The Writer's Voice: Lessons in Composition
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Suggested ​College Readiness Reading List ​

Resource for AP Language and Composition: THE WRITER'S VOICE: LESSONS IN COMPOSITION,  Lynne Dozier
 Fiction and Nonfiction: Reading fiction novels  and nonfiction books that deal with problems and issues in American society provide invaluable sources of ideas, evidence and experiences. Reading and writing are parallel activities and student writers develop their skills through reading authors who have unique styles and ideas. For success in college, I recommend reading:
                                                                        Autobiography and Memoir
Douglass, Frederick. NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF AN AMERICAN SLAVE. (1845). Former slave and famed abolitionist                                                                          Frederick Douglass describes the horrors of his enslavement and eventual escape.
Galarza, Ernesto. BARRIO BOY.(1971). A story of a young boy who grew up in Jalco during the Mexican Revolution, and had to move to                                        Sacramento, California to get away from the problems and strife.
Gish, Jen. TYPICAL AMERICAN. (1992). Yifeng comes to America to make the American Dream come true in every way: making money in                                   fast food, buying a bargain house in the suburbs and pursuing social status.
Jiang, Ji-Li. RED SCARF GIRL: A MEMOIR OF THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION. (1997). A young Chinese girl must make difficult choices
                               when the government urges her to repudiate her ancestors and inform on her own parents.

Keller. Helen. THE STORY OF MY LIFE. This remarkable woman became an outstanding citizen of her country and of the world in spite of
                                being born both blind and deaf.

Pat Mora. HOUSE OF HOUSES. (1997). With magic and imagination, author Pat Mora weaves the voices of her ancestors into her own
                               personal account of growing up in a Mexican-American family in El Paso, Texas.

Rodriguez, Richard. HUNGER OF MEMORY. (1982). Rodriguez's journey through the educational system leads to his belief that family,
                             culture, and language must be left behind to succeed in mainstream America.

Obama, Barack. DREAMS FROM MY FATHER. (1995). In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African
                               father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American.

Wright, BLACK BOY. (1944). A powerful account of Wright's journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South, it is both an
                               unashamed confession and a profound indictment--a poignant and disturbing record of social injustice and human suffering.

                                                        Political Themes In Fiction
Orwell, George. NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR. Signet Edition. (1977). 
                                                         Media and Literary Criticism
Lawrence, Jerome and Robert E. Lee. (1972). THE NIGHT THOREAU SPENT IN JAIL.
                            Writing Across the Curriculum:  History and English Language Arts 
Suggested "Prompt" for writing expository and argumentative essays:
               Choose a novel from the list below, read it carefully, and then write an essay that explains what it  shows about a significant  political, economic or social  issue  during the historical time period that serves as a setting for the novel. Use evidence from the novel to support your opinion. Avoid mere plot summary.

                                             Colonial America: THE SCARLET LETTER, Nathanael Hawthorne
                                             Pre-Civil War: HUCKLEBERRY FINN, Mark Twin
                                             Civil War: THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, Stephen Crane
                                             The Industrial Revolution: THE JUNGLE, Upton Sinclair
                                             The Lost Generation: THE GREAT GATSBY, F. Scott Fitzgerald
                                             The Great Depression: THE GRAPES OF WRATH, John Steinbeck
                                             World War I: A FAREWELL TO ARMS, Ernest Hemingway
                                             World War II: CATCH 22, Joseph Heller
                                            Vietnam: THE THINGS THEY CARRIED, Tim O'Brien
                                             Post Modern: INVISIBLE MAN, Ralph Ellison
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