English 9 Honors

English honors work requires two things:  exceptional quality throughout the regular syllabus work, and the supplementary assignment below.

        1.  The English 9 course as it is written (syllabus) requires work in grammar, vocabulary, the essay, and dealing with literature on the level of comprehension and critical thinking.  While we expect complete and thorough work in grammar, vocabularly and comprehension, it is in the essay writing and interaction with the critical thinking questions posed to the student that we expect Honors students to do particularly deep and sensitive work.  Essays must attend to structure (i.e., clearly focused around a Thesis statement, developed logically and carefully, and concluded interestingly), and display depth of analysis and integration of the material.
            Proofread your work before making a final draft, to eliminate spelling and sentence construction errors.  When dealing with the critical thinking questions, we expect detail and depth; it will not be possible, generally, to deal with these questions in a paragraph.  Treat these questions as opportunities to write a "mini-essay" of about a page.  However, please do not understand from this that length is the key ingredient to your work.  You must write as much as necessary--with excellence of thought, structure and detail--to fully interact with the question presented to you.

        2.  In addition to doing exceptional work in the regular syllabus, the following supplementary assignment will be requred.

            READ Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility, and WATCH the movie by the same title.  It does not matter in which order you choose to do these.  You will need to begin doing the reading of the novel near the beginning of the semester, in order to complete it and the written assignment for this project (the book is long).
            When you have finished the reading and the watching, WRITE a three to five page comparison and contrast paper on the novel and the movie.  In particular, we are interested in your analysis of the relative emotional impact of the movie and the book:  which one touched you on the deepest level, and why?  Second, describe any significant changes (additions or omissions) in the movie with respect to Austen's novel.  What specific effects did these changes bring to the movie.  Third, discuss the nature of the language used in the novel, as opposed to the screenplay.  Did the screen writer accurately capture Austen's outstanding prose?  Give some specific examples to support your opinions (you may need to take some notes while watching the movie).
            Begin your essay with a clear thesis statement, develop your arguments and discussion, and conclude with a summary and brief re-statement of your thesis.  Capture the teacher's attention, so that he or she will be drawn to read the novel, watch the movie, do one or the other, or. . . neither!