The critical response assignment is an exercise designed to get you to engage in a substantive and specific way with the reading in the course.
Strong papers will employ powerful and ethical rhetorical means to argue specifically to or with a point or points raised by a reading or readings. “Arguing with” does not mean only “disagreeing.” You certainly can simply disagree with a reading—but you can also agree, challenge, inquire, problematize, or extend a point.
Here are some specific examples of how these might look: Pick an issue discussed in the reading(s) and talk about it in relation to incidents in your own life, aspects of your writing, etc. Challenge a writer on a particular point. Where does he or she go wrong? What’s missing?’
Extend an argument. What are the implications of X, Y, or Z? Compare and/or contrast the points of view of two or more authors. Import a story, incident, issue, etc. from some other point of reference—the political scene, a community to which you belong, someone’s personal experience you know well—and relate that to a reading. Relate an assertion of an essay to another facet of life or a different case or example. Raise problems with a writer’s rhetoric. Is he or she arguing fairly? Are there lapses in logic or inappropriate appeals to emotion (pathos) or character (ethos)?
The CR must be between 750-1,000 words (approx 1-2 pages). Papers not meeting the length requirement will receive a deduction in points. The format should be as follows: To begin, select a particular quotation (or idea) that exemplifies an important idea from the readings (or discussions) and place it at the top of your paper.
In your written response, first explain in a paragraph or two what the quotation means and its context. Then, in the rest of the paper, respond in depth to the idea. Analyze it, relate it through your own experience, praise it, problematize it, refute it, get mad at it, question it, believe it, doubt it—whatever response feels appropriate for you, as long as you provide reasonable explanation for your response. The issue I chose is socialism.
