Reading List Polishing~

[Blueridge]

My dd just sent me her high school reading list, and I need suggestions please. It is 18 pages, font size 12. Should I reduce it to 10? Also-she has every book title in quotations. Should I remove them and underline the titles instead, or just leave them without either? This is the last thing to place in the application packages before mailing, so I want to get it right! Thanks so much~

[vmsurbat]

Without knowing more specifics regarding her "application packet", I would note the following, take it for what is it worth:

 

1. Book titles are to be italicized like this: Gone With the Wind.

 

In our modern computing era, underlining has gone the way of dial phones and 8-track tapes.

 

2. If an exhaustive booklist is required, go ahead and reduce the font size to 10. If is not required, pair down the list to one or two pages! Keep the most "representative" book titles per whatever requirement/bent the organization you are sending it would like to see. That should be more than enough titles for the organization to see the depth and breadth of the applicant's reading. If you feel the need, include a final sentence along the lines of "If desired, a complete listing of all 500 books read throughout high school is available."

 

HTH,

[*~Tina~*]

I'd love to see her list. Want to share? :)

 

Blessings,

¸.·´ .·´¨¨))

((¸¸.·´ .·´ -:¦:-Tina ~

-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´*

http://seasonsoflearning.blogspot.com/

[Blueridge]

Without knowing more specifics regarding her "application packet", I would note the following, take it for what is it worth:

 

1. Book titles are to be italicized like this: Gone With the Wind.

 

In our modern computing era, underlining has gone the way of dial phones and 8-track tapes.

 

2. If an exhaustive booklist is required, go ahead and reduce the font size to 10. If is not required, pair down the list to one or two pages! Keep the most "representative" book titles per whatever requirement/bent the organization you are sending it would like to see. That should be more than enough titles for the organization to see the depth and breadth of the applicant's reading. If you feel the need, include a final sentence along the lines of "If desired, a complete listing of all 500 books read throughout high school is available."

 

HTH,

 

Thank you. This list is to be put in with her college application/transcript/etc. I don't want to hurt her feelings, since she worked hard to compile it all, but 2,000 books seems a bit over the top to me. ;) I italicized the books I mentioned in the course descriptions, so I will do the same here.

 

I'd love to see her list. Want to share? :)

 

Blessings,

¸.·´ .·´¨¨))

((¸¸.·´ .·´ -:¦:-Tina ~

-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´*

http://seasonsoflearning.blogspot.com/

 

I would be happy to, if I can figure out how to attach it! I'll pass along your encouragement to her.

[Chris in VA]

IME, the schools want to see the pared down version--but they also want to know what was done with the book. Did you assign papers? Was it mostly discussion oriented work?

 

Keep it short and sweet--two pages is plenty. Take out any historical fiction that might be 8th grade level--IOW, stick to the Great Books or Very Good Books in your list.

So for example, if she's read Sutcliff's Wanderings of Odysseus AND The Odyssey, just put The Odyssey in there.

Take out any popular fiction, like Tuesdays for Morrie or stuff like that, unless she wrote a major paper for it. Make sure it's a lit list and not nonfiction (unless biography or primary source, if you know what I mean). You can sneak in some of the nonfic in her course descriptions, along with textbooks.

 

I'm, of course, assuming the list has those thing--maybe she doesn't have any lighter reading?

 

(And I'm fully aware I haven't italicized any titles...lol)

 

Oh, and if the college requires certain lit courses but you've done it chronologically, you can always rearrange your list. So, if you've followed WTM and done Ancients, Med/Ren, etc., and linked the lit to the time period, you can group all the English Lit together across the time periods, if you suspect the college would want to see that.

Edited September 24, 2010 by Chris in VA

[Blueridge]

Thank you very much! I'll get to work polishing. :)

[Kareni]

One other suggestion ...

 

When my daughter looked over her reading list, there were a number of books whose contents she no longer remembered clearly. Many of these she had read in ninth grade. She elected to eliminate them so that she would not be put in an awkward position. We imagined an interviewer looking over the list and saying, "Oh, Vaguest, Dimmest Memories is a favorite title of mine. What did you like best about it?"

 

We sorted her list into categories such as

 

Fiction

 

Non-fiction

 

Essays

 

Fantasy (a favorite genre of hers)

 

Latin works (This included authors such as Ovid and Catullus as well as books such as Virent Ova! Viret Perna! by Dr. Seuss, Ferdinandus Taurus by Munro Leaf, and Asterix Olympius by Rene de Goscinny. Since she is planning to major in Latin and/or the Classics, we thought this showed her interest.)

 

We did include authors but also shortened the list by having items such as: The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy plus six sequels

 

We did not include everything she had read for pleasure in high school -- for example, we did not include any manga (though she had read an abundance) nor did we include Calvin & Hobbes or Zits.

 

I also included a list of textbooks used.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Blueridge]

Thank you! It has been gratifying to read over dd's list again and again. It's almost like a diary of her high school days. :)