Skip to main content

5/4260 How to Write a Response Paper

How to write a response paper

These should be 1 page single-spaced.

You should discuss your reaction to one or more of the readings in a way that reveals your knowledge and understanding of the readings. Are the authors right? Insightful? Are their ideas useful, for others or for yourself? Have they changed your thinking regarding the direction of your own research?

The first response paper is due at the start of class this Wednesday July 9.

Graduate students will need to write papers every week. Undergrads will need to write 3 papers over the course of the semester.

This week you should discuss one or more of the following readings:

William Sewell jr., The Concept(s) of Culture (handout)
Philip Smith, Introduction: What is Culture? What is Cultural Theory? (Smith I)
Lynn Spillman, Introduction: Culture and Cultural Sociology (Spillman)

Richard Harvey Brown, Textuality and the Postmodern Turn in Sociological Theory (Smith II)

Philip Smith, 37-57 (Smith I)

Raymond Williams, Base and Superstructure (Spillman)

Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” (Spillman)

Habermas, Jurgen, “On Systematically Distorted Communication”



Popular posts from this blog

Job Search Workshop

  Joint TWU-UNT Sociology Job Search Workshop   1. Don’t worry about aggregate statistics on placements, the job market, etc. The academic job market is tough, it’s been tough since the late 1960s, and it will continue to be tough. There’s nothing anyone can do about it.   2. All you can do is work very hard, and anticipate going on the market up to 3 years in a row. If you don’t get any job the third time around, it’s time to try something else. Think of the process as a poker game: you can only go ‘all in’ so many times before you have to cut your losses and begin to consider non-academic jobs. This is especially the case if you are offered a post-doc, a lectureship, or some kind of adjunct position. In each case you have to be very honest with yourself, and your advisor needs to be honest with you, about whether such positions will lead to a tenure-track position down the road (if that’s what you’re after). 3. Your primary sources of information on job openings are the...
Read more

Introduction to Sociological Theory Lecture Notes for Final Exam Dec. 10

Major American Theorists The origins of American sociology American sociology originates during Reconstruction , following the Civil War . As in Europe, the mid- to late-19 th century was a period of intense urbanization , but in the American case, also of immigration, mostly from Europe . Very rapid flow of ideas from Europe (although translations from German and French were not always available or accurate) Americans were trained in European universities 1858- course in “Social Problems” at Oberlin College 1873- William Graham Sumner (Herbert Spencer’s American protégé) begins teaching “social science” at Yale 1880s- “sociology” courses begin to appear 1889- first American sociology department, at the University of Kansas 1892- Sociology department founded at the University of Chicage —becomes dominant American department for 30-40 years Early American sociologists were not nostalgic (compare with Ferdinand Toennies) They were political...
Read more

4600 final exam review terms

Media differentiation Echo chamber Outrage and incivility Political pundits Civil society organizations News releases Plagiarism detection software Muslims-as-enemy frame Anchor babies Epidemiological model anti-immigrant groups Newsmax Mainstream media Sensory overload Media addiction Multitasking Social and communication skills Life satisfaction Perceptions of information overload Perceptions of digital overuse Digital coping skills Gray matter volume Digital music consumption Opinion leaders Prosumption Cultural omnivores Prosumption Creative class Creative jobs  
Read more