Reading Responses. (Description adapted from syllabus, p. 6)
The activity schedules indicate various times when you should bring to class a formal “Reading Response” to an assigned reading or readings. (See the activity schedule for Unit 1 to see the reading(s) assigned for this coming class period.)
Your response, due before the beginning of class, should
- Summarize your understanding of the main theme of the reading (and/or the thinking presented in one of its main sections to support that theme). You should summarize this understanding, in your own words, as a generalization or set of abstract claims. In other words, you should not include full-sentence quotes or recite details used to illustrate the larger claims (at least not at first, when you merely are summarizing a main or secondary theme).
- Discuss at some length, and in your own words, the value, significance, or limits of the main arguments in the reading.
- List three probing or thoughtful questions (not just technical uncertainties about the meanings of terms, for example) that a person or community could actively raise in response to the reading, specifically about the art of rhetoric or its implications for the practice of law. In other words, these should be questions that linger in the mind and can support thoughtful reflection even after you have adequately understood what the article says or suggests.
- Each of these three components in your response should be presented in its own section, marked by a descriptive heading or title. For class, have available a copy or printout of the article.What
