MAGNUM OPUS
Synthesis Paper--AP English Literature
Due date: April 17
Suggested length: 2,500--3,000 words
Purposes: 1) To stimulate thorough, thoughtful review of the works we have studied this year and of the works you may use on the Advanced Placement examination; 2) To encourage creative thought as you find thematic and stylistic relationships in several literary works
Study the list of works and topics below. The topics are merely suggested direction; you are encouraged to pursue your own ideas. You may also include discussion of literary works you have studied in previous years in your classes or on your own, provided that the works are of “recognized literary merit.”
Refer to Literature, 1347--1358 for assistance in organization. Look to Literature too for helps on comparison and contrast.
Some guidelines and caveats:
1. You should discuss four to six works in your paper, though you will certainly need to review others as you prepare to undertake your project. An in-depth, integrated discussion of five work is preferable to a superficial discussion of eight or ten works.
2. Plan to turn in your notes and rough drafts with your final draft. You should combine these all in a folder. Keep a copy of your final draft for reference.
3. Some class time will be spent on this project, but you will need to do the bulk of the work on your own.
4. You may wish to consult secondary sources, though this is not required or even desirable. You must document any ideas you take from published sources.
5. Treat Cliff’s Notes and other such documents, whether found in print or online, like other secondary sources. You must document their usage. Footnotes from Cliff’s Notes or Spark Notes will not impress an instructor.
Main books this year
House on Mango Street
Look Homeward, Angel
The Road
Othello
Crime and Punishment
The Power and the Glory
Pride and Prejudice
Poems for consideration from Literature
The poems of William Shakespeare
The poems of John Donne
The poems of Sylvia Plath
The poems of Dylan Thomas
Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” and “The Gift of the Magi.” We expired in terms of “The Waste Land,” but for those enamored with Eliot, please feel free to use that poem as well.
Any of the other many poems which we read, discussed, or pondered in an essay.
Some general topics for papers:
Family in fiction and drama
The handling of time in literary works
The struggle to discover the true self
Breaking away from the past
“Strangers in a strange land”
Alienation
Religious ideas
Love and commitment
The individual vs. the demands of society
If you’re desperate for a topic, think of books, plays, or poems you love, and then consider the ideas and emotions that link them.
Since this paper is your last assignment in this course, it should represent your best work at this stage of your education. It will serve as your major review for the AP test. Take the paper seriously, plan your time and writing well, organize your subject, and write an essay that will leave you feeling proud of yourself--one that will “rock the socks,” as Forrest once wrote, of your teacher and anyone else who reads it!
Deadlines:
Topics: March 13
Thesis/outline: March 20
Rough draft: April 10
Final draft: April 24
Report to class: May 1