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Home Summer Reading Assignment Students

Given the nature of the 2011 summer reading program, you had significant autonomy in selecting the books you would read. While you were responsible for completing a proposal, you were not given other assignments to complete over the summer. As indicated on your proposal form, you are required to write a letter to your 2011-12 Language Arts teacher that demonstrates your thoughtful reading of your book. We have chosen to break this down further into three focused "Power Paragraphs" for two reasons, one, to introduce you to the idea of a power paragraph, and two, to assist you in covering all aspects of the assignment.

__ Prompt for Paragraph One - A Reflection of Your Choice __ //Catch-22//, a fictional WWII story written by Joseph Heller, met my high expectations set before reading the book. I was certain the book would be a good read since the phrase "catch-22" (a situation of two choices with unfavorable outcomes) was derived from the book //Catch-22//. My certainty of the book's quality is scene through my summer reading proposal, "...a book that inspired a phrase must be good" (Qian reading proposal). The seemingly trivial pursuits of Milo Minderbinder, a U.S. airman that runs a highly profitable business syndicate, is my favorite portion of the book. Milo's extreme avarice reflects a major book theme "men with less values may benefit more than men with more values" – Milo bombs his own unit to make money from the Germans but does not suffer any consequence because of his syndicate's high profits (Heller 320). With my favorite section about Milo Minderbinder and many other plots, I enjoyed reading //Catch-22//.

Heller, Joseph. //Catch-22//. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989. Print. Did you really choose this book because of the expression, Catch-22? You need to try to follow the power paragraph format, it will force you to cut words/sentences that do not add to your ideas and will lead to stronger writing.

__ Prompt for Paragraph Two - A Discussion of What You Gained by Reading Your Book __ //Catch-22// gave me an alternate viewpoint to a bureaucracy. With constant competition for a single position, one may think increased productivity would result, but selfishness and inefficiency may develop. Inefficiency is evident in Colonel Catcart, a young military colonel consumed with becoming a general, and his obsession in dropping bombs in a tight pattern (he thinks his superiors commend colonels who's airmen bomb in a tight pattern); Cathcart demands his unit to bomb a town in tight formation even though tight formation bombing decreases the efficiency of accomplishing the main goal of creating a large debris roadblock (Heller 403). The existence of hyper-ambitious people may decrease efficiency in a bureaucracy, as shown in Colonel Cathcart. // **﻿ This is an interesting aspect of the book, but as with the first paragraph, I am wondering if this is truly what you took from the reading. Did you already have a view of bureaucracy? I wonder if you could focus on a larger idea, maybe greed or selfishness. ** //
 * *Must be posted to the WIKI by midnight on Thursday, 8/25 **

__ Prompt for Paragraph Three - What to do With it... __ Although not the intended audience, I would recommend //Catch-22// to a high school student desiring to read about though-provoking ideas without the dryness of an academic work. Absurd humor infused with larger ideas are found within the story keeps the reader interested. The idea of death's inevitability is raised with a squadron doctor morbidly afraid of death, Doc Daneeka. Daneeka often questions the purpose of delaying death with medecine and humorously suffers an administrative death when his name appears on the flight log of a crashed plane (Daneeka is afraid of flying so people write his name down on flight logs). After the incident, people could hear and see the obviously alive Daneeka, but still think he perished in the plane crash (Heller 339). In-between the ludicrous moments lines, each section has a larger purpose and a larger idea a high school student would enjoy. How do you know what the intended audience is for the book? Your evidence is strong here, maybe you could focus on this and suggest readers who enjoy a thought-provoking book that is infused with humor.
 * *Must be posted to the WIKI by midnight on Sunday, 8/28 **


 * Scoring: Your three paragraphs will be given one overall grade, and the timeliness of your posts will be reflected in your "timeliness" grade. **

// An outstanding response to the prompts will include the following: //
 * A strong topic sentence that clearly establishes the focus on the prompt
 * Evidence that clearly supports the topic sentence
 * Correct use of internal citations and a properly formatted MLA citation for your book (put this citation at the end of paragraph one)
 * Strict adherence to the Power Paragraph format
 * Mechanics are clean and do not detract from meaning