AP Language and Composition

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AP Language and Composition

• Its a marvelous Monday!
• September 24, 2007
• Mr. Houghteling

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ACT Bellringer Monday, September 24, 2007
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Ever since Bessie Coleman saw her first
airplanethe wobbly, biplane kindwhen she was a
little girl, she had known that someday, somehow,
she would fly. A. NO CHANGE B. her first
airplane when she was a little girl, she C. her
first airplane when she was a little girl of
small stature, she D. The first flying
object sheat age seven or eightwould ever see,
an airplane, she
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Now that the Navajo code is no longer used, the
code talkers, whose secret work saved American
lives, can finally receive public recognition for
their actions. A. NO CHANGE B. hush-hush
actions C. concealed, hidden efforts D. doings,
secretly kept under wraps,
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Go Short!

• ACT generally loves concise, clear writing.
• Review answer choices from shortest to longest.
• Go Short! helps us understand and delete answer
  choices that are wordy, redundant, or irrelevant.

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What do we do?

• Read the passage that includes the underlined
  text.
• Go to the answer choice.

shortest
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What do we do?

• If that choice doesnt work, go to the next
  shortest choice, and so on.

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What do we do?

• Watch for synonyms in the answer choices that
  repeat what is said in the passage.
• This is called redundancy.
• It makes the answer longer ?
• It is very often wrong... ?

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Now go to the examples
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Ever since Bessie Coleman saw her first
airplanethe wobbly, biplane kindwhen she was a
little girl, she had known that someday, somehow,
she would fly. A. NO CHANGE B. her first
airplane when she was a little girl, she C. her
first airplane when she was a little girl of
small stature, she D. The first flying
object sheat age seven or eightwould ever see,
an airplane, she
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What to do now?

• Eliminate at least two answer choices
• C and D
• Where are we now?

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The happy place!
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Ever since Bessie Coleman saw her first
airplanethe wobbly, biplane kindwhen she was a
little girl, she had known that someday, somehow,
she would fly. A. NO CHANGE B. her first
airplane when she was a little girl, she C. her
first airplane when she was a little girl of
small stature, she D. The first flying
object sheat age seven or eightwould ever see,
an airplane, she
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Then Go Short!

• B is correct.
• but then you probably knew that already if you
  used Go Short!

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Do the next one

• This one also has some diction aspects to the
  question, so be careful.

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Now that the Navajo code is no longer used, the
code talkers, whose secret work saved American
lives, can finally receive public recognition for
their actions. A. NO CHANGE B. hush-hush
actions C. concealed, hidden efforts D. doings,
secretly kept under wraps,
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Now that the Navajo code is no longer used, the
code talkers, whose secret work saved American
lives, can finally receive public recognition for
their actions. A. NO CHANGE This is short, so
this might be good B. hush-hush actions The ACT
doesnt do baby talk, so I dont think so C.
concealed, hidden efforts Concealed and
hidden mean the same thing! Dont try to fool
me! D. doings, secretly kept under wraps, under
wraps? Thats being secret isnt it? And who
talks like that anyway?
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Its got to be

• NO CHANGE
• Now that the Navajo code is no longer used, the
  code talkers, whose secret work saved American
  lives, can finally receive public recognition for
  their actions.

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Brilliant!
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Homework
NOTE TAKING-QUOTES Para. NOTE MAKING COMMENTS QUESTIONS

• Create a dialectal journal for the excerpt from
  Los Angeles Notebook on pages 38-40.
• Put things of interest on the left side and your
  questions, comments or reflections on the right
  side