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Response Essay Assignment

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Goals of the assignment: In addition to continuing our discussion of higher education, this assignment will pursue some of the same goals as the Personal Reflective Response: reading critically, summarizing a text as objectively as possible and focusing and supporting a response to a text. We will also add the following:

• engaging in a critical dialogue with a text
• supporting claims about a text with evidence from other texts and analysis, in addition to or instead of personal experience

We will read four new pieces about our topic, then analyze, summarize and respond to them. Then you will choose one of the pieces to respond to, collect additional ideas to support that response, have a draft of your paper reviewed in a peer workshop, revise and edit the paper, and turn it in for a grade and comments. The expectations for the final paper include the following:

Purpose of the paper: To demonstrate the writer’s (your) understanding and analysis of a piece of writing; to clearly communicate the author’s argument and your evaluation of and/or agreement/disagreement with that argument.

Audience: Your classmates and instructor as an academic audience. You can therefore assume that your readers have read the essay to which you are responding and will need only a brief summary of it. You can also assume that your readers will be interested in your response but expect you to have read thoroughly and critically, to support your assertions, and to demonstrate how you have come to your understanding of the text. Assume that personal experience alone will not be sufficient to convince your audience. Additionally, academic audiences expect you to use a reasonable tone, to write in Standard English, and to respect your readers and sources.

• Summarize the original article as necessary to introduce, focus, and develop your response to it; report what the author wrote as objectively as possible; use sufficient references to the author/article (tags). Quote key terms and phrases. Paraphrase accurately and concisely. [See PHG, pp. 151-52.]

• Respond to the central argument of the article by analyzing the effectiveness of and/or agreeing/disagreeing with the argument.

• Focus your response by making an overall claim about the original article.

• Develop your response with the following, as appropriate: personal experience, AND evidence from the text and/or evidence from other texts. [See PHG, p. 154.]

• For help with organization, refer to outlines in PHG, pp. 184-85.

• Edit to remove errors in spelling, grammar, and mechanics so that your paper is clear and readable.

Format: Length guidelines: 3-4 pages. Workshop and final drafts must be typed. Type your essay in a readable, 10-12 point standard font (please, no script or italics). Use margins of one-inch all around and double-space. Print on an ink jet or laser printer. Submit your paper in a pocket folder and include with it all collecting, practice summaries and responses, drafts, workshop comments, and answers to postscript questions [#1-5, PHG, pp. 187-88.]

Articles: Use one of the following pieces for your paper:

• Newman "The Idea of a University"
• Bird "Where College Fails Us"
• Bloom "The Student and the University"
• Rose "The Politics of Remediation"
• Levitt "The Unprepared Undergraduate"

Introduction to Academic Response and Allan Bloom’s "The Student and the University."

Assignment DUE. Personal Reflective Response paper.

Analyzing Bloom’s argument. Practicing agree/disagree response.

Assignment DUE: Reading. Bloom "The Student and the University." In PHG, "Response Shaping, " pp.182-83; "Arguing," pp. 410-20. Be able to define the following: claim, 4 types of claims, appeal, 3 types of appeals.

Writing. Summarize (1 page or less), Bloom.

Discuss Rose & Levitt. Practice analyzing the effectiveness of a text.

Assignment DUE: Reading. In PHG, review "Response Shaping." Rose "The Politics of Remediation" and Levitt "The Unprepared Undergraduate."

Writing. Summarize Rose and Levitt (1 page or less each).

Supporting your response. Critique of sample essays.

Assignment DUE: Reading. In PHG, Tannen "How Male and Female Students Use Language Differently," pp. 278-83; Koester "A Response to Deborah Tannen’s Essay," pp. 192--94. Sample response to Rose (handout).

Writing. Write list of strengths/weaknesses of sample response essays. Choose the article you will respond to and write a working or practice thesis for your response.

Do a double-entry re-reading log as you re-read your chosen article. (See PHG, pp. 176-78 for questions to answer in the log and pp. 188-89 for an example.)

Peer review workshop. Revision tips.

Assignment DUE: Complete draft of response (2-3 typed pages).

Introduction to Position Paper.

Assignment DUE: Academic Response paper.