Some
professors assign what they call a "mini-paper that
responds to the week’s readings." Here are some
useful comments/guidelines from one professor on her expectations
for this assignment:
Must be one to two pages long
Will
be evaluated for clarity and thoughtfulness. The more
thorough the paper, the better the grade.
The
purpose of these papers is to encourage your active engagement
with the readings and to provide a foundation for class
discussions.
Intended
as writing exercises. You should become accustomed to
expressing ideas in written form.
Papers
should address a question of the your choice. Here are
some examples of questions you might address in a response
paper:
What
was the most interest part of the reading? Explain
why.
Did
something strike you as odd? Try to understand what
it was doing there.
Is
there any part of the reading that was not understood?
Use this writing assignment to try to figure it out.
How does it relate to class discussion from a previous
week?
Compare
some aspect of the current reading assignment with
a previous one.
Choose
a quotation from the reading and analyze it closely.
