For a Reader-Response Essay: Structure
Choosing a text to study; connect with it and have a "conversation" with the text.
Introduction
In the beginning paragraph of your reader-response essay, be sure to mention the following:
title of the work to which you are responding;
the author; and
the main thesis of the text..
Then, do your best to answer the questions below. Remember, however, that you are writing an essay, not filling out a short-answer worksheet. You do not need to work through these questions in order, one by one, in your essay. Rather, your paper as a whole should be sure to address these questions in some way.
Test to Self
What does the text have to do with you, personally, and with your life (past, present or future)? “Nothing” is not acceptable since just about everything humans can write has to do in some way with every other human.
How well does the text address things that you, personally, care about and consider important to the world? How does it address things that are important to your family, your community, your ethnic group, to people of your economic or social class or background, or your faith tradition? If not, who does or did the text serve? Did it pass the "Who cares?" test? Use quotations from the text to illustrate.
Text to Text
Relative to things you have read before: What did you learn, and how much were your views and opinions challenged or changed by this text, if at all? Did the text connect with other things you have read? Why or why not? Give examples of how your views might have changed or been strengthened (or perhaps, of why the text failed to convince you, the way it is). Writing that "I agree with everything the author wrote" is not acceptable since everybody disagrees about something, even if it is a tiny point. Use quotations to illustrate your points of challenge, or where you were persuaded, or where it left you cold.
Text to World
How much does the text agree or clash with your view of the world, and what you consider right and wrong? Use several quotes as examples of how it agrees with and supports what you think about the world, about right and wrong, and about what you think it is to be human. Use quotes and examples to discuss how the text disagrees with what you think about the world and about right and wrong.
Additionally, you may consider:
What can you praise about the text? What problems did you have with it? Reading and writing "critically" does not mean the same thing as "criticizing," in everyday language (complaining or griping, fault-finding, nit-picking). Your "critique" can and should be positive and praise the text if possible, as well as pointing out problems, disagreements and shortcomings.
How well did you enjoy the text (or not) as entertainment or as a work of art? Use quotations or examples to illustrate the quality of the text as art or entertainment. Of course, be aware that some texts are not meant to be entertainment or art: a news report or textbook, for instance, may be neither entertaining or artistic, but may still be important and successful.
For the conclusion, you might want to discuss:
your overall reaction to the text;
whether you would read something else like this in the future;
whether you would read something else by this author; and
if would you recommend read this text to someone else and why.
Wiley, David. “Writing for Success: Reader Response.” ENG COMP Open Course Framework. May 2013. Web. 20 Aug. 2013.
Purpose and Structure of a Reader Response essay.
Link: https://lumen.instructure.com/courses/56913/wiki/writing-for-success-reader-response
Example thesis statements:
Taylor Clark’s assertions in “Nervous Nellies” are consistent with personal experience, other texts that I have read and is reflected in the larger culture.
While Taylor Clark’s position in “Nervous Nellies” is not consistent with personal experience, the ideas are reflected in other texts and the American culture.
Even though Taylor Clark’s argument in “Nervous Nellies” is consistent with personal experience, it is challenged by other texts and is not consistent with a the whole of human history.