10th Grade Honors English Summer Reading Assignment



10th Grade Honors English Summer Reading Assignment

Novels: The Scarlet Letter, The Reivers

As you will soon discover, The Scarlet Letter and The Reivers are two completely different novels. Nathaniel Hawthorne is a dark romantic whose writing focused on secret sin and its impact on the human spirit. William Faulkner, however, was a southern regionalist who was best known for his memorable characters and unique, although confusing, writing style.

While you are responsible for reading both novels, you will focus your written work on The Scarlet Letter. Upon returning to school, you will need to have your essay and vocabulary completed and ready to turn in to me. This will be collected on the first day. Your test on The Scarlet Letter and The Reivers will be within the first few days back at school.

Finally, It is important that you save all your work on a computer. You will need to turn your essays into our anti-plagiarism site. If you are unable to connect to the Internet at your house, then you need to save your work and bring it to school on the first day of classes. I will be able to upload your work from my computer.

Vocabulary

You are to list and define all the words you are not familiar with in The Scarlet Letter. You will need to know these words for the vocabulary portion of the summer reading test. Depending on your vocabulary knowledge, your list will probably be between fifty and one hundred fifty words.

Essay

Hester embraces her sin and is willing to accept her punishment. Dimmesdale, on the other hand, refuses to accept responsibility for his sin until the very end of the novel. Hawthorne clearly believes this difference is what allows Hester to lead a productive life while Dimmesdale is trapped within his guilt. Explain how Hester uses her punishment as a means to improve herself. Specifically, how does the scarlet “A” transform Hester.

Your essay should be two to three pages typed, double-spaced. You should follow the MLA format in your paper. If you are unfamiliar with MLA format, please make sure you use one-inch margins and a standard size 12 font. You must support your assertions with direct references to the novel. These references can, but do not need to be, direct quotes. For this paper, you do not need a works cited page unless you consult a source other than the novel for your ideas.

Your essay will be graded on the following elements:

1. Style (Sentence variety, word choice, format, etc…)

2. Content (depth of understanding demonstrated)

3. Specific references to the text in support of your assertions.

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