Reading Responses
CSC105 - The Digital Age - Professor Weinman
To help you prepare for our discussions on the social, legal, and
ethical impacts of computing technology, each day we have a discussion
you will write a few thoughtful paragraphs in which you reflect on
and respond to the reading(s). These are due at the beginning of class
(typically on Mondays).
Your reflections might
- outline ways you might apply what you've learned,
- how and why you agree or disagree with some assumptions
or conclusions of the author(s),
- compare or contrast what you read with your own experiences,
- pose new questions or concerns beyond those raised by the author(s),
- briefly analyze the ethics of a question posed in the articles (e.g.,
by identifying stakeholders and their interests as well as relevant
duties, rights, and/or consequences, etc.),
- argue for a particular prioritization of the issues presented in the
articles,
- etc.
While you must read all the articles for discussion, your reflection
should integrate material from at least two articles.
Grading Considerations
- Unsatisfactory (three or more) or needing improvement (one to three)
- Several spelling or grammatical errors
- Citations do not conform to APA guidelines
- Only integrates material from one article
- Mostly repeats or summarizes article(s)
- Misrepresents or mischaracterizes source article(s)
- Makes uncited, unsupported, and/or unreasoned assertions
- Paragraphs lack unity (a single controlling idea with a clear
topic sentence) and/or coherence (a logical progression of
sentences that clearly link to one another)
- Satisfactory
- Paragraphs are mostly unified and coherent
- Minimal spelling or grammatical errors
- Accurately integrates ideas from at least two articles
- Offers something beyond recapitulation (see above*)
- Supports claims in a well-reasoned fashion
- Very good
- No spelling or grammatical errors
- Paragraphs are unified and coherent
- Prefers active voice over passive and "to be" verbs
- Pronouns (e.g., "it", "this") have crystal clear referents
- Accurately integrates ideas from several articles
- Concisely represents several original reflections (see above*)
- Outstanding
In addition to being very good, an outstanding response might incorporate
concrete additional references/citations and is otherwise gripping,
creative, convincing, substantive, eloquent, and so forth. They might
be worthy of considering for publication as a letter to the editor
of Communications.
Formatting
Please type your responses using a serif, double-spaced 12 point font
with 1 inch margins. It should be 300-500 words long (more than one
page, less than two pages). Include, your name, date, box number (materials
will be returned via campus mail), and the subject of the readings
(e.g., "Intellectual Property") in the header.
Please print your response double-sided to conserve paper.
Citations and References
You may note that the references to the readings are given in APA
format. When you cite an article or chapter from the reading, please
cite in APA style. For example,
Hoffman (2009) reports that Hollywood may be more interested in leveraging
DRM controls than preventing piracy.
While the Google Books settlement could establish a clear fair use
precedent (Hoffman, 2009), this may not be the most important aspect
of the case.
Clarifying the return of orphan works to the public domain is the
most important aspect of Samuelson's (2007) argument for copyright
reform.
Guidelines for statutory damages, which are currently lacking (Samuelson,
2007), ought to set a high threshold in an age where many are one
click from a violation.
Finally, if you use a brief direct quote, snippet, or anything else
that should be more specifically referenced, please include the page
number in your citation, e.g., (Samuelson, 2007, p. 23).
You do not need to include a reference list for articles from the
assigned reading for the day. However, any other external material
should be properly cited and included in the reference list.
If you are unfamiliar with APA style, you can learn more about the
basics at the Purdue
Online Writing lab.
Acknowledgment
Thanks to Janet Davis for the "new questions or concerns"
point*.