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)
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”