THE BASICS
You are required to submit 4 short response papers and/or "Word Journals".
Each paper should be approximately 1-2 pp. long, double-spaced, 1-1.25 inch margins and in 12 point font. I recommend Times New Roman. It should be no less than 500 words in order to adequately address the readings and the ideas you pose. Quotations from the readings will not count toward this final word total. Be sure to put your name and the date at the top of your paper or it could get lost!
STYLISTIC CONSIDERATIONS
In general, you should view these response papers as short essays that must conform to the stylistic and academic rules of any other kind of formal writing. This includes avoiding spelling mistakes, improper grammar, SMS language ("textese") and, most importantly, plagiarism. If you feel tempted to plagiarize, it is likely a sign that you have not read carefully enough or given yourself enough time to finish the assignment, in which case I recommend you come to talk to me about your approach to the material.
Be sure to cite your sources correctly. If you are quoting directly from a reading, please cite the source and page number parenthetically. For example:
In "Class," Tim Whitmarsh states that "Daphnis and Chloe's emphasis on education... fits into a wider strategy of exploring the relationship between city and country, between rich and poor." (Whitmarsh 2008: 79).
You may also find it helpful to cite the source and page number from which you derive a general point about a reading or readings. For example:
Kathy Gaca clarifies that, in Plato's judgment, men in sexual relationships with other men are not succumbing to erns speciously; rather, their bonds tend to produce metaphorical children such as poetry, philosophy and law. (Gaca 2003: 29-30).
Ideally, your response papers will manage to engage all of the readings for a given class session; however, it is okay if you choose to focus in on one reading or aspect of an argument. My one caution with this approach is that, if your response paper raises a point that is somehow addressed or answered in another one of our readings that day (and, therefore, indicates that you wrote your paper before finishing all of the reading), you may find that you receive a lower "grade" (e.g., a 4 rather than a -4).
It is okay to use "I" in your papers, but you may find it is better to do so sparingly.
Finally, these papers are a chance for you to really engage with the readings, explore your own thinking on the questions raised and to express your unique viewpoint(s) on the material. While you must conform to certain expectations in regard to form and style, do feel free to express your creativity within those parameters. Let me know what you are thinking, what you think of the assignment, what is still confusing or troubling about a concept. These papers are a tool for you to work on your writing and be prepared for class, but they are also a tool for me to help assess how you are doing in the class, how the class is going overall, what we may need to review and what we might emphasize going forward, based on your interests. In other words, I use these papers to make our class more engaging and relevant!
Attached are more details on the assignment options.
OPTION 1: THE CRITICAL RESPONSE PAPER
This course asks you to be an active reader-to consider the act of reading as a full contact sport-and to create meaning from the text rather than simply absorbing the material. In this vein, a reading response paper should engage the text in some fashion. The paper should examine and begin to formulate the questions that a more formal analytical argument essay might argue.
Writing a response paper means that you may choose to write about your own reaction to a given reading or readings as a whole or you may choose to write about a particular point or points made by the author. Whatever you choose to focus on, the response must be critical, not simply a description of your own personal feelings about the essay. Writing a "response paper" might seem to imply that you will be writing about your emotional responses and reactions to a particular text, that you will be answering the question: "How did you feel about the text?" This is NOT what you are to do in a critical response paper. In this sort of paper, "How did you feel" is a legitimate starting point perhaps, but what is more interesting is why you felt that way.
The response paper consists of your close examination of the text and the questions in the text that most intrigue you. It does not need to be a fully structured and argued essay-it should, however, pull together your thoughts about a particular issue in the text.
Guidelines to help you produce a good response paper:
- Write about something you care about.
- Take a look at some of the questions asked by the author, or even some of the questions I occasionally list on our handouts, for inspiration.
- Make a statement / take a position (a thesis) about the topic. Sometimes that statement will be an argument for or against a position; at other times it will be a statement of confusion, when the writer isn't sure what to believe.
- Explain your reasons for believing your thesis, so that your reader can understand why you are making this assertion. If your thesis is a statement of confusion, explain why you're confused! Use evidence and citations from the readings. Construct an argument.
- Show what it was in the assigned text that made you think about this topic. If possible, compare and contrast the assertions of the assigned text with your own.
For example, a useful article that I often assign in courses that deal with the subject of religion (which we will encounter quite a bit in this course!) is Russell McCutcheon's "More Than A Shapeless Beast" from Critics Not Caretakers (SUNY Press, 2001). In that piece, McCutcheon argues, among other things, that the idea that religion is a "nonempirical, uniquely personal experience... and evades rational explanation" (McCutcheon 2001: 4) should be challenged within the academy. A response paper might take McCutcheon's claim and argue the opposite position, or agree and expand on his argument.
McCutcheon argues that we risk reinscribing "folk" categories if we do not generate a concrete definition of religion; however, I think he too readily dismisses the importance of the experiential dimension of religion.
or
McCutcheon argues that we risk reinscribing "folk" categories if we do not generate a concrete definition of religion. I have often wondered how to tell the difference between "religions," "cults" and "superstitions" as categories of analysis and I think his argument helps me understand how to begin to discern between them and why that is important.
You want to formulate a claim-a specific and arguable response to the aspect of the text that you are responding to. DO NOT simply summarize the text. You should briefly summarize the article to familiarize your reader with the ideas you are discussing, but the focus of a response paper is your argument. Again, be sure to organize your thoughts in a logical manner and to include quoted evidence from the text to support the claim you make.
OPTION 2: THE "WORD JOURNAL"
The purpose of the Word Journal is to help you exercise and improve several academic skills. It focuses your ability to read carefully and deeply and to construct meaning from what you have read. It also assesses your ability and creativity at summarizing the arguments you encounter in your reading assignments. Finally, it is a means for you to work on your skills at explaining and defending a position or point of view. In the long run, practice with this form of writing should help with your ability to write highly condensed abstracts and to synthesize greater amounts of information into key concepts-a necessary task in fields like Ancient Studies (Classics, Religion, Philosophy, etc)!
Some caveats:
You are limited to using this technique 2 times throughout the semester in pursuit of fulfilling your required 4 responses. While Word Journals are helpful tools for engaging our readings and understanding concepts, they do not necessarily cultivate the same skills of analysis that will ultimately be required in your Midterm and Final Project.
While I want you to express your point of view, you are not permitted to use words like "stupid," "boring," "interesting," "confusing," "awesome" or "dry" to describe a reading(s). The point is not to put a value judgment on the material, but to use your skills of discrimination to summarize comprehensively. If you find yourself sitting at your computer with a reactionary word in your mind, try turning it into a question in order to come up with a more appropriate response. What about this author's argument did I think was "dumb" or lacking? Was this boring to me because the author used poor examples? As with the traditional response paper, you want to turn your impressions into more concrete and critical observations about your assignments.
You still must meet the 500 word minimum.
Attachment:- Assignment.rar