reading response

Description

1) Identify the author. In 50-100 words, identify the most informative biographical elements. Who are they? When and where are they writing from? This will help you contextualize the text you are reading. Does your understanding of the article differ depending on whether you do this before or after reading it?

2) Write a 250-word abstract of the article. An abstract is not a linear summary of a story told. It clearly articulates a premise and outlines the structure of its argument. Abstracts are generally prepared by authors as a condensed preview of what the article holds—more the format of an elevator pitch, which tries to deliver all of the essentials in a condensed format, than that of a film trailer, which holds back key information.

3) Analyze, in 250 words, the article through one of the following lenses. Make sure to label which one you choose, and to have tried all of them before the end of the semester:

a. Form. How do you separate the form of the article from its content? Given the infinity of ways in which the same message could have been communicated, why did the author choose this particular form? How would you describe its genre? Its tone? Analyze its structure, and the choices the author has made in the delivery. How is the form of the article informing its content?

b. Biases. The readings do not come from a history textbook: an argument is embedded in each. The ideas presented are not facts as much as constructed arguments. What ideological biases does the argument rely on, what is at stake, what is privileged, and what is ignored?

c. Context. Could this article have been written in any geographical or historical context? How can you extract the bigger discursive environment to which it responds? What ongoing conversation does it participate in? This is a difficult but highly informative exercise, as it enables you to map the discursive frameworks that have generated our present moment.

4) Formulate 3 questions. These will be shared with weekly discussion leaders and used to guide the conversation. Articulate a productive question—one that doesn’t have an obvious answer but underscores the paradoxes or biases inherent in the text; one that generates dissensus and dialogue; one that engenders a conversation that will sharpen everyone’s understanding.