One of the main goals of this course is to help you learn to become more critical readers, thinkers, and writers. Because of this, you’ll be reading and writing a lot. Close reading of texts will be essential in this class. Indeed, you should never read an assigned text without a pen or pencil in hand. When you read texts for this class, it’s important to circle or define important words, underline or highlight key sentences and passages, and write notes or questions in the margins. These markings will be invaluable in helping you develop reading responses, contribute to our class discussion, and determine topics for your essays. Throughout the term, you will be completing reading responses. These responses are intended to help you engage with the text, analyze it from a variety of perspectives, and facilitate close reading. Response entries are not summaries, but are insights from the texts. All reading responses must: Include a creative title Be typed in 12-point font (Times New Roman or something comparable) Be at least 350 words, approximately ½ – 1 page single-spaced Include at least two quotations from different parts of the text Use MLA format to cite the quotations in the text Guidelines to help you write a well-developed reading response: Write about the text in present tense. Literature is always alive! Make an argument about the text. What message is the author trying to convey? What is the lesson the author wants his/her readers to learn? How does he/she convey this message? Integrate at least two appropriate quotations. There are primarily three ways to integrate quotations: Use a signal phrase/action verb (says, states, explains, argues, etc.) followed by a comma Herman Melville writes, “Call me Ishmael.” Use a signal phrase/action verb followed by the word that The husband in Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” says that “this blind man was late forties, a heavy-set, balding man with stooped shoulders, as if he carried a great weight there.” Use a sentence to introduce the quote followed by a colon In Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use,” she uses quilts to represent the heritage of African American women: “It was Grandma Dee and Big Dee who taught her how to quilt herself.” An “appropriate quotation” should give you something to talk about and not just state facts from the story, poem, or play Show how the textual evidence you used supports your point. To do this, you have to analyze the text, which means you have to show the reader how you understood/interpreted the passages you include in your response(s). Example of Complete Analysis (analysis in bold): In Alice Walker’s short story, “Everyday Use,” she uses quilts to represent the heritage of African American women: “It was Grandma Dee and Big Dee who taught her how to quilt herself.” At this point in the story, Maggie has just told her mother that her older sister can take the quilts. The mother (narrator) sees something more than “quilts” though when she looks at them; she sees her d