Essay 4: Response Essay

1. Essay 4: Response Essay Responding to Reading

2. Start by Reading Critically • Not about finding fault with author • Rather engaging author in a discussion by asking questions as you read an article or essay • Requiring author to meet certain demands that employ good writing techniques: • Take GOOD NOTES

3. Author’s Name and title of Article • Summary: List main ideas, key features, examples, and evidence the author may provide • Response: • Log your reaction to each main point, record your comments, and questions

4. Purpose of this Essay • To understand an author’s main idea and purpose for work • To recognize the main points that support that main idea • To be able to summarize(paraphrase) author’s main ideas • To be able to respond or react to what the author has to say (to support or defend your point of view)

5. Preparing the Summary • Cite the author and the title of the text • Indicate the main ideas of the text • Paraphrase and Quote main ideas; quote sparingly, use key words, phrases, and sentences • Be objective

6. Response • Your opinion of the author’s ideas • Do you agree or disagree • How well is the essay or article written?

7. Structuring Your response • Requires your reaction to the text and your interpretation of the text • A response of this nature will react to the ideas or the argument • Simply, do you agree with the author? • Why or why not? • Provide evidence based on your experiences to support your reaction

8. 3 ways to provide evidence to support your response • Your response requires that you provide evidence to support your opinion, whether you agree or disagree with the author • Consider what sort of evidence will best support your statements: personal experience, evidence from text, outside sources

9. 1. Personal Experience • Use personal experience as examples to demonstrate why you interpret the text the way you do, why you react the way you do, why you agree or disagree • I strongly disagree with so and so’s first point based on my own high school experience, especially in my History class. • Look at Abramowitz’s essay for examples of her personal experiences.

10. 2. Evidence from the text • Cite specific phrases or sentences from the text to support your: • explanation of the text • analysis of the effectiveness of the text • response to the text (why you agree or disagree)

11. 3. Evidence from other texts • Acceptable to bring in ideas and information from other texts • Your prior knowledge • No research required for this assignment • Cite sources if you do use borrow material from other sources • Look at Abramowitz’s essay for examples of her using outside texts or sources.

12. Introduction • Brief introduction that will state these items: • Title of the article or essay; Name of author; Place of publication • Any key information you might know about author to help establish author’s credibility • State author’s main idea • Thesis: a well thought out statement stating your main point about the article or essay.

13. Body Organization: Block • Pattern 1 • I. Introduction with thesis • II. Summary of main point • III. Points You agree with • IV. Points you disagree with • Conclusion

14. Body Organization: Point by Point • I. Introduction with thesis • Summarize point 1; agree or disagree • Summarize point 2; agree or disagree • Summarized point 3; agree or disagree • Conclusion • Note: you do not need to agree or disagree with all points

15. Conclusion • End essay with a summary of your response • You can add a new perspective about the article, author, or topic

16. Important things to remember • Make sure to give reasons why you disagree • Give examples, personal experience, facts, any previous experience or knowledge you can draw upon to support your opinion • Based on my experience with boys in class in high school. . . . • Try to avoid over using “I agree” and “I disagree”

17. Respond to major points: • Points you agree with(Students will list) • 1 • 2 • 3 • Experiences or knowledge that support your agreement • 1 • 2 • 3

18. Respond to major points: • Points you disagree with • 1 • 2 • 3 • Experiences or knowledge that support your agreement • 1 • 2 • 3