Here is the paragraph in the syllabus on RR’s: “Reading Responses must cover one

Here is the paragraph in the syllabus on RR’s: “Reading Responses must cover one assigned reading for the current week, or immediately preceding week. Length requirements are strict. RR’s must be between 2-3 pages of text, 1.5- or double-spaced typed, 12 pt. font with standard margins. An RR that ends half way down Pg. 2 does not meet the length requirements, and is only 1.5 pages of text. Between the lesson, reading & writing expect to spend 3-4 hours per Reading Response.
Here is the rubric. When it comes to citation method, you can use MLA or Chicago, but it’s not required. Just providing Author, Year, and Page number in Parenthesis and a title or link in the footnotes is sufficient for RR’s.
Your first RR should involve a more in depth interpretation of myths in the Atrahasis tablet, and Patocka’s and the professor’s interpretation of them.
If Atrahasis, possible foci include the mythical origins of slavery and work, the origin and function of human beings, and various apocalypse myths, and the thematic and mythical connections of Atrahasis to Gilgamesh.
Most basically, I am looking for about half your RR to be a careful and scholarly summary of the main points in your chosen readings. Then in the second half of your RR, I am looking for you to focus in what you found most interesting, and develop your viewpoint, and potentially do some additional research.
The most common serious oversight for submitted RR’s is not meeting the length requirements, which are strict. For this first RR and throughout the semester, I will not grade RR’s that do not meet the length requirement of 2 solid pages of text (double-spaced at 12 pt font with standard margins). If the text starts somewhere down the 1st page, and end somewhere down the 2nd page, that is NOT two pages of text.
Another general rule of thumb for RR’s is that you will first need to give an accurate and insightful summary of those aspect of the assigned readings you are working with, and engage with the professor’s lecture/lesson where relevant. This usually takes up about 1/2 of the RR. Next, you should focus on one to three aspects, themes, or moments in the reading that you found interesting, and provide a critical and/or creative interpretation in your own words. Generally, RR’s that get up to 4.5-5/5 will demonstrate mastery of reading and the lecture content and lesson. Highest grades usually involve some added research into particular points.
For RR’s based on coursepack readings, these readings usually more thematically unified, and so easier to write RR’s on. For RR’s based on the textbook, each chapter covers more individual items and sub-topics than you could possibly cover for an RR. Accordingly, if there is an option for developing an RR based on a textbook chapter, this might involve you doing some additional research. In some cases, for example, long citations from primary sources in the textbook, this might be unnecessary, but in others, like when a complicated topic gets reduced to a few paragraphs, some additional research is essential to produce a quality RR.