Response Papers The purpose of the response papers is to give you a forum throughout the semester to develop and express your own ideas in relation to the course material. The only requirements are: 1. Your essay must make significant and direct contact with at least one specific idea or passage from one of the readings since the last response paper was due. 2. Your essay must make a single point: explain and support a particular claim. Some of the possibilities include:
These are only suggestions; any other topic is fine, as long as it satisfies the two requirements listed above. Length: There is an absolute
maximum length of 650 words. Due: You can hand in
your response paper anytime up to the beginning of class on
the due date. Format: Citation (very important!): If you use someone else’s exact words, you must put them in quotation marks, and you must give proper acknowledgment. You must also acknowledge any specific passages or ideas that you paraphrase. For this assignment, informal citation is fine. After the end of the quote or paraphrase, include a brief parenthetical citation in the text. For outside sources, just include enough information for your reader to find the original source. Grading: Individual response papers will be graded as follows: |
|
A | Your paper expresses sophisticated insight into the text
or issues, or draws unusual and profound connections between texts or ideas. |
B | Your paper gives an adequate presentation of ideas that
go beyond the text and our class discussion. |
C | Your paper indicates some reflection on the material,
but does not go far enough beyond a recap of the text itself or our class
discussion, does not make adequate contact with the text, or is based on
a serious misunderstanding of the text or issues. |
F | Your paper does not constitute a serious attempt
to fulfill the assignment: the substance and/or the mechanics of your paper
fall far short of normal college-level work. |
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