The purpose of this assignment is to give you practice in reading very difficult passages. Your faithful and earnest completion of these assignments will result in improved reading skills. You will also raise your IQ, grow several inches taller, and become a much nicer person!
Process: I will give you a passage from an old test. Your homework assignment will be to read the passage and complete the questions below. On the day this assignment is due, you will turn in the assignment, and then answer multiple-choice questions over the passage
Your grade for the assignment will come from your completion of the written homework and your performance on the multiple-choice test. Because completion of the homework is crucial to success on the multiple choice test, you can make no higher than half-credit if the assignment is late.
This is a standard assignment that you will do at least once per nine weeks. Keep this handout in your notebook because I am only going to give it to you once. I will give you different passages each time; however, the process will be the same.
Answer the questions carefully and thoroughly. You must use blue or black ink or type your responses.
Questions
1. Paraphrase the passage (summarize in your own words). Do this by paragraph, if the passage is organized into paragraphs. Be sure that your paraphrase includes all the important points in the passage.
2. Explain the passage's central argument.
3. Write down and then explain two assertions that support the central argument.
4. Look up any words you don't know the definition of. Write these words and their definitions. Remember that you won't be able to use a dictionary on the multiple-choice test over this passage. If you leave this question blank and claim to know every single word in a passage, be prepared to prove that on a test.
5. Write down two examples of rhetorical strategies (one of the 3 appeals, any example of diction or syntax, identify what kind of strategy it is (label the example) and then explain the effect of the rhetorical strategy.