The response papers are to be 1 – 2 pages in length, 12 point, double-spaced (standard formatting). There should be two major parts to each response: 1) A personal response to the reading detailing your opinion regarding the text. Was it surprising in any ways? Boring? Exciting? Too long? Hard to understand? Very different from anything you've read before? All of these are reasonable questions to address when considering your own reaction to the work. 2) An analysis of the text as a historical document. What was the purpose of this document? Who was intended to read it? What did the author want to accomplish or say through the work and just as importantly- were they successful in their aims? Why or why not? What choices did they make that allowed the work to achieve that aim (or not). When composing the second part, consider what you wrote in the first. Did you enjoy or dislike the piece for certain reason, and could that be related to the type of document or its purpose? In that way, was it appropriate that the document gave you that impression?

Since the second part should be a close analysis of the choices and methods of the author, you should be pointing to specific parts of the document to make your case, and therefore, it MUST contain citations to those specific examples.