Follow A Columnist – 1st Semester Originated by Jim Veal; modified by S. Ables 2/5/2016 Some of the most prominent practitioners of stylish written rhetoric in our culture are newspaper columnists. Sometimes they are called pundits – that is, sources of opinion, or critics. On the reverse side find a list of well-know newspaper columnists. Select one (or another one that I approve of) and complete the tasks below. Please start a new page and label as TASK # each time you start a new task. TASK 1: Inform Ms. Ables of your selection for the columnist you will follow. DUE THUR/FRI September 15/16 TASK 1—Brief Biography to reveal their bias. DUE TUES/WED September 27/28 — 10 points Write a brief (100-200 word) biography of the columnist. Suggestions of details to include: birthdate, childhood, education, career, previous jobs, awards, unique experiences, etc. I suggest you import a picture of the author if possible. TASK 2—Five Annotated Columns, complete with a Rhetorical Triangle. DUE TUE/WED November 29/30—50 points Make copies from newspapers or magazines or download them from the internet. All articles must come from the current year. I suggest cutting and pasting the columns into Microsoft word and double-spacing them because it makes them easier to annotate and work with. Your annotations should emphasize such things as: - the assertion of the columnist - identify appeals to logos, pathos, or ethos - what rhetorical strategies are being used to support their assertion? - the tone (or tones) of the column - errors of logic (if any) that appear in the column (logical fallacies) - the way the author uses sources, the type of sources the author uses (Be sure to pay attention to this one!) - the apparent audience the author is writing for - in other words, look for all the components in our Rhetorical Triangle. Turn in with each article, a Work Cited list (following MLA citation guidelines). A printed page attached to the front of all of the annotated articles and rhetorical triangles. TASK 3 – Analysis Essay (in-class) All documents must be brought to class for approval and preparation on January Wednesday/Thursday ______– 18 points Choose a favorite column from Task 2 and write an analysis essay demonstrating understanding of the columnist’s intended assertion and the strategies they employed to support their assertion and attempt to persuade their audience: You will NOT be rendering your opinion. TASK 4 – Final Remarks – DUE – TBD – 10 points Add a statement titled ―Final Remarks. In this reflect on what your learned, what value this had, what you think of the writer or subject matter, etc. TOTAL POINTS POSSIBLE: 88 points (10% of your overall AP Language grade for the 1st semester) Columnists to Select From While it is enticing to select a columnist that has a similar ideology as yourself, I would challenge you to follow either a columnist you do not know or traditionally has different viewpoints than your own. However, whomever you choose is ultimately up to you. (If you have a columnist in mind that is not on the list, please check with me first.) Mike Barnicle Boston Herald L http://www.mikebarnicle.com David Brooks - New York Times columnist. c http://www.miamiherald.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/dave-barry/ Frank Bruni – The New York Times L http://www.nytimes.com/column/frank-bruni Jonathan Capehart – The Washington Post L https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/jonathan-capehart Mona Charen - syndicated columnist. C http://www.nationalreview.com/author/mona-charen Richard Cohen – The Washington Post columnist. L https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/richard-cohen E.J. Dionne – The Washington Post columnist. L https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/ej-dionne-jr Maureen Dowd - The New York Times columnist. L http://www.nytimes.com/column/maureen-dowd Adrienne Lafrance – The Atlantic columnist. Tech http://www.theatlantic.com/author/adrienne-lafrance/ Thomas Friedman - New York Times columnist. L http://www.nytimes.com/pages/opinion/index.html Jonah Goldberg – The National Review columnist. C http://www.nationalreview.com/author/jonah-goldberg Charles Krauthammer – The Washington Post columnist. C https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/charles- krauthammer Paul Krugman - New York Times columnist. L http://www.nytimes.com/column/paul-krugman Peggy Noonan - former presidential speechwriter; Wall Street Journal columnist. C http://www.wsj.com/public/page/peggy-noonan.html Eugene Robinson – The Washington Post L https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/eugene-robinson Thomas Sowell – Hoover Institute scholar. Syndicated columnist C http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/archive.shtml Kimberley Strassel —Wall Street Journal c http://topics.wsj.com/person/S/kimberley-a-strassel/5472 John Stossel — C http://www.realclearpolitics.com/authors/john_stossel/ Cynthia Tucker – Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist. L http://cynthiatucker.com George Will – The Washington Post columnist. C https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/george-f-will Walter E. Williams C http://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/?sc=8259860481507967975/page/2 .