Hello Bloggers!

I am back from Student Council Leadership Camp and therefore back on the blog. Because I have not yet returned to my house, I do not have my copy of Catcher in the Rye to use in providing an example of how I would annotate diction from the book, but I can explain what I mean by diction, how to mark it, and what I would hypothetically say next to a quote from Catcher in the Rye. For the examples in this post, I am making up the page numbers just so that the quotes can be shown as cited.

Diction means word choice (the words an author chooses to use). There are two different ways you could reference this: one is to discuss the level of words the author is using, and the other is to discuss how the specific words chosen help to create a tone (or emotion) conveyed by the text.

If you are discussing level, you might underline a sentence where Holden says, "I guess I just felt like it" (7). Alongside it, I would make a note like, "Informal, trusts us, doesn't understand sig. of being kicked out."

More often, I expect to see you marking specific words that help convey the feeling or meaning behind the text. In a paragraph like, "This fall I think you're riding for--it's a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn't permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling. The whole arrangement's designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn't supply them with. Or they thought their own environment couldn't supply them with. So they gave up lookihng. They gave it up before they ever really got started" (158), I would circle the words "falling," "arrangement," and "environment" as meaningful examples of word choice or diction. In the margin next to "falling," I might note that "falling=broken, sinful, fall of man?" Next to "arrangement" I would jot that "Antolini implies the fall is fate, not Holden's fault." Finally, for "environment," I could comment, "Holden-->experiment, natural reaction."

As always, I want you all to remember that annotations are your notes written alongside the text regarding possible interpretations of that same text. They do not need to be recorded in complete sentences or even complete words; you just need to have a way to record your thoughts briefly, thoughts that you will be able to efficiently reference at a later time or date.

Your summer reading will be due either September 1st or 2nd depending on whether you have English I pre-AP on an A day or a B day. Just because your assignment is not due on the first day does not mean you will be homework-free for the first week. You won't. You may turn in your assignment early if you desire. I look forward to your continued questions and to seeing all of you at the Freshmen Orientation on August 8th.

Mrs. Rogers