Reading Responses

To help you prepare for class discussion, I’d like you to complete SIX reading responses throughout the semester. (If you look at the course calendar, there are TEN opportunities for reading response days.) So, you will get FOUR days off from reading responses–one of which should be your discussion leading day. (You don’t need to do a reading response on the day you are assigned to lead discussion). You’ll get 10 points per completed reading response which I’ll keep track of on Canvas–so in total, you should have 60 points added to your “blog writing” grade.

Responses are due before the start of class on the personal wordpress blog you created for the course. The responses to the readings should be at least 200 words, but they can be as long as you want. There’s not really a great prompt for writing a reading response, other than “respond” and try to think harder than you normally would if you were reading passively. But here is some more specific guidance:

SUMMARIZE

I wouldn’t make your whole response summary, but in at least part of the response, there should be some sense that you understand the essay as a whole and what the author’s point was and can put it in your own words. A good summary is actually very hard to do. If you feel like you can’t make a coherent summary, go back the reading and make sure you understand the argument and its structure. For tips on summarizing, read “The Art of Summarizing.”

TALK ABOUT A SPECIFIC EXAMPLE

If there is one concept, idea, anecdote, or paragraph from the reading that stood out to you, write about that it your response. Does it encapsulate an important idea? Does it show a contradiction in the author’s point? There are a lot of ideas in any given article, but just pick one or two to talk about in depth. The best reading responses are always more specific than general.

DEFINE TERMS AND CONCEPTS

Did the author offer a new term or concept or a new take on an existing idea? What was it? How would you describe it in your own words? Why is it worth talking about?

RESPOND

Make sure you actually respond in your reading response. And responses can say as much about YOU as they do about the reading. What surprised, intrigued, or disturbed YOU about the reading? Why? What was your thinking on the subject before and how did it change?

APPLY IT

Does the essay help you understand some kind of text, image, video, or phenomenon out there in the world or in your daily life? Link or include the artifact in your response and tell us how the essay helps us understand it better.

BRING IT HOME

How does the essay address the larger questions we are asking in this course: How does writing work? How does economics inform how we think about writing, its uses and its rules? How does writing impact economic systems? Why does economics matter to writing?