Over the course of the semester, you will make five posts on this blog. The first post, due on January 30, will be your introduction of yourself to the class. The remaining four will be responses to assigned readings (“readings” being broadly defined, since some are videos or games).
Each post is worth 20 points. To get the points, you have to give answers to the four questions you should be asking yourself every time you do a reading for a college class in the humanities.
• Context: who is the audience for this piece? (Look not just at the text, but at where it was published and when)
• Thesis: what is the main idea this text is expressing?
• Goal: what did the creator hope to achieve by writing this?
• Response: what did you think of the piece? Make sure to include
1. Something you enjoyed or appreciated (even if you didn’t agree);
2. A way that this connected to your own experience;
3. A question you have.
There’s no upper or lower word limit; take as much space as you need to answer these questions. Don’t forget that your personal opinion is only the last question: take the time to understand what the writer was trying to do before expressing your perspective on whether they were successful.
Reading responses are due 24 hours before class (ie 4pm on Tuesdays)
Click on this link to sign up for four responses. You may only sign up for a reading someone else has chosen if there are no readings without assigned responders.
If you are unhappy with your grade for any response, you may sign up for and write an extra response and your new grade will cancel out the lowest response grade on your record.