Reading Responses

• Everyone must submit a response for Eliot's Middlemarch.
• No one can submit a response for Dickens' Great Expectations (see below)
• No one can submit a response for Stoker's Dracula
• The remaining five responses can be in response to any five of the seven remaining novels in the course.
• Each response constitutes up to 5% of the course grade, except for the Middlemarch response which constitutes up to 10% of the course grade.
• Your responses will be due on the day the reading assignment is due. 
• No late responses will be accepted. 

In total, the submitted responses constitute up to 40% of the course grade. 

General Procedure

Short response papers (1 1/2 to 2 1/2 pages except for Middlemarch which should be 4 pages, typed, double-spaced) are due on the dates specified on the syllabus. Papers must be word-processed and handed in at the beginning of class (no email submissions accepted).

Response papers may explore any aspect of the text that strikes you as interesting or puzzling, contrast the current week's text with one read earlier in the quarter, choose a passage of the text to close-read, or raise questions that you would like to develop in a final paper or to discuss in class. Because these papers are designed as warm-up for class discussion, they must examine the text assigned for the day on which they are due (rather than the previous week's); for the same reason, extensions will not be given on response papers under any circumstances.

The response is not a paper so you should not concern yourself with introductions and conclusions. You should, however, make every attempt to provide a coherent response and you should proofread and edit your work for clarity. Each response will be graded using the following simple scale 

1 - (60% credit): inadequate; the response was submitted on time but fails to meet the terms of the assignment

2 - (80% credit): adequate; the response was submitted on time and meets the terms of the assignment

3 - (100% credit): superior; the response was submitted on time and goes beyond the terms of the assignment

Weekly Dickens Journal

The response is your opportunity to express what you think about what you’ve read. Try to connect what you’ve read with your own thoughts and experiences. You can disagree with the author, offer your opinion about what is happening in the reading, or write about what the reading reminds you of in your own life. At a minimum your response should be about one-half of a typed page or about one handwritten page for each reading assignment. The Dickens' responses will be graded using the following simple scale:

1 - (60% credit): inadequate; the response was submitted on time but fails to meet the terms of the assignment

2 - (80% credit): adequate; the response was submitted on time and meets the terms of the assignment

3 - (100% credit): superior; the response was submitted on time and goes beyond the terms of the assignment