Once during the semester, each student will review an article or book that is cited by one of our central texts. Reviews are 4-6 pages and shared with seminar members. While the review author will not read the paper aloud, s/he will give a brief (5-minute) presentation explaining the text, its argument, and its relationship to the texts we've read in class. Papers are due at the beginning of class and will account for 15% of your final grade. Please do not exceed 1500 words.
Note: Reviewers are not required to complete a Microtheme, but they are expected to read both the assigned text and the text they are reviewing.
When grading these papers, I will be looking for the following:
- Have you provided an adequate summary of the text and its argument?
- Do you explain the text's significance, its most important features, and its contributions to a scholarly conversation?
- Have you explained how this text connects with the texts we're reading for this class?
- Do you provide evidence for your claims?
- Is your paper written effectively and coherently with very few grammatical errors?
- Have you observed the 1500-word limit?
