Requirement and Article ENG 205 - Requirement Analytical...

Requirement “
Analytical Response Paper”
:
Hi, Folks,
One of your classmates wrote me to ask for clarification concerning the subject of
the first Analytical Response Paper. The question made me realize I had not been
as precise as I could have been in explaining that, and I told your classmate that.
Now I tell you, and also the rest of what I told your classmate:
For this first paper, focus on "The End of Solitude." Analyze it in depth: style,
purpose, logic, meaning, and so forth. Also, what do you think the essay has to say
to you, to your generation, to mankind ... if anything? Grapple (wrestle) with it
(philosophically, that is).
Does that work for you?
~ PRJ
Just what is an "Analytical Response Paper" anyway?
I hope to answer that pressing question for you here. If, after reading this, you still have
questions or misgivings, please contact me via e-mail and we'll work them out.
For those of you familiar with my "Response Papers" from previous classes, bear with me
and please read this carefully. There is a difference.
Let us take this one word at a time, but a bit out of order. Let us begin with "Response." I
want you to respond to either of the readings from the class Web calendar assigned for the
two weeks prior to the due date of the response paper you are writing. That means the
essay linked to on the Web calendar and/or (I'll get to that in a minute) the two Kafka
readings (one per week). What do I mean by "respond"? I mean "react." How did you react to
the readings? Did you discover anything new? Did you agree or disagree with what they
(the readings) are saying or asserting? To answer that, you will need to give a very quick
summary of what you believe your choice of reading had to say in the first place.
Now let us take a look at "Analytical." By that I mean (perhaps obviously) I want you to
analyze the reading, much as we have in our discussions in class. Analyze what the
author(s) have to say, and most importantly, how the author(s) choose to say what is said.
By analyzing those two things, you will get a pretty good idea for what the author(s) meant
you to take away from the work(s).

Therein is the crux of your analysis. What did the author(s) cause you to think? He, she, or
they caused you to think something ; caused you to react in some way. So analyze HOW
he/she/they did that. How did the author(s) get your mind to go where it did? And — and it
is an important "and" — why did he/she/they want your mind to go there? Why is it so
darned important for you to consider — to ruminate on and/or grapple with — the concept,
large or small, which he/she/they gave you?
The third word, "Paper," means you take all this and put it down on paper coherently and
smartly for you to understand and for me to read and understand. You will use what you
write to analyze and, in a way, to grade how well the author(s) presented and made their
arguments, and why they went to the trouble to do so.