Due dates for reading assignments are listed in the syllabus, so you need to complete these reading assignments before coming to class. Also, this type of active involvement will prepare you for our class discussions and paper assignments. After designated assigned readings, you will reflect in an “evaluation free” Reading Response Journal during which you should

1. Summarize the reading, including restating the thesis and most important supporting points of the passage.2. Write a response to the text in which you discuss connections, objections, or questions. Aim your response at what the author is saying and how he/she is saying it.3. Create a discussion question from the reading. Frame the question in a way that it would evoke a meaningful, thoughtful conversation among classmates. For example, suppose you read an essay by Richard Marius titled “Writing Drafts.” To create a thoughtful, rhetorical discussion among classmates, you might ask, “What is the author's purpose in writing this essay and how does he go about accomplishing that purpose?

You will be asked to submit two Reading Response Rournals from assigned textbook readings. If you turn them in at the due date indicated in the syllabus and if you make a meaningful attempt to write a response to the reading, construct a reflective commentary, and formulate an assessment about the reading, you will be given 5 points for having completed that assignment.