History Dept.
Univ. of Minnesota
Onestop
Libraries

INFORMAL RESPONSE PAPERS (JOURNALS)

(10% of Final Grade)

You will be required to write four (4) one-page, single-spaced response papers on the week's readings. The purpose of this response paper is to reflect upon readings, lectures, discussions, and films. When I read your informal response paper, I will be looking for engaged thinking about the topic at hand. I will not be particularly concerned about spelling, grammar, paragraph, and sentence structure unless your writing is clearly deficient and requires an immediate intervention. Instead, a successful response paper will include a clearly developed and creative analysis of the readings that we are doing for class.

Journals should include the following:

1. Identify the main argument(s) of the readings.
2. Explain your response to the issues raised (What did you learn? Did the readings make you think about a particular question differently? How so? What is your opinion on the matter? Is the author persuasive? Does the reading raise any questions for you, and if so, what?)
3. Connect the readings to previous class assignments or discussions.

Grading:

• Check +: an excellent effort, equivalent to an A
• Check: Satisfactory; usually given to response papers in which the student provides only a summary of the, does not reveal any sustained engagement with the reading; equivalent to a C
• 0: no submission or not satisfactory, equivalent to an F

Due dates for journals are as follows:

January 31
February 21
March 21
April 18

I will not accept late response papers.