Response Paper Brief Guide
Occasionally you will turn in a 500 word “response paper” on Canvas. “Response” in this case
does not mean the first reaction to a reading or idea but an argument about the reading. An
argument means that you make a point about the readings and then convince the reader of your
point. You must offer an interpretation and that interpretation cannot be overly obvious. If
anyone reading the books that you are would easily agree with your point then it is not an
argument. An argument is something debatable. If we can’t debate it, then it’s not an argument.
This means that you have to be creative and take risks in your responses. It also means do not
spend much space summarizing. We have all read the materials so we don’t need a retelling.
What we want is your insight. They are also not mini-papers that need an intro, body, and
conclusion. Rather they should be precise insightful points of interpretation. A response in the
academic sense is a short analysis of a particular point of interest (and not simply an opinion).
This means making a non-generic claim, providing evidence, and then analyzing why the
evidence provides insight beyond the obvious.
The basic structure is to make a non-obvious claim about some element of the readings, support
that claim with evidence (this means quoting the materials themselves), and then analyzing how
the evidence supports your claim. Sometimes students get part of this three-part formula right.
For example, one might make a claim and then find quotes from the text that support that claim
and then stop. However, without analyzing and explaining how those quotes prove the claim, the
job is only partially done
there are three readings choose only 2:
1. our sister killjoy
2. under african skies (chapter TWO SISTERS)
3. african writers conference (chapter FEMINISM WITH A SMALL F)