Response Essays (50%)

To prepare for class discussions, you will submit over the course of the semester a total of 10 response essays, each of which should be 3-4 double-spaced pages in length. Because these essays are designed to help you prepare for class, they are due the day we discuss a particular reading and will not be accepted after that class. I will not accept more than one essay during any given week, meaning you must write these essays on a weekly basis during the first 13 weeks of the course.

The essays should generally try to address the following questions:

• What are the author's central claims in this piece of writing?
• What is the author's purpose in making this argument?
• What evidence does the author use to support his/her claims about a particular technology? Is this evidence sufficient to justify such a claim?
• What assumptions does he or she make about technology and its role in our society?
• What implications does this argument have for how technology is used in professional communication?
• What is your personal analytic reaction to the ideas expressed by this author?

This type of analysis based on claims and warrants, of course, is a hallmark of Toulmin's model of argument, which as Christina Haas has shown, is particularly effective in unpacking the claims various writers make about communication technologies. We'll discuss these methods in greater length during our first meeting.

Not every essay needs to address all six of these questions, however. These are provided only as a suggestion, not an exact formula. The main purpose is to identify the author's main claims and examine them using some analytical method. You should avoid making purely evaluative comments about whether you "liked" the author's writing style or ideas. Instead you should focus on explaining the author's position and then exploring the implications of this position on the way we view language and technology.

Essay Evaluations

Your grade on these essays is determined by how many you write and how well you write them. I place only brief comments on the essays and grade them as a check, check plus, or check minus, with final grades assigned as follows:

• A = 9-10, all or close to all check pluses
• B = 7-8, check pluses and checks
• C = 5-6, checks and some check minuses
• D = 3-4, check minuses and checks
• F = 0-2

The 10 essays you submit during the semester average out to almost one essay per week during the first 13 weeks of the semester (discounting the first week and the 10th week of Spring break). After the 13th week, I will accept no more essays, as we'll be on to the research paper and XML project at that point.

Submitting Essays

You should send your essays to me via email each week, in Word format, before class begins. I generally allow late submissions the first few weeks of class, but I expect essays to be submitted before the beginning of class. You should number the essays in sequential order and retain an electronic copy on your hard drive in case I somehow misplace one during the semester.

One word about naming conventions of submitted files: every essay submitted must include your last name and the number of the essay being submitted. For example, if I were submitting my third essay of the semester, I would upload a file named:

honeycutt3.doc

In fact, to ensure that you don't forget, you might set up a file template for your essays, copy the file 9 times, then rename them "lastname1.doc, lastname2.doc, lastname3.doc,...lastname10.doc". This way, they'll be ready for submission as you finish them.