Current Events Journal Assignment

Current Events Journal (CEJ)

Adapted from an assignment by Danny Lawrence, AP Instructor, Winston-Salem, NC

Objective: The Current Events Journal will improve students’ summarizing, analyzing, and grammatical skills.  This weekly assignment will keep students abreast of current events and breaking news, and will help students on the Argument portion of the AP exam.  Lastly, this assignment will require students to familiarize themselves with MLA style bibliographic citations.  

Assignment: Each week you will find a non-fiction (not news articles or informative features) newspaper or magazine article to analyze and add to your current events journal. The articles should be about current events or issues. Use at least three different sources (i.e. not all the pieces should come from the same newspaper or magazine). DO NOT USE SOURCES SUCH AS USA TODAY, PEOPLE, SEVENTEEN, BLOGS ETC.  The following are ideas of sources to use for these articles:

• Choose a magazine article, editorial, commentary or essay from reputable issues-based magazines such as Newsweek, Time, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Atlantic Monthly, New Republic, Forbes, The Economist, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Harper’s, and Scientific American (Please see me to get a source not listed here approved).

OR

• Choose a newspaper editorial or commentary/essay from reputable newspapers such as The New York Times, The National Post, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The State, The Herald-Journal, The Post and Courier, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Miami Herald, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Huffington Post, The Onion (beware of satire) and The Wall Street Journal (Please see me to get a source not listed here approved).

Each article you choose must have been published in the current month or the previous month, but no later.  Occasionally, I will assign a theme for the week (for example, “This week, you must read an article about politics/the environment/education,” etc.). When I do this, I will let you know ahead of time.

1. On the top line of the paper, you will include a MLA citation for the magazine/newspaper article.  
1. This assignment should be in MLA format—sans left hand name, teacher, class, date info.
2. On the top half of the paper, you will write a summary of the article you have read.  You must include a small quote from the article in your summary (be sure to “set up” the source). A “small” quote can be words or parts of a sentence. Avoid quoting complete sentences.
1. DO NOT SPEND MORE THAN HALF THE PAGE ON THE SUMMARY!!!
3. On the bottom half of the paper, you will write commentary.  Comment on the content of the article (what the author has to say) or the form/style (how the author says it).
1. If you comment on the content, you may be defending, challenging, or qualifying the author’s claim/point/thesis/interpretation;
1. Some questions you might want to think about/comment on:
1. What are some of the author’s best arguments? What makes them good?
2. Which arguments or points made by the author do not make sense to you and why?
3. Is the author using logical or emotional appeals to get you to agree with him or her?

2. If you comment on the author’s form/style, you may be commenting on the author’s diction, syntax, tone, imagery, organization, appeals, etc.
1. Some questions you might want to think about/comment on:
1. Is there any connotative language?
2. What is the writer’s attitude toward the subject and what it the article gives you this idea?
2. CEJ entries will be due on Friday of each week, unless otherwise noted.
3. Keep the completed CEJ entries in a section in your binder.

Grading: Each CEJ entry is worth four points. Below is the assignment rubric.

	1	2	3	4
Citation	MLA formatted citation with more than 6 errors	MLA formatted citation with 4-6 errors	MLA formatted citation with 1-3 errors	MLA formatted citation with no errors
Summary	Vague summary with little use of examples or quotes.	Clear summary with some use of  examples and quotes.	Clear, concise, detailed summary with use of examples and quotes.	Clear, concise, detailed summary with eloquent use of examples and quotes.
Commentary	Commentary which reveals little insight or originality.	Interesting, commentary which reveals some insight.	Interesting commentary which reveals insight and originality.	Rich, interesting, exemplary commentary which reveals insight and originality.
Conventions	Poor control of conventions. Many errors.	Limited control of conventions. Some errors.	Good control of conventions. Few errors.	Excellent control of conventions. No errors.