Week 15
Due: Monday, Dec. 11 by 5pm ** notice the unusual day
This week, your short writing assignment is to review the paper drafts shared with you. You are welcome to make suggestions directly on the paper (either printed out or in digital form), but please make a document that directly answers the following questions. Share that document with the paper’s author and upload a copy of your comments to Canvas so I can give you credit for the assignment. I imagine that your answers will amount to about a page of text, but feel free to write more than this.
1) What do you understand to be the main point of this paper? How would you rephrase this point in your own words?
2) What assumptions is the author trying to challenge? Do you get a clear sense of a stasis that s/he is writing against? If so, do you find the thesis compelling? Did you agree with the stated stasis before you read this paper? Is the stasis a straw man?
3) What evidence or examples does the author use to support his or her claims? Does this evidence make sense to you? Did it make you think of anything else the author doesn’t mention?
4) What kind of authorial tone does the paper have? Does the tone fit the style of argumentation? Would a different tone make more sense?
5) Do you have a clear sense of the stakes of this thesis or argument? Why does the author think this is an important question to ask? Do you agree? Is this an important question to ask?
6) What surprised you about this paper?
7) What most impressed you about this paper?
You should email your comments to the paper’s author and upload a version to Canvas so I can give you credit.