Being Dauntless: Approaching Difficult Tasks

At this time last year, when many of you signed up to take the AP Language and Composition class, many of you had very little idea of the amount of challenge and work that lie in store.    At some points during this process, I am certain many of you felt like Frodo attempting to destroy the one ring, being slowed by obstacles such as new terminology, difficult reading passages, and formal writing. Yet despite the difficulties you all have faced, we have almost reached Mount Doom and on May 9th, many of you in fact will destroy (meaning successfully completing) the AP Language Exam.   While you all have been challenged, I am reminded of a quote from Winston Churchill about painting:

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will
stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving
path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from
discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.

Winston Churchill’s description of the process of painting suits anyone approaching a
daunting task. Take a position on the value of attempting difficult tasks, particularly when
there is a possibility that “you will never get to the end.” Support your position with personal
experiences, observations, readings, and history.

The Value of Popular Culture

The following prompt was taken from the College Board website.

Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.

Our culture puts entirely too much emphasis on popular entertainment. Of course, we all need to be distracted occasionally, but if we spend a lot of time browsing our favorite websites, watching television, playing video games, or updating our social networking accounts, we are merely avoiding life’s more important realities. Moreover, none of these activities helps us develop any of the skills or acquire any of the knowledge we need to succeed in the real world.

Assignment: Can popular entertainment offer us anything of value, or is it just a worthless distraction? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.  Compose your argument using the Toulmin style.  You may use your notes and your AP argument packet.