Responses are short homework assignments worth or two points. Response prompts have individuated instructions, but some general tips for effective responses are appended below.

• Post your response by the deadline. Responses should be posted before class time on the day that they are due.
• Hit the word count. Word counts are somewhat arbitrary, but they encourage the kind of sustained engagement necessary for a good response.
• Make certain to account for the complete prompt. If the prompt asks you to include specific information or talk about a particular point, be sure to do that.
• Provide mostly critical commentary, not summary. We have all done the reading and played the games, so we don't need much summary. Instead, make concrete, specific connections to our previous works and your relevant experience inside and outside of class. Then turn your discussion to how this information might be useful in our current project, or otherwise change how you thought about it.
• Demonstrate your engagement with the material. One reason why we do responses is to ensure that everyone is keeping up with the material. Make sure that your response demonstrates that you are engaged with the material by making reference to specific elements from the readings and games.
• Use grammar and structure that is appropriate for a professional context. Sentence-level grammar is important, in part because it gives the response an appropriate ethos. Also, your response should be structured into a coherent statement with a beginning, middle, and end. Don't just collect random thoughts into one monolithic block. As writers, we are obliged to make our material appropriately comprehensible.
• Write your responses in a separate program then copy and paste them into the submission form. This will prevent the loss of work if the form fails and allow you to keep saved copies of the responses you submit.