Writing a Response Essay with Our Writing Steps
Many students wonder how to prepare a response essay. This writing task is nothing more than a response to someone’s article, video, etc. It aims to show writer’s attitude towards specific claims and reflect if he/she agrees or disagrees with the provided comments. In many writing tasks, professors ask students to be objective. However, this piece of writing is all about subjectivity and presenting critical abilities.
Start Writing
If you have to work on the summary and response paper, it is important to think about the crucial parallels between what you have read and personal experience. All claims in your response paper must be supported with actual evidence. Professors do not like reading simple claims that are not supported with any research. Even if your ideas are subjective, you can always find supporters of your views. Be sure that your essay does not include any far-fetched or ungrounded ideas. In such a way, your paper will be solid and concise, whereas the reader will be able to follow the logical writing pattern.
Create a Paper Outline
No matter what response essay format you have, be sure you work on the essay outline. It will help you outline the major facts and save much time while writing the paper itself. If you would like to be a good writer and handle writing this type of paper with ease, practice much and revise your drafts as soon as you see some paper inconsistencies.
Introductory Paragraph
In your personal response essay, this paragraph should lead the reader into what you will discuss. You should mention what you have read/watched (what is the reason of writing your response paper) and give a hint about what you think of it. The main sentence of your introduction should be a thesis statement, which must influence the reader’s perception of the assignment).
Main Body
Your main body paragraphs should clearly show your relation and attitude towards the read text or watched video. In your response, you can follow on author’s weakness and strengths, clarity and organization, etc. Check your professor’s instructions to be sure that you discuss relevant parts. For instance, some professors ask to provide a summary paragraph before writing a response, whereas others ask to focus on some literary devices, themes, points of discussion, etc. in the response part.
Conclusion should clearly present your attitude and emotions. The critical response paper should be based on the analyzed work only, so do not include any new research ideas.
Topics for the Response Paper
There are different topics for a response essay. All of them share the same goal – to make the writer reflect on his/her attitudes towards a specific work (piece of writing, play, video, news, etc). If the choice is up to you, ensure you make the right move because the selection of topic is one of the primary steps in successful writing. If you do not know which topic to explore, you can always contact us for assistance. Moreover, you can find a great deal of interesting topics on the web. If needed, you can clarify the topic with your professor, who will confirm that you are working in the right direction or not.
Citation Styles in Response Writing
Since there are different citation styles (APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, etc.), there are different options of how the response essay format will look like. In this case, you will have to get back to your instructions and find out specific formatting requirements. Some professors deduct many points if students make mistakes in headings, spacing, indentation, references, etc. If you strive to get an excellent grade, follow specific guidelines of a citation style, which can be found in many online writing labs.
