short response paper guidelines

The two short response papers allow students additional engagement with the texts and will be worth 100 points each. Follow these formatting and content guidelines in preparing your responses:

• a single-spaced response that FILLS THE SPACE OF A SINGLE PAGE. Anything that does not fit on the single page will not be considered
• margins .5-1 inch
• font face Times New Roman or Cambria, 12 point
• single-sentence thesis in bold (no MLA page headings needed)
• appropriate standards of structure and syntax to convey meaning

A thorough response will include multiple references to the primary text, with quotations and parenthetical citations. When second sources are consulted (which is not the intent), please make sure to quote and site using MLA standards.

Please resist the temptation to write a five-paragraph essay in response to this assignment. Instead, think about clearly focusing your argument in a thesis statement that appears at or near the beginning of the paper; no need for a standard intro paragraph. Three or four well-developed paragraphs will suffice.

Note the formatting sample in the shared files in the Google Drive. Turnitin.com will allow users to upload documents directly from the Google Drive, so I recommend saving your work on the Drive throughout the semester.

This assignment will be submitted via turnitin.com. Please follow the directions in the week 2 overview to set up a turnitin.com account and register for this class.