Reading Response Due Tuesday, November 29th

This assignment is in lieu of a second explication paper.

Please choose one of the short stories we have read by Irving, Hawthorne, Melville, or Poe.  Write a reader response/reaction paper of about 3 pages.  For the sake of this assignment, you may assume that your reader knows the work you are writing about, so there is no need to summarize it at length.

Instead, you will examine your personal reaction to the text and then explain and defend that reaction.  While there is no "right response" or "wrong response" to a piece of fiction (at least not for the sake of this assignment!), there may be "weak responses" (ones that do not demonstrate a deep understanding of the text or are not well supported with evidence from the text) or "strong responses" (ones that show thoughtfulness about the text and use evidence from the text to support claims made).

Please write a thoughtful, organized, and well-supported (using direct evidence from the text) answer to the following three questions:

1.  What about this story stands out in your mind or strikes you either emotionally or intellectually?
2.  What in your background, values, needs, and interests contributes to your reaction?
3.  What specific passages in the work trigger that reaction?
4.  (Optional)  You may also want to consider whether this reaction is one that the author might have anticipated, or if it is one that his readers might have shared with you.

Your essay must:

• Mention the title of the text and the author and provide a short (1-2 sentence) summary of what the text is about, in the introduction.
• Include a thesis statement that makes an argument that encompasses all the claims you make in the paper (in other words, the paper cannot be a laundry list of your reactions to the text--your claims about the text and your reaction need to be connected through a central thesis).
• Document your source with in text citations and a works cited page, as needed.
• Be well written and proofread.  Use Standard English.  Write in complete sentences.
• Follow the guidelines as listed in the syllabus--EXACTLY.  

If you have any questions, please email me over the weekend.  I would also be VERY HAPPY to look at rough drafts, if you send them no later than Sunday evening.  You might also look at this webpage, which has a great process for brainstorming ideas for a reaction paper. 

Please remember that this will be your only, graded draft of this paper.  Good luck.  I look forward to hearing what you come up with.