Response Papers
Six “response papers” are due over the course of the semester. Although the papers are framed differently (as the sort of question you might get on a comprehensive exam, as a consulting project you might be invited to do, as a request for peer review, or as a research design), the goal is similar: to get you to identify the central issues that the assigned readings for the week address, to describe the authors’ positions vis-à-vis those issues, to comment critically on the state of the debate, to assess individual contributions to it, and to extrapolate from the literature. In short, your paper should not be a summary of the readings but rather a critical discussion of the issue that they address. If you don’t like the suggested topic and want to suggest a different one, that’s fine by me; just make sure it is a synthetic question designed to implicate the bulk of the readings.
Each paper should be around 1,200 words, though I will read more if the paper is of high quality. Appendix II contains a list of stylistic and substantive hints for writing papers; please do go through these hints before you submit your papers. I would recommend you allow yourself 6 hours or so to write each paper, after you have completed all the readings for the week. Your first papers for the semester may take a bit longer.
Be sure to write at least three papers in the first six substantive weeks, as these weeks are particularly foundational.
Papers are due by 4 p.m. the day before class each week. It is my idiosyncratic habit to practice blind grading, so please have a blank page at the end of your essay and then another page after that with your name on it. Please also use Calibri 12 font; otherwise I learn people’s fonts, which defeats the point of blind grading.
Below is a link to the response paper topics for each week of this seminar. Note: There isn’t a response paper topic for Week 1.
