Reaction Paper Grades
As you know, reaction papers are worth 20% of your grade.  So I will be grading your reaction papers using a 20 point scale and then will take the average of your six best reaction papers (i.e. I'll drop your low score).  Here's what your grade will be based on:

Do you have clearly stated, original, thoughtful opinions?(4 points)  Remember, reaction papers are not summaries of the articles.  They are a chance for you to offer your thoughts on the articles.  You may defend a particular thesis or argue against that thesis.  You may even argue that both sides are right if that's what you believe.  But if you do so, its not enough to leave it there.  Saying both sides are right is just intellectual laziness unless you are willing to spell out in detail how the two ideas are to be integrated.  Take our first topic.  It may be perfectly okay to argue that both Neisser's ecological approach and laboratory approaches are correct in some ways.  But then you would need to spell out the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, and the situations where you would use one approach or the other.  Just saying "you're right by your side and I'm right by mine" won't do.

Substantive comments not stylistic comments (4 points).  You are not literary critics.  Okay?  You may think that a particular article was was hard to understand.  You may find another one really engaging.  You may find one writer's style dry.  You may laugh your butt off when reading another.  You may think an article is too long.  You may like another one because it is short.  All of those opinions are reasonable opinions to have, but they are not the kind of opinions I want to read in your reaction papers.  As I see it, your job in these reaction papers is to comment on the substance of the article not the style.  On the ideas. On the arguments people make.  On the evidence they present. On the validity of the measures they use.  On where you could take the ideas in your own research..

Do you provide solid reasoning in support of your opinion (4 points).  It is not only your job to have an opinion, but also to support that opinion with well reasoned arguments and evidence.

Do you integrate several of the articles or focus only on one? (4 points).  In these reaction papers I want you to take a number of the articles and intergrate them when providing your argument. That doesn't mean you have to talk about every article.  But you should make an effort to take a number of the articles and use them to develop the case you're making.

Is your reaction paper well written and well organized? (4 points).  I am a literary critic! :)  Well not really. But it is a role of the faculty here to teach you how to express your ideas as well as teaching you the science.  You don't need to be Shakespeare.  Direct.  Clear.  Well organized.  No excessive typos.  Rhyming and in iambic pentameter.  That's all I ask.  And by the way, writing well is important and it is important for a very simple reason: Your ideas matter and if you don't write well your ideas will not be understood. And that would be a shame.

So that's it.  Try to have fun with your reaction papers.  Be creative.  Really stretch yourself.  I'm looking forward to hearing (or I guess seeing) what you have to say (or, uhm, write).