Pick a short passage in the reading for the course, and give a brief account of its content. The passage might be anything from a single sentence to half a page or so. Your account should be just two or three paragraphs in length, so I’m certainly not expecting the passage to be very long.

You should not think of yourself as summarizing the passage; instead you should describe it. That is, instead of speaking for the author by presenting what the author says in a shortened form, you should speak for yourself about the passage. Your account will be too short to say everything that might be said about even a very brief passage; and, in choosing what you do say, you should focus on the questions “What does this mean?” and “What are the author’s grounds for saying it?”

Again, I’ll give you feedback but I won’t grade these: you will get full credit simply for making a serious effort. While I’d be happy to accept your assignment on paper, it is more convenient for me to receive work electronically, either as the content of an e-mail message or as an attachment.