English 361: Everyday Rhetorics

Reading Responses and Comments

In order to encourage close readings of the texts, and to participate fully with the key points from class, you are responsible for responding to class readings in ANGEL. You are required to complete 11 reading responses and 9 comments on reading responses.

Reading responses should be thoughtful and include direct references to the readings.  In other words, please quote and cite pages.  I want you to think about these blogs like Prof. Barbara Monroe.  She thinks about a good reader response entry like this:

“The trick is to make these postings compressed but chockfull of insight and admittedly unfinished thoughts. Think of your blog as your "sandbox"--for trying on new ideas.”

Don't think of your reading responses as finished essays. Instead think about them like drafting sessions where you share some of your reactions and thoughts to the readings.

To make writing your responses a little bit easier, I have provided some general questions for you to answer about your readings. You only need to answer one of the questions in your responses.

• What confused you about this week’s readings?
• How does your own personal experience relate to what you read this week?
• What effect did the readings have on your beliefs, your values, or your previous understandings of things?
• How does what you’ve been reading relate to other courses?
• Why the heck did you find this to be important?

Each reading response has two parts.

1. The first part is the response and it should be between 200-300 words. You must incorporate one quote or paraphrase of the readings the day the response is assigned. You must cite sources correctly in-text using APA or MLA citation. You must also provide an open-ended question you have about the reading. This will encourage readers to interact with your response. Include your question at the end of your response.

2. The second part is a comment or response to a classmates' reading response. These must incorporate at least one quote or paraphrase from the readings of the day the comment is due. The response should be between 100-150 words unless otherwise noted (just a tweet!). You should respond thoughtfully to the question or questions posed.

A (9-10 pts) your response or comment is critical and thoughtful. Cites and/or summarizes the text in order to support points, and illustrates a clear grasp of the topic at hand. This response meets all the requirments.

B  (8 pts): your response lacks some level of critical engagement. Cites and/or summarizes the text to some degree, but a clear grasp of the topic is not fully illustrated and/or one of the requirments is not performed correctly.

C  (7 pts): your response lacks critical engagement with text, and uses little to no support. Illustrates little understanding of the text, the initial response, and/or one or more of the requirments is not met.

D (6 pts): response indicates some level of awareness of topic at hand, but very minimally and/or one or more of the requirments is not met.

F  (0-5): you do not answer the question and/or do not address the prompt. Response indicates zero level of awareness of topic at hand and/or one or more of the requirments is not met.