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Response paper guidelines
(different format for ethics readings and for plays)

Response papers are informal and designed to prepare for and stimulate class discussion. They should be 1/2 to 2 pages long, and computer produced. The response papers will be prepared before class on the assigned reading for the day and will reflect your thinking about and response to the text, as well as questions for discussion. They will handed in at the end of each class period and will be returned to you for inclusion in your final portfolio. Response papers may be informally written, making use of lists, key words, and incomplete sentences where appropriate. You may wish to leave space for class discussion and lecture notes to be written directly on your response/question papers, or you may use loose leaf paper that can be kept together with the response papers in a portfolio to be turned in at the end of the semester. Remember to date and sign all your work. These informal "papers" will serve several purposes. They provide an opportunity for you to practice critical responses in writing, to work through ideas for paper topics, to come to class prepared for discussion, and to encounter ideas from others in the class.
Response papers will be turned in at the end of each class period.

Response papers to the ethics and secondary readings

Guidelines for what to include: 

1. Summarize briefly the main points in the chapter or reading, paying special attention to the various ethical theories.

2. List and define important terms and concepts.

3. List anything you wish to have explained or clarified.

4. Write your own (3-5) discussion questions on the material in the chapter or reading.

NB. In the Ethics text, it is a good idea to look over the discussion questions at the end of the chapter. You need not write out answers to these questions, but you should think about them ahead of time to facilitate class discussion.

Response papers to the plays

Guidelines for what to include: 

1. Name and describe the major characters as they are introduced. Indicate the relationships between them. What do we learn about their backgrounds in each act?

2. Outline how the action unfolds, and how the background to the action is gradually revealed.

3. Describe the structure of the society Ibsen depicts in the play. Consider class and gender. Who represents various classes? How do the classes interact? What is Ibsen's view of class? Your reaction to it? Are the relationships between classes today similar or different than in Ibsen's depiction in this play? What about the relationships between men and women?

4. List situations in which characters have to make a moral or ethical decisions. Critique these decisions from the point of view of various ethical theories. Discuss how decisions might have been made differently had the character(s) used ethical theories to help them. Include Utilitarianism, Kantianism, Virtue ethics and Christian ethics (or others) as relevant.

5. Discuss the implications of the ending of the play. Do any of the characters learn a lesson? Does the audience?

6. Compare the situations the characters find themselves in with actual historical events (distant and or recent). Look for similarities and differences in how ethics are played out in the actual and the fictional situations.

7. Think of hypothetical or real situations you might find yourself in that you could compare with the situations in this play. How might what you see unfold in the play affect how you would make decisions in these situations?

8. Write 3-5 questions that you would like to have the class (or your group) discuss.
 

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Last updated on January 13, 2004