I may occasionally assign specific topics for these weekly essays, but I will generally leave that open. When I don't make a specific assignment for a given week, you should choose a passage from any of the reading assigned for the week, give a brief summary of its contents, and then comment on it in a way that reflects your own thinking about the passage. A paragraph or two is a natural length for the passage you write about but it might range from a single sentence to a page depending on the density of the text.

One way to comment on the passage is to point out a possible objection to the point of view expressed (whether or not you agree with the objection) but there are a number of other ways of commenting on it that would be appropriate. For example, you might indicate a respect in which the passage is difficult to interpret, perhaps an ambiguity that makes more than one interpretation possible. You might describe a further implication of what is said or a further question it raises. Or you might point to a connection with something else you have read.

The reading guides will often point you to important passages in the reading assignments, but you needn't limit yourself to these. You may take the assignment instead as a opportunity to speak to a passage that interests you but that might not end up being mentioned in class discussion at all.

Although even brief passages can provide enough material for lengthy discussions, I'm not asking for that in these assignments. Aim for something between a paragraph and a page in length (so roughly 100 to 300 words) divided more or less equally between your summary of the passage and your comment on it.

I will be happy to accept these on paper but I encourage you to submit them as e-mail messages (my address is helmang@wabash.edu). If you do, I'll reply in the same way and you'll generally get a faster response.

I won't grade these assignments, but I keep a record of your completion of them as part of my evaluation of your class participation. You should turn them in week by week. I'll set midnight each class day (i.e., Tues. or Thurs.) as the default deadline for assignments written on a passage from the reading for that day, and I'll accept them after that only by pre-arrangement or upon being offered a good reason or a dean's excuse.