Response Paper

For your last paper you are being asked to respond to a media representation of "youth culture". You are free to draw from any type of media you choose (i.e. neswpaper articles, magazines, scholarly journals, film, television, music, blogs).

You will be responding both the argument and the manner in which that argument is being made. In order to do this effectively you will need to ask questions. The following are suggestions and you are in no way limited to these.

  • Were you the target audience? If so, did the writer do an adequate job of appealing to you, the reader?
  • Was the piece unbiased? (And the real question, does it need to be unbiased?)
  • Was the author informed about the topic?
  • Was the writer writing about you rather than for you?
  • Whose best interests are being served by the stand taken in the original article?

    Once you're done asking questions take a stand. How and why do your opinions either agree with or diverge from the author's? What can you bring to bear on the topic that perhaps the writer missed? Do not to make this into an "I agree" or "I disagree" piece however. Rather, develop the author's idea further, point out avenues of enquiry that he or she may have missed.

    Assume a voice. This is the voice you would like others to really hear rather than the standard "writing a paper for a college class" voice. And others *will* hear it. This paper will form part of the class e-zine and as such should be treated as a public piece of writing.

    Most important of all -take some risks!!! Be creative. Be loud. Be emotional. Be original. Be shocking. Be whatever you deem necessary to get the job done.

    This should also be the most polished piece of work you turn in this semester. It should have all the characteristics of good writing we've discussed over the semester. These inculde:

  • strong intro
  • logical organization
  • adequate development of ideas
  • genuine conclusion
  • lack of wordiness
  • impecable formatting and proofreading