Writing regularly leads to better writing. Practicing your skills as a reader and analyst of class materials will help you succeed in this class and will help you in every other class that requires analytical writing.
These response papers require you to engage in the week’s readings. Your job in the response paper is to identify what you understand to be one or more central issue(s) in the reading, identify the main arguments around the central issue(s), and to deliver your analysis of the central issue(s). These are “thought-pieces” that showcase your engagement with an original analysis of the readings. Look for an issue, argument, or idea that sticks out as worthy of further reflection and zero in on it. You should strictly limit any summarizing— I have also done the reading. Instead, I want to hear your voice coming through in the papers. You can use quotes from these or other readings to support your ideas, but use your own analytical skills whenever possible. What do you have to say about what the author(s) say(s)? You should end your essay with two substantive questions that your analysis provokes.
