Since the AP11 class focuses primarily on the skills of expository writing, we need to see essay writing in action as a necessary part of building our own skills and voices as writers. To this end, you'll be posting three summaries of articles you find on the web in a variety of journalistic, published sources, on any topics of your interest.
The key, however, is that you're not looking for news articles or "features," but OPINION essays, arguing specific positions on these topics, not describing the various positions held by others on both sides.
Since all students in AP English 11 are also taking AP US History, this is obviously also central to one of the goals of that class, namely, to recognize contemporary issues and controversies as extensions of longstanding, historical tensions within American society.
Hunt for, research, and read as widely as you can from sources like the following as you get better acquainted with current events and identify essays you can summarize to share with your classmates:
(all these publications have tons of online content, where it's easy to find many interesting essays.)
Major newspapers, including
The Los Angeles Times , The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal:
On the websites of both papers, especially interesting are the "Opinion" sections; nytimes.com in particular features longer essays in their "opinionator" section and blogs that what normally would be printed in the paper; many of these include regular outside contributors, experts in various fields who complete 1 or 2 in-depth opinion pieces each month on topics within their fields.
For your actual "chosen" essays that you'll summarize, avoid "editorials," the nameless, stylistically flat short opinion pieces written by the editorial staff, as well as short essays or columns--look for pieces no less than 15 paragraphs, or two full web-pages long.
Other great sources include Online magazines like Slate.com, or the Huffingtonpost.com
Again, these bring together many different kinds (and sizes) of essays; find something interesting that's in-depth.
Finally, investigate "serious" magazines of news, culture, public opinion, such as Harpers, The Atlantic Monthly, or The Economist. You'll find the essays in these much longer and sometimes requiring you to do some extra research about the current events referred to.
You're not restricted to any of these publications, however: use these as a starting place and start hunting. There's a lot to learn about current affairs on the web on sites that offer you a chance to do some serious in-depth reading (even if they lack a "like" button :)- ) and this is the first step to learning more about writing essays. Remember that these are all pieces written by authors who care about these issues and want to move public opinion, not get grades in classes, and it's important to see that essays are a vital tool in our media-driven world.
Look for step 2, how and what to write for your summaries, in our next and final summer post right here by 7/1
-P
