Response Papers x 4: You will write four response papers during the semester. The requirements are:
• Each paper should be 4-5 pages long (double spaced, 1” margins of thereabouts, 11-12 pt. font, etc.) –
but please note that this is a guideline only; it is ok to go over and, in case of a very succinct paper, go
under.
• It should be submitted via Blackboard’s “Assignments” tab.
Because of the compressed schedule in the summer term, late papers will only be accepted with prior permission and in exceptional cases; in other cases, late papers will be automatically marked as late by Blackboard and given a penalty of one letter grade. If the paper is more than 48 hours late, it will be marked as a failed assignment.
• Since we have 5 weeks (or 4.5 weeks) of class and you only need to do four papers, you can choose your own “bye week” for which you do not need to write a paper.
• The paper should be a response or critical commentary on ideas and concepts raised by the readings. It can focus on a single reading or compare two or more readings.
• The paper is a response paper, meaning that your thoughts/interpretations are important. Do not turn these into summaries of authors’ arguments. As a rule of thumb, no more than 25% of your paper should be dedicated to summing up the arguments.
• At the same time, please do make sure that you show evidence of a close engagement with the readings. Do not treat these papers as an opportunity to write an editorial loosely attached to the topic at hand.
• There are a lot of good (and some not so good) resources on how to write response papers (sometimes called think pieces). Some good-to-great examples are:
• http://www.uni-hamburg.de/iaa/response_paper.pdf
• https://twp.duke.edu/uploads/assets/response%20paper.pdf
• http://profcohen.net/ltwl129/think.pdf
• http://www.agnesscott.edu/writingandspeaking/files/documents/W35%20Reflections
%20and%20Think%20Pieces.pdf
• http://www3.spfldcol.edu/homepage/dept.nsf/
9fd80471db04a6c885256f4200656df5/$FILE/Writing%20Reaction%20Papers.pdf • http://web.mit.edu/sts001/www/responsetips.pdf
