These are the questions you are able to use 1. Reading the main claims What does

These are the questions you are able to use

1. Reading the main claims

• What does the text argue?
• What statements are put forward as truth or facts?
• Are the claims of the text specific or very general?
• Are the claims of the text well supported? How are they supported?

• What do you think was the most important point / piece of evidence / thing in this reading and why? (choose one)
• What is one thing that you felt needed more explanation?

2. Comparative analysis

• Pick a concept or idea we have discussed in class. How would this author approach this concept/idea?
• Pick another author we have read in class. We’ll call them “Author B” and we’ll call the author of this reading (the one you are writing about in this assignment) “Author A”. How would Author A respond to Author B’s writing?
• Does the writer base her / his ideas or assertions on the works of other writers and researchers? How so?
• Pick an academic reading from sometime in your life that you really enjoyed. What do you imagine its author think would think about the current reading (explain).

3. Audience

• Who is the intended and unintended audience for this reading? That is, who does the author intentionally or unintentionally include or exclude and how?
• What does the author want us to do with this information?
• What kind of assumptions is the author making about what their audience knows or believes?
• What background information would help you better understand this text?
• Does the writer make references to events that are not fully explained? How so?

4. Reading what’s absent

• What ideas are assumed in the text? What are its assumptions?
• Are there big ideas or ideologies on which this text seems to rely? What are those ideas or ideologies?
• What is implied by the text that is not all the way spelled out?
• As you list the main claims/assumptions of the text, ask yourself for each, what else has to be true for each claim to be true?
• Do you sense an “attitude” in the text? Does a particular bias or worldview, perhaps unspoken, seem present?

5. Known and unknown

• Are you interested in what you are reading? Do you feel resistant to it? Bored? Surprised? Intrigued? What other emotional reactions do you experience? Reading it, do you feel angry? Sad? Amused? Joyful? Frustrated?
• What is your immediate reaction to the main claims of the text? Do you agree, disagree? How strongly? Briefly, say why.
• Sometimes the tone or voice of a piece of writing causes us to react. How would you describe the tone of the text? Its voice?
• Are there ideas, words, references (as in words/phrases/ideas; not bibliographic references), or anything else in the text you don’t understand? Which ones?
• What surprised you about this reading?

WEEK 1: Monday, January 29 – Sunday, February 4

Homework assignment:

1. Read syllabus and prepare for syllabus quiz in next class.
2. By next Tuesday’s class (February 6), read the below readings and answer three of five questions included under the sub-heading in this syllabus titled, “Typical homework assignment directions”. You need only answer three of five questions in total. Answer at least one for each reading (i.e., two for one reading and one for the other).
   1. In Social Things: Introduction (*Might* be available for free hourly rental here:https://archive.org/details/socialthingsintr0000le… – you have to create a free account to use this site)
   2. In The Sociological Imagination: PDF pgs. 10-18.

WEEK 2: Monday, February 5 – Sunday, February 11

Homework assignment:

1. By next Tuesday’s class (February 13), read the below readings and answer three of five questions included under the sub-heading in this syllabus titled, “Typical homework assignment directions”. You need only answer three of five questions in total. Answer at least one for each reading (i.e., two for one reading and one for the other).
   1. In Social Things: Chapter 1 (*Might* be available for free hourly rental here:https://archive.org/details/socialthingsintr0000le… – you have to create a free account to use this site)
   2. In The Sociological Imagination: PDF pgs. 18-32.

WEEK 3: Monday, February 12 – Sunday, February 18

Homework assignment:

1. By next Tuesday’s class (February 20), read the below readings and answer three of five questions included under the sub-heading in this syllabus titled, “Typical homework assignment directions”. You need only answer three of five questions in total. Answer at least one for each reading (i.e., two for one reading and one for the other).
   1. In Social Things: Chapter 2 (*Might* be available for free hourly rental here:https://archive.org/details/socialthingsintr0000le… – you have to create a free account to use this site)
   2. In The Sociological Imagination: PDF pgs. 202-211.

WEEK 4: Monday, February 19 – Sunday, February 25

Homework assignment:

1. By next Tuesday’s class (February 27), read the below readings and answer three of five questions included under the sub-heading in this syllabus titled, “Typical homework assignment directions”. You need only answer three of five questions in total. Answer at least one for each reading (i.e., two for one reading and one for the other).
   1. In Social Things: Chapter 3
   2. In Understanding Truman Capote (this text can be found on Brightspace): Chapter 1.

WEEK 5: Monday, February 26 – Sunday, March 3

Homework assignment:

1. By next Tuesday’s class (March 5), read the below readings and answer three of five questions included under the sub-heading in this syllabus titled, “Typical homework assignment directions”. You need only answer three of five questions in total. Answer at least one for each reading (i.e., one for each reading).
   1. In Social Things: Chapter 4
   2. In Truman Understanding Capote (this text can be found on Brightspace): Chapter 2 (A Tree of Night and Other Stories).
   3. In A Tree of Night and Other Stories: 101-118 (Master Misery).

WEEK 6: Monday, March 4 – Sunday, March 10

Homework assignment:

1. By next Tuesday’s class (March 12), read the below readings and answer three of five questions included under the sub-heading in this syllabus titled, “Typical homework assignment directions”. You need only answer three of five questions in total. Answer at least one for each reading (i.e., one for each reading).
   1. In Social Things: Chapter 5

1. In Truman Understanding Capote (this text can be found on Brightspace): Chapter 3.
2. In Other Voices, Other Rooms: Chapter 1.

WEEK 7: Monday, March 11 – Sunday, March 17

1. By next Tuesday’s class (March 19), read the below readings and answer three of five questions included under the sub-heading in this syllabus titled, “Typical homework assignment directions”. You need only answer three of five questions in total. Answer at least one for each reading (i.e., one for each reading).
   1. In Social Things: Chapter 6
   2. In Truman Understanding Capote (this text can be found on Brightspace): Chapter 4.
   3. In The Grass Harp: Chapter 1

WEEK 8: Monday, March 18 – Sunday, March 24

1. By next Tuesday’s class (April 2), read the below readings and answer three of five questions included under the sub-heading in this syllabus titled, “Typical homework assignment directions”. You need only answer three of five questions in total. Answer at least one for each reading (i.e., one for each reading).
   1. In Social Things: Chapter 7.
   2. In Truman Understanding Capote: Chapter 5.
   3. In The Muses Are Heard: Chapter 1

WEEK 9: SPRING BREAK: Monday, March 25 – Sunday, March 31

WEEK 10: Monday, April 1 – Sunday, April 7

1. By next Tuesday’s class (April 9), read the below readings and answer FOUR of five questions included under the sub-heading in this syllabus titled, “Typical homework assignment directions”. You must answer four of five questions in total. At least one per reading (and two for one reading).
   1. In Social Things: Chapter 8.
   2. In Truman Understanding Capote: Chapter 6.
   3. In Breakfast at Tiffany’s: Read at least the first 25 pages.

WEEK 11: Monday, April 8 – Sunday, April 14

1. By next Tuesday’s class (April 16), read the below readings and answer FOUR of five questions included under the sub-heading in this syllabus titled, “Typical homework assignment directions”. You must answer four of five questions in total. At least one per reading (and two for one reading).
   1. In Social Things: Chapter 9.
   2. In Truman Understanding Capote: Chapter 7.
   3. In In Cold Blood: Read at least the first 25 pages not including the Introduction (this corresponds to pgs. 18-43 in the PDF on Brightspace).

WEEK 12: Monday, April 15 – Sunday, April 21

1. By next Tuesday’s class (April 23), read the below reading(s) and answer three of five questions included under the sub-heading in this syllabus titled, “Typical homework assignment directions”. You need only answer three of five questions in total.
   1. In Social Things: Chapter 10.
   2. TBD (To Be Determined)
   3. Study for final exam

WEEK 13: Monday, April 22 – Sunday, April 28

1. By next Tuesday’s class (April 30), read the below reading(s) and answer three of five questions included under the sub-heading in this syllabus titled, “Typical homework assignment directions”. You need only answer three of five questions in total.
   1. In Social Things: Chapter 11.
   2. TBD
2. Study for final exam

WEEK 14: Monday, April 29 – Sunday, May 5

1. By next Tuesday’s class (May 7), read the below reading(s) and answer three of five questions included under the sub-heading in this syllabus titled, “Typical homework assignment directions”. You need only answer three of five questions in total.
   1. In Social Things: Chapter 12.
   2. TBD
2. Study for final exam

Link to Social Things book: https://archive.org/details/socialthingsintr0000leme_edi5/page/n5/mode/2up?view=theater