Assignment Guidelines
Response Papers
To interact with the authors, texts, and themes of this class and to discover and develop your own ideas in relation to the above, you will write several one page, typed, double-spaced response papers. I will usually give you a prompt, but you may deviate from the prompt as long as you are still addressing the same class texts and ideas that you find interesting and relevant to your writing and the class discussion. You do not need to get permission ahead of time to do this, but if you stray too far off topic you may not get full credit. If you have any questions, please let me know.
These responses should engage the ideas of the material in interesting and thoughtful ways. Their ultimate purpose is to allow you to process one or two texts in preparation for the composition of the main essays which will incorporate ideas from at least three texts for that section of the class. This is a good place for you to try out ideas, ask questions of the text, explore your response to the text, argue with the author(s), and highlight your areas of interest within the text and class themes so that you will be able to write excellent integrated essays about things you care about. Consider these responses to be extended, polished versions of our in-class free writes where you are exploring your understanding of the texts and your thoughts on the implications of the ideas.
I am certainly open to creativity and experimentation in these responses. You do not have to use standard essay or paragraph formats. These may be very free-form or stream-of-consciousness as long as you show your understanding of and thoughtful grappling with the text(s) and ideas at hand.
I expect that these responses will also stimulate discussion in class and may provide many of the questions or issues for discussion. As such, you should be prepared to share questions and ideas from your response papers in class in both small and large groups.
You are expected to quote and use parenthetical citations for each text that you discuss, but you do not need to include a works cited. I will not mark these for mechanics (grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.), but I do expect them to be polished enough so that I can read and understand them without trouble. I will be paying close attention to your ideas and your engagement with the text in these response papers – what you are saying, not how you are saying it. The essays will be where we will focus on how to say something effectively.
Response papers are due in class on the day stated on the calendar. They must also be posted to the website by 5pm that same day.
Essays
Expectations & Hints for final drafts (earlier drafts are expected to need more work in all areas but should begin to approach these expectations)
§ You must quote from (with appropriate citation) and discuss at least three texts from the current sequence . To “quote” from a visual text, be specific in your reference to and discussion of the text.
§ Do not spend too much time describing or summarizing; all description, as all quotation, should be thoroughly analyzed. Assume that for every line of quotation, summary, or description you should have approximately three lines of analysis.
§ Be sure to show the connections you see between the texts that you use. Don’t expect your reader to read your mind. Lead the reader to see what you see.
§ Consider how the texts illuminate or complicate each other. What do you understand from considering two or three texts together that you don’t from looking at each of them alone?
§ Let the texts play off of each other, and discuss them in tandem rather than having one section for each. Use key concepts or logical progressions rather than the texts to organize your ideas.
§ Be confident. All writing is persuading. Your reader is not likely to be convinced if you come across as wishy-washy.
§ Have a thesis. While you may not have a one sentence thesis, there should still be a clear focus and point to your paper. State your thesis and explore it and support it by using the texts and your own sharp reasoning.
§ Have an introduction and conclusion, but do not feel that these need to follow any formulas (forget about the five-paragraph essay). Remember what they say about first impressions and getting the last word. These will likely be the last paragraphs you write (you may have dummy paragraphs as placeholders to start with) and/or thoroughly revise.
§ Be logical and thorough. If you skip a step in your argument, your reader may get lost.
§ Don’t be over-concerned with spelling and grammar for the first two drafts. This is the time to develop and revise your ideas.
§ The second and third drafts should be substantial revisions. Remember that substantial revision is a re-seeing of the substance of your paper. Don’t be afraid to drastically change your thesis from one draft to the next, so long as you make sure that the rest of the paper supports (or can be revised to support) the new thesis.
§ Do thoroughly proofread and edit for the final draft.
Format:
- MLA – see pages 725-734 of the text for in-text (parenthetical) and works cited citations as well as the overall paper format (no title page, double-spaced, header bearing last name and page number, heading modified as follows, title).
- For your heading (on the left-hand corner of the first page), please use the following information:
First and Last Name
English 121-31 Paliobagis
Essay # Draft #
Date (this should be the date you turn this particular draft in)
- Paragraphs should be indented but NOT separated by an additional empty line.
- Works Cited may appear immediately at the end of the essay. A separate page is not required, but this does not count towards the expected length of the paper.
In short, essays should have
- title
- introduction
- thesis
- support, including examples
- quotes from the texts with citations
- analysis
- conclusion
- works cited
