This was the easiest paper I've ever written...

...unfortunately, I didn't turn it in.

Ellen Hartman
LA 590; Sugar and Slaves
Reading Response 9
10-23-06

Some sort of title is going to be missing from the top of this page. It would deal with consumption and world goods, specifically, chocolate, coffee, and tea. There might be a clever reference to the seventeenth century, but I doubt it. Even less so, there might be a reference to the plantations that made these goods possible, but I doubt that will happen either.

The paper would start here with the introduction of the topic. In this class’ reading responses I usually jump right into the question I was to answer or flesh out through the course of the paper. I rarely state the question in this paragraph, though that is my intention when I start writing the introduction. I do not summarize what the readings are about. I figure the professor has read the entire book and knows more about the readings then I can tell her. The only reason for a summary would be to organize the information so I could then discuss it in a systematic manner. I usually shy away from organization and systemization so these are additional reasons I do not summarize the readings or organize my paper in any fashion.

The second paragraph would be about the question I’m asking and how it came to me through one of the readings. Lately, because I’ve been writing these the day after they are due I usually just write about the one article that made me ask the question. Either it works for the professor or she’s reduced her standards for my writing abilities, I’m leaning toward the latter. This is the paragraph I charge into and then realize my question is based on shaky ground or that I don’t really have a point to my paper. When I realize these things, that I’m not doing them, I try to fill in the gaps with quotes or just end the paper. I don’t like doing this because the result is a two-paragraph paper and that just looks bad, but I have done it and will do it again. Looking bad usually stops me from turning work in, but under my new M.O. I have to turn all assignments in regardless of the levels of completion or badness. It, along with showing up to all classes, is a very low bar, but one I can manage at this point.

In best of cases there would be a third and final paragraph. It would conclude my argument, observation, or question and then reiterate what I had learned from the week’s readings. This paragraph also doubles as the paragraph where I state a more interesting idea then the one I’ve chosen to write about. I usually conclude with the new idea and then I say my paper is finished, my professor doesn’t really like when I do this; it frustrates her. As an aside, on one overly ambitious week I allotted a paragraph for each reading! There are four readings this week and at best three paragraphs will be written, though I have four now!