Assignment Instructions

Goal: The goal of this assignment is to write a well thought out paper about how people react to intimate communication.

Course Objective(s): CO 2, 3, & 4

For your Reaction Paper, you have two options. Please review them carefully to ensure you choose the one from which you will benefit most. Note that each option must be written in essay format (do not answer the questions in a question/answer format). The essay must include a clear introduction (including a thesis), body and conclusion in APA format. The sample paper attached to the assignment details provides a clear example of the formatting and paper expectations for this assignment.

OPTION ONE:

 The focus of this option is our secondary text, Confusing Love with Obsession. Your paper should be at least five pages (roughly 1,250 words) in length. in length. While additional sources or references are not required for this assignment, you must use the selected source to support your argument (i.e, cite the selected sources in your paper). If you choose to quote, paraphrase, or summarize additional sources (including the texts), you must document them in APA format. Your paper must have a references page.

These are the questions/points to consider to which you should respond in your reaction paper:

1.Using sociologist John Alan Lee's love styles (refer to pages 261- 263 of Intimate Relationships, and pay special attention to Table 8.7 'Styles of Loving' found on the top of page 262) from chapter eight of "Intimate Relationships", what is the predominant love style for most of the characters presented in the book, Confusing Love with Obsession.

2.What character if any did you identify with most from the book? This can be either yourself or someone you know.

3.Briefly outline the characteristics of the Obsessive Love Wheel at each stage of the wheel.

4.After reading the book, what knowledge did you gain about love addiction?

OPTION TWO:

This option allows you to choose from a selection of several chapters of books by scholar Deborah Tannen that are available electronically from the APUS library. As with the other option, your paper should be at least five pages (roughly 1,250 words) in length. Additional sources or references are not required for this assignment, but if you quote, paraphrase, or summarize a source (including the reading or the text), you must document it following APA format.

These are the questions/points to ponder that you can use to develop your reaction paper, but feel free to ask yourself additional questions. Remember that this paper should give your reaction to what you have read, meaning you may agree, disagree, or both. However, you cannot merely say you agree. You must explain why clearly.

•After reading the selection you have chosen, think about either your own situation that reflects the subject of the reading or about situations with which you are familiar, or both. You should not use full names or real people, please! It is preferable to give people aliases rather than use their names.

•Outline some of the characteristics of the communication situations described and analyzed in the reading.

•Did you identify with the people and situations in the selection? How? If not, how do you engage differently in interpersonal communication in similar situations to the ones described and analyzed?

•After reading the selection, what knowledge did you gain about interpersonal communication in general?

Here is the selection of readings:

Conversational Style: Analyzing Talk Among Friends (2005)

 Deborah Tannen

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/apus/docDetail.action?docID=10254482

Read Chapters Two, Three, and Four

Family Talk: Discourse and Identity in Four American Families (2007)

 Deborah Tannen, Shari Kendall, and Cynthia Gordon, eds.

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/apus/Doc?id=10194219

Read Chapter 1 plus any other chapter, 2-11

Gender and Discourse (1994)

 Deborah Tannen

http://site.ebrary.com/lib/apus/docDetail.action?docID=10086928