Response Papers
Response papers may take various forms. Here are just a few possibilities:
Understanding
Select a passage from the reading that strikes you as puzzling. Rewrite the passage in your own words. Analyze what your version does better and what it fails to capture of the original. The goal is to identify the stakes of the arguments, historical or social perspectives of the author, and the degree to which arguments are specific to their contexts or are generalizable.
Application
Find an item in the newspaper or in a current journal that relates to the week’s reading. Apply the analysis of the week’s reading to the item.
Extension
Take your own research project, or experiences you have had in a lab or work or other situation, and apply the week’s reading to it; doing this with different weeks’ readings can help you gain multiple perspectives on your own research interests.
The response papers will count for 1/3 of the final course grade.
