Reading responses play an important role in this course because they allow you to explore connections between different processes and events that marked the early modern period. In doing so, you are preparing for the first part of your signature assignment, in which you will be asked to analyze the larger contexts that influenced an early modern person’s life.
Here are some guidelines to help you with this task:
- You must select a text that you have not previously written about.
- Your document should be between 700 – 1000 words (below or above these limits will result in point deductions).
- Always give the author’s name and the title of the chapter/article you are responding to.
- Use clear and concise prose.
- Your reading response should accomplish a minimum of one and, ideally, all three objectives listed here:
- Explore connections and similarities between information in the text and information provided in other texts we have already read in this class and/or historical examples you already know about. Give reasons why you think these are meaningful connections and similarities.
- Explore comparisons and contrasts between information in the text and information provided in other texts we have already read in this class and/or historical examples you already know about. Give reasons why you think these are meaningful comparisons and contrasts.
- Ask informed questions about the text. Does the author mention a historical event, development, or problem that you would like to explore further? What questions would you ask about it? Give reasons why you think these are meaningful questions.
- This is an opportunity for you to explore further any historical examples that you were unable to include in your executive summary.
- Always ask yourself: What is my argument and why am I making it?
- Use quotes with extreme caution. A reading response should be entirely your own writing, with quotes only used for specific phrases that are necessary for clarity.
- In this class, please provide inline citations for all information that is not common knowledge. “Common Knowledge,” in this class refers to information commonly known by the general public.
- Citations are required both for direct quotations and summarized information from any source.
- For citing inline at the end of the sentence, use the following formula: (author last name(s): publication date, page number).