Reading Response Procedure:

1. Does the paper have a title.

2. Is the title ambiguous? Rearrange the title to bring out what you think to be the ambiguity?

3. Before you read anything other than the title, thumb through the paper to check out the paragraphs. If you find a page with four or five short paragraphs, see if any of the shorter paragraphs might be put into two or even one paragraphs. If you find a paragraph that is a page or more long (half a page if the paper is single spaced), see if you can find any logical breaks in the paragraph that might break it into two or possibly three bite sized chunks.

If you find no paragraph problems skip to step 4.

4.. Thumb through the paper looking for quotations marks. When you find a quotation, see if it fits with what is being said. Does it seem to support what is being said. Does the author comment on the quotation (especially a long one) in a way that suggests what the author thinks the quotation means.

5. Is the quotation introduced? As in: "X writes (argues, suggests, states, says)......."

6. Read the first paragraph. Ask yourself if it gets right to the point or beats around the bush. Remember though good beating around the bush can be fun. But if you think there is bad beating around the bush, see if you can eliminate it.

7. Read the first two paragraphs. Does the second paragraph flow logically from the first, or does their seem to be a jump or chasm between them. If yes, can you suggest a change.

8. Now read the whole paper. As you read along note in the margins examples that you like, or phrases or expressions, or facts you didn't know about.

9. In 25 words or less, summarize the paper.

10. Find one sentence that you think might be overly long or unclear, and rewrite that sentence to make it shorter or clearer.

11. Rewrite the title.