Conference Response/Reaction Report
Your report should be a response to the papers you have heard. As such you should understand each paper individually and evaluate how well each accomplishes its own objectives, and you must also discover how the papers relate to one another.
It is not simply a matter of listening to the conference, understanding it, and expressing an opinion about it. You must allow yourself enough time to be clear about what each paper says and how the papers all relate to one another. In other words, response papers require you to synthesize the intellectual work of others—that is, bring it together into an integrated whole. In preparing to write response reports, therefore, it is crucial that you allow yourself enough time to digest what you have heard and to put the results together into a unified account.
Questions to Ask
Consider papers individually:
· What is the main problem or issue that the speaker is addressing?
· What is the speaker’s central claim, argument, or point?
· What assumptions does the speaker make?
· What evidence does the speaker present?
· What are the strengths and weaknesses of the paper?
· What are possible counterarguments to the paper’s claims?
· Why are the problem(s) and the argument(s) interesting or important?
Consider papers collectively:
· How do they relate to one another? Do the speakers agree? Disagree? Address different aspects of an issue? Formulate a problem in different ways?
· In what way (if any) does the information or argument of one paper strengthen or weaken the argument of others? Does integrating the claims in two or more of the papers advance your understanding of a larger issue?
Actions to Take
· Explain the key terms, main arguments, and assumptions of each paper.
· Do your best to characterize each paper’s arguments fairly and accurately.
· Evaluate the evidence that each paper presents: point out strengths and weaknesses, both internal to the paper and in relation to the others. For example, if one paper makes an argument based on an assumption that another paper either confirms or refutes, then you can use the latter paper to evaluate the plausibility of the claim made by the former.
· Explain how the papers relate to and “speak” to one another. Synthesize them if you can, and if you cannot, explain what the barriers preventing such a synthesis are.
· Consider both sides of issues at stake. If all the papers are on one side of an issue, consider the other side. If the papers fall on both sides of an issue, consider where agreements and disagreements lie and what each side’s strengths and weaknesses are.
· Include your own voice by weighing arguments, evaluating evidence, and raising critical questions. If there seems to be something important that none of the authors addresses, point it out and state what you think its significance is. Try to be as specific as possible.
· Be careful to do all parts of the assignment. Accord each paper the weight it deserves. Don’t forget to synthesize your account by showing how the papers relate to one another. The authors are in a figurative, and literal, “conversation” with one another, and you must be able to recognize and explain what is going on in that conversation. Make much use of the Questions. Often you will learn as much during this time as during the paper itself. And ask a question yourself!
· Keep an eye out for speaker’s omissions, and raise counterarguments when you detect speaker’s arguments are weak.
Actions Not to Take
· Do not wait too long to start writing. Remember that reading and understanding the papers are only the first steps toward putting the paper together.
· Do not write an autobiographical essay. Reaction/response papers are not about how you feel—even how you feel about the texts. They are not simply a venue for you to say whether you like or dislike the texts. Give praise or blame where you think it is due, but avoid commendation or condemnation for its own sake.
· Do not just summarize the texts. You are supposed to be reacting or responding to them, not simply repeating what they say. If there is no analysis involved, then you have not responded, only regurgitated.
· If there are things in a paper that you don’t understand, do not try to gloss over them. Try to find out what was meant. Go on the internet. If you still cannot make sense of an argument in a text, then it may be the case that the argument does not in fact make sense. If that’s the case, point it out in your paper.
Useful guide: