Personal Responses to Text

A PRT (Personal Response to Text) is a personal response that asks you to make connections between your own experiences, observations, and/or knowledge and a specific question. It is written using personal pronouns (I, we, us, you), contractions and more informal, but correct, English. The writer's voice (his or her manner of writing) is stressed. There are various forms of personal writing, including monologues, dialogues, journal entries, scripts, rants, narratives, speeches, reflections, letters, interviews, etc. Whichever form of personal writing you choose, you must be able to follow its proper format and conventions.

• Ensure that you understand all criteria on the PRT rubric and how you need to use the form you chose to develop and present your ideas in such a way that they meet the descriptors. If you're unsure of how to do this, see your teacher.
• Be mindful of the form you have chosen and follow the conventions used for organization and voice for your intended audience. The Prose Form Options (a resource from Churchill high school on how to develop a variety of personal responses to text) is a guide for doing this. If you’re unsure, ask your teacher.
• If your organization is weak, review the organizational conventions for the form you chose and create a clear outline for yourself. Flesh out this outline to form your response or get all of your ideas out and then reconstruct/reorganize them according to the outline.