Instructions for response papers.

From time to time throughout the semester I will be assigning short response papers, basically a one-page response to one of the assigned texts from the coursepack.

What I will be looking for in these papers is:

1. evidence that you read the text: a one- or two-sentence summary of what the text is about, with some attention to who wrote it and why.
2. evidence that you thought about the text in relation to the concepts we are discussing in class that week.
3. good writing.

Within these parameters, you can go in any direction you want with these papers. If the text makes you think about the nature of the Buddhist religion, the politics of the time, contemporary Asian society, or whatever, please write about it. I am hoping that these papers will stimulate your thinking about different reactions to Buddhism across Asia and that this will deepen your understanding of Buddhist art.

Please refer to the notes in your syllabus about appropriate formats for written work and about plagiarism. (Yes, plagiarism even matters here: if you quote from the text in your paper, please use a parenthetical reference.)

If you have further questions about writing response papers, you might visit the HWS Writes website.

Assignments.

1. Āryāśura, “The King of the Monkeys,” in Once the Buddha Was a Monkey: Āryā Śūra’s “Jātakamālā,” trans. Peter Khoroche (Chicago and London: University of California Press, 1989), 186-192; due Friday, Jan. 27.
   
2. Kumarajiva, The Vimalakirti Sutra, trans. Burton Watson (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), 64-74, 104-111 (either a paper OR a list of substantive questions about this reading); due Friday, Mar. 2.
   
3. Genshin, “The Essentials of Salvation,” in Sources of Japanese Tradition, comp. Wm. Theodore de Bary et al., 2nd ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001), 1: 217-222; due Friday, Apr. 13.