AP Lang Unit 4: Week 1 Objective: Identify and describe the overarching thesis of an argument, and any indication it provides of the argument’s structure. Review Questions: 1. What is a thesis statement? __________________________________________________ 2. What is exigence? ____________________________________________________ 3. What is connotative language? ___________________________________________ 4. What is denotative language? ___________________________________________ 5. What are the three main components of the rhetorical triangle? _________________ Determining the thesis statement of a text. How can we determine the author's thesis even when it's not explicitly stated? Thinking about the subject, exigence, and tone of a text can help you determine the author's thesis. The following excerpt is from then President Ronald Reagan's 1986 address to the nation, after NASA's Challenger space shuttle broke apart 73 secs into its flight, killing all 7 of its crew members on live television: “And I want to say something to the school children of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them." -Subject, Tone, Exigence • Based on this excerpt, the reader can infer that the subject of the text is advancement of man. Regan makes a point to center exploration, discovery, and expansion as the central focus of his speech. • In using those words, (exploration, discovery, and expansion), Regan sets an adventurous almost heroic tone. He also relies on pathos to instill a sense of pride and wistfulness in his audience by stating that the future belongs to the brave. • As is evidenced by this mention of bravery, the exigence of this text is rooted in Regan's plea to his target audience: a call to action for the youth of America to not give up on the science of discovery. • Combining what we have gathered about the subject, tone, and exigence of Reagan's speech, the reader can infer that the following statement would work as a thesis for this text: Tragedy is a part of the trial and error of human advancement; that unforeseen circumstance, while horrific, should never deter man from trying to reach new, figurative heights. Read the passage below and answer the accompanying questions: (The following passage is excerpted from an op-ed published in 2018.) America’s boys are broken. And it’s killing us. The brokenness of the country’s boys stands in contrast to its girls, who still face an abundance of obstacles but go into the world increasingly well equipped to take them on. The past 50 years have redefined what it means to be female in America. Girls today are told that they can do anything, be anyone. They’ve absorbed the message: They’re outperforming boys in school at every level. But it isn’t just about performance. To be a girl today is to be the beneficiary of decades of conversation about the complexities of womanhood, its many forms and expressions. Boys, though, have been left behind. No commensurate movement has emerged to help them navigate toward a full expression of their gender. It’s no longer enough to “be a man”—we no longer even know what that means. Too many boys are trapped in the same suffocating, outdated model of masculinity, where manhood is measured in strength, where there is no way to be vulnerable without being emasculated, where manliness is about having power over others. They are trapped, and they don’t even have the language to talk about how they feel about being trapped, because the language that exists to discuss the full range of human emotion is still viewed as sensitive and feminine. Men feel isolated, confused and conflicted about their natures. Many feel that the very qualities that used to define them—their strength, aggression and competitiveness—are no longer wanted or needed; many others never felt strong or aggressive or competitive to begin with. We don’t know how to be, and we’re terrified. But to even admit our terror is to be reduced, because we don’t have a model of masculinity that allows for fear or grief or tenderness or the day-to-day sadness that sometimes overtakes us all. Case in point: A few days ago, I posted a brief thread about these thoughts on Twitter, knowing I would receive hateful replies in response. I got dozens of messages impugning my manhood; the mildest of them called me a “soy boy” (a common insult among the alt-right* that links soy intake to estrogen). And so the man who feels lost but wishes to preserve his fully masculine self has only two choices: withdrawal or rage. We’ve seen what withdrawal and rage have the potential to do. School shootings are only the most public of tragedies. Others, on a smaller scale, take place across the country daily; another commonality among shooters is a history of abuse toward women. To be clear, most men will never turn violent. Most men will turn out fine. Most will learn to navigate the deep waters of their feelings without ever engaging in any form of destruction. Most will grow up to be kind. But many will not. We will probably never understand why any one young man decides to end the lives of others. But we can see at least one pattern and that pattern is glaringly obvious. It’s boys. I believe in boys. I believe in my son. Sometimes, though, I see him, 16 years old, swallowing his frustration, burying his worry, stomping up the stairs without telling us what’s wrong, and I want to show him what it looks like to be vulnerable and open but I can’t. Because I was a boy once, too. There has to be a way to expand what it means to be a man without losing our masculinity. I don’t know how we open ourselves to the rich complexity of our manhood. I think we would benefit from the same conversations girls and women have been having for these past 50 years. I would like men to use feminism as an inspiration, in the same way that feminists used the civil rights movement as theirs. I’m not advocating a quick fix. There isn’t one. But we have to start the conversation. Boys are broken, and I want to help. From The New York Times, February 21, 2018 © 2018 The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited. 1. What is the subject of this article? If you could sum up what the article is about in one word what would it be? (Think about what the author seems to talk about the most) __________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ 2. What specific parts of the article led you to believe this is the subject matter? Cite at least one line from the article below? ________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ 3. What is the tone of this article? What adjectives can you use to describe the feelings the author (attempts to) invoke(s) with their use of diction, imagery, rhetorical devices etc?_______________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __ 4. What is this author's exigence in this article? What does the author want the reader to walk away knowing, feeling, or understanding? __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ 5. What specific parts of the article led you to believe this is the author's exigence? Cite at least one line from the article below __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ 6. What would be a working thesis statement for this text?______________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ ___ Formulating A Thesis Statement In 1933 British journalist and writer Vera Brittain (1893–1970) published Testament of Youth, a volume of memoirs that depicted her coming-of-age and maturation during the years 1900–1925. The following passage is an excerpt from Brittain’s memoir in which she reflects on her early educational experiences. Read the passage carefully. Compose a thesis statement you might use for an essay analyzing the rhetorical choices Brittain makes to convey her perspective on education for British girls in the early twentieth century. Then select at least four pieces of evidence from the passage and explain how they support your thesis. In your response you should do the following: • Respond to the prompt with a thesis that analyzes the writer’s rhetorical choices. •