.” Use evidence and/or imagery, syntax, structure, tone, and strategies employed to promote that your observations. (From The March of selection of detail. attitude. Folly) 1995 In 1860, John Ruskin argued for giving Analyze the rhetorical techniques Ellen After reading his paragraph, defend, precedence to the soldier rather than to the Goodman uses to convey her attitude challenge, or qualify James Baldwin’s merchant or manufacturer. Evaluate his toward Phil, the subject of her piece, “The ideas about the importance of language as argument. (Excerpt included) Company Man.” a “key to identity” and social acceptance. Use your observation, experience, or readings. 1996 Read the passage from Lady Mary Wortley Read the passage from A Summer Life and Using your own knowledge and Montague’s letter to her daughter. Analyze analyze some of the ways in which Gary experience, defend, challenge, or qualify how Lady Mary (1689 – 1762) uses Soto recreates the experience of his guilty Lewis Lapham’s view of “the American rhetorical strategies and stylistic devices to six-year old self. Consider such devices as faith in money” from Money and Class in convey her views about the role knowledge contrast, reputation, pacing, diction, and America. (25 line excerpt included.) played in the lives of women of her time. imagery. 1997 Read the passage from Meena Alexander’s Read the passage from the 1845 Using your own critical understanding of Fault Lines and analyze how Alexander uses Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, contemporary society, agree or disagree language to explore and represent her an American Slave, noting such elements with Neil Postman’s assertion that Aldous fractured identity. as syntax, figurative language, and Huxley’s vision of society in Brave New selection of detail. Write an essay in World is more relevant today than is which you identify stylistic elements that George Orwell’s in 1984. distinguish third paragraph from the rest of the passage and discuss how that difference is significant

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1998 Paying particular attention to tone, analyze From Henry James’s novel The Portrait of After reading the two letters between an the techniques Charles Lamb uses to a Lady, read the conversation between executive of the Coca-Cola company and a decline William Wordsworth’s invitation to Madame Merle and Isabel Archer, noting representative of Grove Press, analyze the visit him in the country. their conflicting views about what rhetorical strategies each writer uses to constitutes the self. In a persuasive essay, achieve his purpose and explain which demonstrate which of the two letter offers the more persuasive case. conceptions of the self has greater validity. Use specific evidence from your observation, experience or reading. 1999 After reading two passages about Florida’s After reading the [3 columns long] After thinking about the implications of Okefenokee Swamp, analyze how the opening from Jamaica Kincaid’s essay, the excerpt from Antigone, explore the distinctive style of each reveals the purpose “On Seeing England for the First Time,” validity of the assertion that “The only / of its writer. analyze the rhetorical strategies Kincaid Crime is pride.” Use examples from your employs to convey her attitude toward reading, observation, or experience. England. 2000 Eudora Welty recalls reading and books George Orwell uses Gandhi to argue for Paraphrase King Lear’s comment that that influenced her craft as a writer. choosing human imperfection over wealth covers sin and injustice. Defend, Analyze how Welty’s language conveys sainthood. Analyze how Orwell criticizes challenge, or qualify his view of the intensity and value of reading. Gandhi’s position & how Orwell develops relationship between wealth and justice. his own position. 2001 George Eliot’s letter to an American woman Analyze how Mary Oliver’s style about Support, refute, qualify Susan Sontag’s M. F. Peirce. Analyze the rhetorical owls conveys the complexity of her claim that photography limits strategies Eliot uses to establish her response to nature. understanding of the world. Use position about the development of a writer. appropriate evidence. 2002 Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address was a Analyze how Virginia Woolf uses Support, refute, or qualify Czech writer short speech in which he contemplated the language to convey the lasting Milan Kundera’s claims as expressed in an effects of the Civil War and offered his significance of moments she recalls from excerpt from Testaments Betrayed. Use vision for the future. Analyze the rhetorical her childhood spent in a seaside village in appropriate evidence. strategies Lincoln used to achieve his Cornwall, England. purpose. 2003 Defend, challenge, or qualify Neal Gabler’s Analyze the methods of Alfred Green’s Compare and contrast how John James assertion that entertainment has the 1861 speech to persuade his fellow Audubon and Annie Dillard each describe capacity to ruin society. African Americans to join the Union a flock of birds in flight and how they forces. convey the birds’ effect on the writer as observer.

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2004 Analyze how the rhetorical strategies used Choose a controversial local, national, or Analyze how Richard Rodriguez uses by Lord Chesterfield in his letter to his son global issue with which you are familiar contrasts between central Mexico and revel his own values. and use appropriate evidence I an essay California to convey and explore his that carefully considers the opposing conflicting feelings in an excerpt from positions on this controversy ad proposes Days of Obligation. a solution or compromise. 2005 Passage from “Training for Statesmanship” A mock press release from The Onion. Peter Singer argues that prosperous by George Kennan. Select his most Analyze the strategies used in the article people should donate to overseas aid compelling observation and consider the to satirize how products are marketed to organizations all money not needed for extent to which that observation holds true. consumers. the basic requirements of life. Evaluate the pros and cons of his argument and indicate which position you find more persuasive. 2005 Lecture delivered in Boston in 1832 by John Barry describes the complex Passage from The Medusa and the Snail by B Maria Stewart, African American educator mechanics of the Mississippi River in Lewis Thomas. Drawing on your own and writer. Analyze the rhetorical strategies Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of reading and experience, write an essay Stewart uses to convey her position. 1927 and How It Changed America. that defends, challenges, or qualifies Analyze how Barry communications his Thomas’s claims. fascination with the river to his readers. 2006 Jennifer Price’s essay examines the William Hazlitt’s “On the Want of Money.” From talk radio to television w, to popularity of the pink plastic flamingo in Analyze the rhetorical strategies he uses popular magazines to Web blogs ordinary the 1950s. Analyze how Price crafts the text to develop his position about money. citizens, political figures, and entertainers to reveal her view of U. S. culture. express their opinions on a wide range of topics. Take a position on the value of such public statements of opinion. 2006 In a well-written essay that draws upon Passage from George Bernard Shaw’s Passage by philosopher Arthur B your reading, experience, or observations Saint Joan. Analyze the rhetorical Schopenhauer. Write an essay that for support, take a position on the issue of strategies the Inquisitor uses to argue his defends, challenges, or qualifies one of compulsory voting. case against Joan. Schopenhauer’s claims. 2007 First Synthesis – based on six sources, all In Staying Put: Making a Home in a Develop a position on the ethics of about advertising. Develop a position on the Restless World, Scott Russell Sanders offering incentives for charitable acts and effects of advertising and synthesize at least responds to an essay by Salman Rushdie, support your position with evidence from three of the sources for support. both of which discuss the effect of mass your reading, observation, and/or migrations. Analyze the strategies experience. Sanders uses to develop his perspective about moving.

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2007 Based on six sources concerning museum In the Introduction to Poison Penmanship: Speech delivered by Wendell Phillips, a B artifacts and decisions made to include a The Gentle Art of Muckraking, Jessica prominent white American abolitionist, particular piece of art or an artifact. Mitford says that it is an honor to be praising Toussaint L’Ouverture, Haitian Develop a position on the most important considered a muckraker. Do you agree or liberator. Analyze the strategies the considerations facing the person do you think that journalists who search speaker uses to praise his subject and responsible for securing a new work of art out and expose real or apparent move his audience. or an artifact for a museum. Synthesize at misconduct go too far in the pursuit of least three of the sources for support. their stories. Explain your position. 2008 Based on seven sources concerning the Passage from John M. Barry’s The Great Some people argue that corporate elimination of the penny as the smallest Influenza. Analyze how Barry uses partnerships are a necessity for cash- American denomination. Develop a position rhetorical strategies to characterize strapped schools. Others argue that on whether or not the penny should be scientific research. schools should provide an environment eliminated and synthesize at least three of free from ads and corporate influence. the sources for support. Using appropriate evidence, write an essay in which you evaluate the pros and cons of corporate sponsorship for schools and indicate why you find one position more persuasive than the other. 2008 Based on six sources concerning a defined Passage from “America Needs Its Nerds” Read an excerpt from The Decline of B national school curriculum. Develop a by Leonid Fridman. Analyze how Fridman Radicalism by Daniel Boorstin and position on whether or not there should be develops his argument. consider the implications of the specific texts that all students of high school distinction Boorstin makes between English should read. Synthesize at least dissent and disagreement. Defend, three of the sources for support. challenge, or qualify Boorstin’s distinction. 2009 Based on eight sources concerning space Two passages from Edwin Wilson’s The Write an essay that defends, challenges, exploration. Develop a position about what Future of Life satirizing the language of or qualifies Horace’s assertion that the issues should be considered most two groups that hold opposing attitudes role of adversity (financial or political important in making decisions about space about environmentalism. Analyze how hardship, danger, misfortune, etc.) plays exploration and synthesize at least three of Wilson’s satire illustrates the in developing a person’s character. the sources for support. unproductive nature of such discussions. Support your argument with evidence from your reading, observation, or experience

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2009 Based on seven sources concerning public Passage from “The Indispensable Passage from The Worst Years of Our Lives B education. Choose an issue related to the Opposition” by Walter Lippmann. Analyze by Barbara Ehrenreich, about life in the tension in schools between individuality the strategies Lippmann uses to develop 1980s. Support, refute, or qualify and conformity. Write an essay in which his argument. Ehrenreich’s assertions about television. you use this issue to argue the extent to which schools should support individuality or conformity. Synthesize at least three of the sources for support. 2010 Based on six sources concerning Excerpt from letter from Benjamin In his 2004 book, Status Anxiety, Alain de information technology. Our daily lives Banneker, former slave, to Thomas Botton argues that the chief aim of seem to be saturated with television, Jefferson (1791). Write an essay that humorists is not merely to entertain but computers, cell phones, personal digital analyzes how Banneker uses rhetorical “to convey with impunity messages that assistants (PDAs), and MP3 players, etc. In strategies to argue against slavery. might be dangerous or impossible to state an essay that synthesizes at least three of directly.” Think about the implications of the sources for support, evaluate the most de Botton’s view of the role of humorists important factors that a school should (cartoonists, stand-up comics, satirical consider before using particular writers, hosts of television programs, technologies in curriculum and instruction. etc.). Then write an essay that defends, challenges, or qualifies de Botton’s claim. 2010 Based on six sources concerning daylight Passage from The Horizontal World, The first Buy Nothing Day—a day on B savings time. Synthesize at least three of the Debra Marquart’s 2006 memoir about which people are urged to purchase no sources into an essay that evaluates growing up in North Dakota. Analyze the goods—was organized in Canada in 1992 daylight saving time and offers a strategies Marquart uses to characterize as a way to increase awareness of recommendation about its continued use. the upper Midwest. excessive consumerism. Consider the implications of a day on which no goods are purchased. Then write an essay in which you develop a position on the establishment of an annual Buy Nothing Day.

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2011 Based on seven sources concerning Speech by Florence Kelley (1859-1932), a Passage from Rights of Man, a book locavores, people who have decided to eat United States social worker and reformer written by the pamphleteer Thomas locally grown or produced products as who fought successfully for child labor Paine in 1791. Born in England, Paine was much as possible, for sustainability and laws and improved conditions for an intellectual, a revolutionary, and a nutrition. Imagine that a community is working women, delivered before the supporter of American independence considering organizing a locavore convention of the National American from England. Write an essay that movement. In an essay that synthesizes at Woman Suffrage Association in examines the extent to which Paine’s least three of the sources identify the key Philadelphia on July 22, 1905. Analyze the characterization of America holds true issues associated with the locavore rhetorical strategies Kelley uses to today. movement and examine their implications convey her message about child labor to for the community. her audience. 2011 Based on six sources concerning green Letter written by Samuel Johnson in American essayist and social critic H. L. B living (practices that promote the response to a woman who had asked him Mencken (1880–1956) wrote, “The conservation and wise use of natural to obtain the archbishop of Canterbury’s average man does not want to be free. He resources). Synthesize at least three of the patronage to have her son sent to the simply wants to be safe.” Examine the sources into an essay that develops a university. Write an essay in which you extent to which Mencken’s observation position on the extent to which government analyze how Johnson crafts his denial of applies to contemporary society, should be responsible for fostering green the woman’s request. supporting your position with practices. appropriate evidence.

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2012 Based on eight sources concerning the US On April 10, 1962, as the United States Consider the distinct perspectives Postal Service. Synthesize information from was emerging from a recession, the expressed in the following statements. at least three of the sources and nation’s largest steel companies raised “If you develop the absolute sense of incorporate it into a coherent, well- steel prices by 3.5 percent. President John certainty that powerful beliefs provide, developed essay that argues a clear position F. Kennedy, who had repeatedly called for then you can get yourself to accomplish on whether the USPS should be stable prices and wages as part of a virtually anything, including those things restructured to meet the needs of a program of national sacrifice during a that other people are certain are changing world, and if so, how. period of economic distress, held a news impossible.” --William Lyon Phelps, conference on April 11, 1962, which he American educator, journalist, and opened with the following commentary professor (1865–1943) regarding the hike in steel prices. Write “I think we ought always to entertain an essay in which you analyze the our opinions with some measure of rhetorical strategies President Kennedy doubt. I shouldn’t wish people uses to achieve his purpose. dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine.” --Bertrand Russell, British author, mathematician, and philosopher (1872–1970) In a well-organized essay, take a position on the relationship between certainty and doubt. Support your argument with appropriate evidence and examples.

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2013 The need to memorialize events or people Passage from Last Child in the Woods by For centuries, prominent thinkers have is complex; in some cases, monuments Richard Louv. Write an essay in which pondered the relationship between honor moments of great achievement, while you analyze the rhetorical strategies Louv ownership and the development of self in other cases, monuments pay homage to uses to develop his argument about the (identity), ultimately asking the question, deep sacrifice. A monument’s size, location, separation between people and nature. “What does it mean to own something?” and materials are all considerations in Plato argues that owning objects is planning and creating a memorial to the detrimental to a person’s character. past. Aristotle claims that ownership of Based on seven sources concerning tangible goods helps to develop moral memorialization. Synthesize information character. Twentieth-century philosopher from at least three of the sources and Jean-Paul Sartre proposes that ownership incorporate into an essay that examines the extends beyond objects to include factors a group or agency should consider intangible things as well. In Sartre’s view, in memorializing an event or person and in becoming proficient in some skill and creating a monument. knowing something thoroughly means that we “own” it. Think about the differing views of ownership. Then write an essay in which you explain your position on the relationship between ownership and sense of self. Use appropriate evidence from your reading, experience, or observations to support your argument.

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2014 Many recent college graduates have faced In a letter, Abigail Adams writes to her Authors Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman record levels of unemployment. This son John Quincy Adams, who is traveling published “The Creativity Crisis” in situation has led people to question what abroad with his father, John Adams, a Newsweek.com in July 2010. They reported they value about higher education. Some United States diplomat and later the that the Torrance Test, a test of creativity high school students and their parents are country’s second president. In a well- that has been administered to millions of people worldwide in 50 languages, indicates wondering if a college education is worth developed essay, analyze the rhetorical that the public’s “creativity quotient” has the cost. Others, however, believe that a strategies Adams uses to advise her son. steadily crept downward since 1990. In their college education prepares students for article, Bronson and Merryman cite the claim more than just a job or career. of Professor Kyung Hee Kim at the College of Based on six sources concerning the William and Mary: “It’s very clear, and the value of a college education, synthesize decrease is very significant.” Kim reports that information from at least three of the it is the scores of younger children in sources and incorporate it into a coherent, America—from kindergarten through sixth well-developed essay that evaluates grade—for whom the decline is “most whether college is worth its cost. serious.” Bronson and Merryman state that “[t]he potential consequences are sweeping. The necessity of human ingenuity is undisputed. A recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the No. 1 ‘leadership competency’ of the future. Yet it’s not just about sustaining our nation’s economic growth. All around us are matters of national and international importance that are crying out for creative solutions, from saving the Gulf of Mexico to bringing peace to Afghanistan to delivering health care. Such solutions emerge from a healthy marketplace of ideas, sustained by a populace constantly contributing original ideas and receptive to the ideas of others.” One possible approach to this reputed decline in creativity is to explicitly teach creative thinking in school. Write to your school board explaining what you mean by creativity and arguing for or against the creation of a class in creativity. 2012 Based on eight sources concerning the US On April 10, 1962, as the United States Consider the distinct perspectives Postal Service. Synthesize information from was emerging from a recession, the expressed in the following statements. at least three of the sources and nation’s largest steel companies raised “If you develop the absolute sense of incorporate it into a coherent, well- steel prices by 3.5 percent. President John certainty that powerful beliefs provide,

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2015 Many high schools, colleges, and On the tenth anniversary of the An anthropologist studying first-year universities have honor codes or honor assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, students at a university in the United systems: sets of rules or principles that are Jr., labor union organizer and civil rights States writes that friendly phrases like intended to cultivate integrity. These rules leader Cesar Chavez published an article “How are you?,” “Nice to meet you,” and or principles often take the form of written in the magazine of a religious “Let’s get in touch” communicate positions on practices like cheating, organization devoted to helping those in politeness rather than literal intent. What, stealing, and plagiarizing as well as on the need. Read the following excerpt from the if anything, is the value or function of consequences of violating the established article carefully. Then, in a well-written such polite speech? codes. essay, analyze the rhetorical choices In a well-written essay, develop your Chavez makes to develop his argument position on the value or function of polite Carefully read the following six sources, about nonviolent resistance. speech in a culture or community with including the introductory information for which you are familiar. Use appropriate each source. Then synthesize information evidence from your reading, experience, from at least three of the sources and or observations to support your incorporate it into a coherent, well- argument. developed argument for your own position on whether your school should establish, maintain, revise, or eliminate an honor code or honor system.

Your argument should be the focus of your essay. Use the sources to develop your argument and explain the reasoning for it. Avoid merely summarizing the sources. Indicate clearly which sources you are drawing from, whether through direct quotation, paraphrase, or summary. You may cite the sources as Source A, Source B, etc., or by using the descriptions in parentheses.

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2016 Over the past several decades, the English On June 11, 2004, Margaret Thatcher, the In 1891, Irish author Oscar Wilde (1854- language has become increasingly former prime minister of Great Britain, 1900) observed, “Disobedience, in the globalized, and is not seen by many delivered the following eulogy to the eyes of anyone who has read history, is [people] as the dominant language in American people in honor of former man’s original virtue. It is through international finance, science, and politics. United States President Ronald Reagan, disobedience that progress has been Concurrent with the worldwide spread of with whom she had worked closely. Read made, through disobedience and through English is the decline of foreign-language the eulogy carefully. Then, in a well- rebellion.” learning in English-speaking countries, developed essay, analyze the rhetorical where monolingualism – the use of a single strategies that Thatcher uses to convey Wilde claims that disobedience is a language – remains the norm. her message. valuable human trait and that it promotes social progress. Write an essay that Carefully read the following six sources, argues your position on the extent to including the introductory information for which Wilde’s claims are valid. Use each source. Then synthesize information appropriate examples from your reading, from at least three of the sources, and [personal] experience, or observations to incorporate it into a coherent, well- support your argument. developed essay that argues a clear position on whether monolingual English speakers are at a disadvantage today.

Your argument should be the focus of your essay. Use the sources to develop your argument and explain the reasoning for it. Avoid merely summarizing the sources. Indicate clearly which sources you are drawing from, whether through direct quotation, paraphrase, or summary. You may cite the sources as Source A, Source B, etc., or by using the descriptions in parentheses.

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2017 As the Internet age changes what and how The passage below is the opening to a The passage below is an excerpt from people read, there has been considerable speech made in 1960 by American Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges. Read debate about the future of public libraries. journalist and politician Clare Boothe the passage carefully. Then write an essay While some commentators question Luce to journalists at the Women’s in which you develop a position on whether libraries can stay relevant, others National Press Club. In this speech, Luce Hedges’ argument that “the most see new possibilities for libraries in the went on to criticize the tendency of the essential skill… is artifice.” Use changing dynamics of today’s society. American press to sacrifice journalistic appropriate, specific evidence to illustrate integrity in favor of perceived public and develop your position. Carefully read the following six sources, demand for sensational stories. Read the including the introductory information for passage carefully. Then, in a well- “The most essential skill in political each source. Then synthesize information developed essay, analyze HOW Luce uses theatre and a consumer culture is artifice. from at least three of the sources, and this introduction to prepare the audience Political leaders, who use the tools of incorporate it into a coherent, well- for her message. Support your analysis of mass propaganda to create a sense of faux developed essay in which you develop a her rhetoric with specific references to intimacy with citizens, no longer need to position on the role, if any, that public the text. be competent, sincere, or honest. They libraries should serve in the future. need only to appear to have these qualities. Most of all they need a story, a Your argument should be the focus of your personal narrative. The reality of the essay. Use the sources to develop your narrative is irrelevant. It can be argument and explain the reasoning for it. completely at offs with the facts. The Avoid merely summarizing the sources. consistence and emotional appeal of the Indicate clearly which sources you are story are paramount. Those who are best drawing from, whether through direct at deception succeed. Those who have not quotation, paraphrase, or summary. You mastered the art of entertainment, who may cite the sources as Source A, Source B, fail to create a narrative or do not have etc., or by using the descriptions in one fashioned for them by their handlers, parentheses. are ignored. They become ‘unreal’. An image-based culture communicates through narratives, pictures, and pseudo- drama.”