The study of communication:
Pick one of those articles from the first half of the course (January 13-Feb 10) and write about it!
1. A “reading response” paper is exactly what it says: It is a paper that asks you to respond to the arguments, evidence, and consequences outlined by the author in the article or chapter you have selected.
2. To respond to those things you have to first establish that you understand what the main arguments and evidence are. What is the question or questions they are trying to answer with their arguments? What is the point of their article? Are they responding to something written by someone else, by events taking place in the world, by seeing a piece of art? This is the first half of your paper.
3. Now that you have established that you understand the main arguments and evidence presented in the reading, now is your opportunity to offer your own reaction to them. Do you agree with them or disagree? Does it affect the way you think about something? For example, does reading surveillance in the Internet age make you change the way you think about the “openness” of digital culture? When you read Jesper Juul’s article on video games does it make you think about the role that failure plays with media technologies? If so, say that it does and tell me how it changes the way you think about it. This is the second half of the paper.
4. Feel free to organize your paper with sections and headings if you wish. Here is suggested format to organize your thoughts (but you can do it another way if it works for you) along with some questions to consider (although you probably can’t answer all of them):
a. Background: Here you are telling me about the article. Who wrote it, when they wrote it, where they wrote it, why you think they wrote it. Was it part of a book? Was it a response to something someone else wrote?
b. Main Arguments: What is the point? Can you find a thesis statement?
c. Evidence offered. How do they prove the points they are trying to make
d. Reactions: What do you think? Were you convinced? Why is this significant to the study of communication? How might one or two of the ideas presented in the reading be applicable to a contemporary example?
e. Conclusion: Summarize the arguments and your view of them
7. If you get anything from an academic source or from an article or website, please make sure to cite it at the end of the paper in a section called “Sources Cited”.