The purpose of these brief assignments is for you to synthesize weekly readings in a thoughtful and critical way, and to contribute your insights to section discussions. These papers count for 25% of your total course grade.
**Be advised, the paper you submit must address the readings for the specific week you are submitting during, as these texts will be discussed during the specific class as designated on the syllabus. Papers written about class material that has been previously discussed will not be accepted. For example, a response on Week 2 readings will not be accepted during Week 3.**

Instructions.
Analyze the readings assigned for the week. Please be advised that analyzing goes beyond summarizing. Please do not submit work that re-tells what you have already read. Instead, write about how the readings relate to each other, common themes; Some things to think about: where do these texts differ? Do they discuss opposing viewpoints? Is there anything about these texts that you found particularly interesting? How do they talk to each other? What is absent? Do not address all of these questions in your response, they simply a good starting point to think about framing your paper. Whenever possible, you are encouraged to make connections between the texts and your everyday life, as long as your analysis closely relates to the arguments made by various authors, and goes beyond telling a story. These may be opinion pieces, as long as they are well-informed opinion pieces that use the readings to support your argument. Make sure you do all of the readings before you submit.

Format.
These assignments must be at least 300 words. You should be able to make your point clearly and concisely. Use a standard font (Times, Arial, Calibri, etc.; 11 or 12 point). Double or single spaced.

Rubric.
Response papers are worth a max of 3 points each. 3 points will be assigned to papers demonstrating clear, critical, original analysis of themes, few errors in organization, spelling and grammar. 2 points for papers that disproportionately emphasize a clear analysis of one text, with little engagement with others. 1 point will be assigned to papers that weakly engage with texts, or provide a general overview of the topic but not a specific reference point to the texts themselves. 0 points to those where requirements were not met and to which little effort was invested, or there is visible evidence of direct plagiarismDO NOT copy and paste information from the internet.