Title: Mr
Author: BSD
Last saved by: Carla Zumwalt
Company: Boise School District

Due Dates:  
Sign up for columnist: November 10
Column # 1: November 17
Column # 2: December 1
Column # 3: December 8
Column # 4: December 15

Ms. Zumwalt
AP Language and Composition 
 
The Columnist Project 
 
The Assignment: As a means of keeping abreast of public discourse issues, you are required to follow a national columnist in a newspaper. You must collect four current (preferably consecutive) columns by your columnist. You will find links to columnists and journalistic web sites at the end of this assignment handout. Archives can be searched on some of the columnist’s sites, but many publications require payment for articles older than one or two weeks. Therefore, check you columnist’s web site weekly.  The assignment has two parts: 

•	Speaker’s tone and possible tone shifts 

•	Rhetorical strategies/language 

•	Organization and arrangement 

•	Aristotelian appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) 

Mark places in the text that evoke a reaction from you, be it laughter, anger, or confusion 
 
Some questions to ask yourself as you read:  

•	How does s/he open the column? 

•	How does s/he close the column? 

•	How much is based on observation? Personal experience? Interviews? Fact? 

•	What sort of diction characterizes the columnist? 

•	What sort of syntax characterizes the columnist? 

•	What audience does s/he assume? How do you know? 

•	What unstated assumptions does the columnist make? 

2. After annotating, write a one-paragraph précis (see handout) followed by your one paragraph subjective response. 

                            You will turn in steps 1 and 2 to the basket on the due dates listed above. 

1. Each article must be annotated and labeled for the following: 

List of columnists can be found at the following websites: 

•	Blue Eagle Commentary: http://blueagle.com/index.html -- most are current, some aren’t – check dates! 

•	The Drudge Report (scroll down the home page for links to newspapers and columnists): http://www.drudgereport.com/ 

•	Real Clear Politics: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/links.html --click on “columnists and blogs” tab 
•	Headline spot list and links to contemporary colunists: http://www.headlinespot.com/opinion/columnists/

 

 

 

 
Even More Columnists -- in no particular order (you can “Google” them to get to their columns) 

1. David Broder 
2. Eugene Robinson 
3. Anne Coulter 
4. Cal Thomas 
5. Ellen Goodman 
6. Maureen Dowd 
7. Peggy Noonan 
8. Richard Cohen 
9. Anne Applebaum 
10. Charles Krauthammer 
11. Roger Cohen 
12. David Brooks 
13. Paul Krugman 
14. Thomas Friedman 
15. Charles Blow 
16. Nicholas Kristof 
17. Gail Collins 
18. Bob Herbert 
19. George Will 
20. Thomas Sowell 
21. Susan Estrich 
22. Ellen Ratner 
23. Denis Prager 
24. Rich Lowry 
25. Chuck Raasch 
26. Ted Rall 
27. Bill Cope* 
28. Richard Reeves 
29. William McGurn 
30. L. Gordon Crovitz 
31. Thomas Frank 
32. Mary Anastasia O’Grady 
33. Bret Stephens 
34. Kimberly A. Strassel 
35. S.E. Cupp 
36. Dick Morris 
37. James Hirsen 
38. Dr. Laura 
39. Frank Gaffney 
40. Lanny Davis 
41. David Limbaugh 
42. Christopher Ruddy 
43. Steve Emerson 
44. Ralph Reed 
45. Phil Brennan 
46. Andrea Tantaros 
47. John L. Perry 
48. Jonah Goldberg 
49. Gregory Rodriguez 
50. Meghan Daum 
51. David Ignatius 
52. Jeff Jacoby 
53. Larry Elder 
54. Lawrence Kudlow 
55. Bill O’Reilly 
56. Roger Ebert 
57. Linda Chavez 
58. Maggie Van Ostrand 
59. Glenn Greenwald 
60. Juan Cole 
61. Robert Reich 
62. Howard Fineman 
63. Steve Chapman 
64. E.J. Dionne, Jr. 
65. Arianna Huffington 
66. Kathleen Parker 
67. DeWayne Wickham 
68. Michael Gerson 
69. Clarence Page 
70. Jim Hoagland 
71. Gail Collins 
72. Frank Rich 
73. Joe Conason 
74. Derrick Z. Jackson 
75. Joan Vennochi 
76. Paul Krugman 
77. Connie Shultz