Assignment
This is the website I want you to use. fullbooks- The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore.
You can just take a small part and analyze it.
In your response paper any approach you wish to take is fine, as long as it demonstrates your comprehension of the material and your ability to think critically about it, and takes up 1 to 2 pages of double-spaced, 12pt text. Good response papers will help you become a better reader and writer, and they will also help make discussions lively and focused.
Writing good response papers is more demanding than it might appear at first. It is not simply a matter of reading the text, understanding it, and expressing an opinion about it. You must allow yourself enough time to be clear about what each text says and how the texts all relate to one another. In other words, response papers require you to synthesize the intellectual work of others-that is, bring it together into an integrated whole. In preparing to write response papers, therefore, it is crucial that you allow yourself not just enough time to do the readings but enough to digest what you have read and to put the results together into a unified account.
To write a really good response paper, keep in mind the following:
• When you're doing the reading, take notes. Highlighting is not a good way to take notes. In
other words, annotate-something which we have discussed in class. You should write, on a separate piece of paper, paraphrases of the author's key arguments as well as your own thoughts about the reading. These notes will not only help you write good responses, but will really help you with the formal papers.
• Don't waste space summarizing the authors' arguments. It is very important that you demonstrate that you understand what the author is trying to communicate, but you can do this very briefly. The most important part of a response paper is your response-that is, what did you think of these readings? What did you find interesting, wrong-headed, surprising, or thought-provoking about the readings? If there is no analysis involved, then you have not responded, only regurgitated.
• You can respond to one reading or you can bring more than one reading into conversation with each other by formulating a response to the connection between the readings, a comparison of the readings, or a critique of the readings, etc. If responding to just one text, you might need to situate it within the larger context of class discussions, readings, etc. If you are responding to multiple texts, you must also discover how the texts relate to one another.
• Do not write an autobiographical essay. Reaction/response papers are not about how you feel-even how you feel about the texts. They are not simply a venue for you to say whether you like or dislike the texts. Give praise or blame where you think it is due, but avoid commendation or condemnation for its own sake.
Consider texts individually:
What is the main problem or issue that the author is addressing?
What is the author's central claim, argument, or point?
What assumptions does the author make?
What evidence does the author present?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the text?
What are possible counterarguments to the text's claims?
Why are the problem(s) and the argument(s) interesting or important?
Consider texts collectively:
How do they relate to one another? Do the authors agree? Disagree? Address different aspects of an issue? Formulate a problem in different ways?
In what way (if any) does the information or argument of one text strengthen or weaken the argument of others? Does integrating the claims in two or more of the texts advance your understanding of a larger issue?