Reaction Essays

To help presenters direct class discussions better, everyone is expected to write a short reaction essay for each assigned paper. Your reactions should be concise (200-300 words), and they should be well written.

Given the space limitation, your reaction essay should not include a complete summary of the reading material. You should limit your reactions/ideas to one or two per paper. Your ideas may have a number of forms: (a) You may compare the work to related material; (b) You may hypothesize about ways in which the work could have been improved; (c) You may think about ways to expand on the work (conceptually or computationally); (d) You may critique the work, including its conceptual framework, methodology, and/or results; or (e) you may describe something you don't understand that you would like the class to discuss (explain exactly what you don't understand).

Reaction essays are due by 11 AM MONDAY and 2:30 PM WEDNESDAY (the day before the class during which the paper will be presented).

We will use the Blackboard forum system. Please post your reaction essays in plain text. Do not use attachments. Post them as messages, not as uploaded files.