Response Paper: Analyzing a Reading and Responding

Purpose
Response papers allow you to engage with the ideas of others. Your purpose in writing
a response paper is to critically examine what a particular text says and then to
articulate your response by giving your own and other writers' reasons for agreeing,
disagreeing, or both agreeing and disagreeing with the text's claims.
Audience
Your audience is your professor and the class. You should consider that most readers
will not be as familiar with your article as you are, so summarize carefully, being sure to
include the writers main point and to highlight the content that will spin us towards
your thesis (I say). This is the summary that exerts a quiet influenceis fair and
accurate, but focuses on setting up your thesis. Readers will also want to be able to find
sources you use, so be sure to include citations for all sources (see MLA Guidelines page
in Canvas).
Content
To do this you will
1) Summarize one of the articles we have read so far (do not use Zinczenko)
2) State your thesis (I say)-- your position of agreeing, disagreeing or both, and
3) Explain your position with reasons and evidence not only from your own
knowledge/experience, but also from other articles you have read in the text or
from additional research you have done.
Structure
Here is an example of how you might organize your response:

Introduce the issue, identify the larger issues (conversation) surrounding it, and
then introduce the article and its particular focus on the issue.

Summarize your article and state your thesis (your main point/your I say)
agree/ disagree/ both-- about the articles argument. Feel free to let your own
response exert a quiet influence (p. 34) on the summary (as explained above as
well).

THEN, in whichever order you think most effective (using the moves from
Chapter 4) support your thesis in several paragraphs as follows:

Identify points you tend to agree with and explain why by using the moves of
Chapter 4 and other writers in the chapter, your research, as well as reasons
based on your own knowledge/experience; OR

Identify points you both agree and disagree with and explain why. . .; OR

Identify points you disagree with and explain why. . .

Throughout this part of your paper, make sure you develop your reasons with
supporting evidence--examples, anecdotes, studies, and so on. Dont forget
that you must include support that goes beyond your own
knowledge/experience; this can come from other readings in the book or
brief research you undertake.

Conclude by explaining the significance of your position, answering the

questions So what?" or "Who cares? See Chapter7 (92).

GRADING CRITERIA:
Follow the paper assignment carefully as described above.
Make sure to use the templates from Chapter 4 to help you set up and develop
your points of agreement, both agreement and disagreement, or disagreement.
Develop your views with evidence.
Make sure you use everything you've learned in Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5, especially
appropriate, strong signal verbs (Chapter 2) that fit the action (p. 38-40) as you
introduce others ideas so we know at all times who is speaking and how, exactly,
they are responding to the issue. If you quote, make sure you choose relevant
quotations that you frame and explain (use quotation sandwiches) as
described in Chapter 3, to help you develop your response. Dont over quote.
Format: MLA
Length: 3 full pages