How to Write a Reading Response Essay Paper with Sample Essays

What is a Reading Response Essay?

A Reading Response essay gives your reaction, thoughts and analysis about something you have read. You formulate this sort of essay any time you answer someone’s question, “What did you think of that book? (or article, movie, class, news report etc.). Responding personally to an article is usually the start of any analysis of writing, so it is a good first paper type to write. Unlike a Review or Evaluation paper, your purpose is not to tell someone else whether or not they should read this article. Instead, your purpose is to explain your own reaction and to give reasons (this will be the body of your paper) why you reacted that way. Here are six different ways to respond to an essay:

1. You can agree with the article and explain three or more reasons why you agree.

2. You can disagree with the article and explain three or more reasons why.

3. You can agree with some parts of the article and disagree with other parts and explain why.

4. You can analyze the rhetorical situation (occasion, purpose, audience, and context) of this article and explain why the author’s personal experience causes them to write this piece.

5. You can take one part of the essay (agreeing or disagreeing with it) and expand on that idea, giving reasons for the reader to agree with you.

6. You can explain your reaction to the article and then analyze how the writer’s style, tone, word choice and examples made you feel that way.

Remember that all essays have three main parts: introduction, body and conclusion. There are many ways to write a good essay, but I will give you a general guide to follow which will help you to organize your ideas.

Poll: I've been so surprised at the results of the poll to the right. I try to give at least half of the essays back the next class period and never take more than a week. Yet I write lots of comments too! I decided to add a poll at the bottom to see how much time you get to write your essays. I'd love to hear what you think about grading and your workload for writing papers. Leave a comment below! I promise to read them and respond.

Introduction: Your introduction will be 1-3 paragraphs. For this essay, because you want to give both information about the subject and also briefly summarize the article you are responding to, you probably need at least two paragraphs. In all introductions, you want to:

• Get the reader’s attention
• Describe your subject
• Give your thesis

For a Responsive Reading essay you also need to:

• Mention the author and title of the article you are discussing
• Give a brief summary of the article or the part of the article that you will be responding to

Paragraph One: Get the reader’s attention and describing the subject in one of the following ways: use a startling statistic, an interesting fact, an appropriate quotation, an anecdote, a scenario, a conversation, a story, a question your essay will answer, an example, or general information about the topic. One of my favorite techniques is to use a “frame” story or conversation for the opening/conclusion. The way this works is that you tell half of a story or conversation in the introduction and then tell the rest of the story in the conclusion. Or you could open with a dilemma or problem and then close with the solution. A different version of that is to re-tell the same story in the conclusion with a different (usually better) ending. Examples:

• On an essay about cell phone use in cars, you could open with a scenario showing a person getting a call while driving and thinking about what to do. In the conclusion, you could have the end of the scenario—maybe the driver pulls over to take the call, or decides to let voicemail take it.
• On an essay about dealing with a family member with Alzheimer’s, you could open with a conversation between family members trying to figure out what to do. You can conclude with a conversation between the same people after they have decided to place that person in a nursing home.
• On an essay about oil drilling in the Gulf, you could open by describing vividly the oil-soaked coastline and the dying wildlife. You could conclude with what that coastline looks like now.
• On any topic which you have personal experience, you can open with part of your story, and then conclude with the ending of your story.

Paragraph 2: Transition by explaining what the author of the article you have written has to say about this topic. Briefly explain the main points of the article that you want to talk about. Then you will give your thesis.

Example: According to Mary Johnson in “Cell Phones are Dangerous” we should not use our phones while driving and should educate others not to use them either. Johnson gives statistics showing that talking on a cell phone is as dangerous as driving drunk. Moreover, she points out the increasing number of accidents caused by cell phone use. Her conclusion is that we need to personally decide not to use a cell phone while driving and that we need to educate our friends and family to give up cell phones and driving too.

Then you would add a thesis statement like one of the following examples:

(Agree) I agree Johnson because I have observed many people driving dangerously while talking on cell phones and have even been in an accident myself while talking on the phone.

(Disagree)I disagree with Johnson because I don’t think that using a cell phone is any different than eating in a car or talking with other passengers.

(Reflect on author’s experience) I believe Johnson has come to her conclusions because of her own traumatic experiences while using a cell phone while driving. (optional: you could add an extension”… but that personal experiences are not a good basis for public policy.)

(Expand on an assertion made in the essay) I agree Johnson’s assertion that cell phones are dangerous, but I’d go even further than she does because I think we cannot control this problem by merely educating the public. We need to have laws prohibiting the use of cell phones while driving.

Note on Author Tags:

• The first time you talk about the article, you should give the full name of the author and the title of the article in parenthesis. John Jones in his article, “Taking Back Our Lives,” states.......”
• After that, you need to always tell when you are paraphrasing the article and not giving your own view.
• You use “author tags” to show you are talking about something in the article and not your own ideas.
• Author Tags use the last name of the author and a verb. Try these variations:

1. Jones argues
2. Jones explains
3. Jones warns
4. Jones suggests
5. Jones advises
6. Jones contends
7. Jones investigates,
8. Jones asks
9. Got any other ideas? Tell us your suggestions in the comments and I'll add them here!

Body:

Here you will argue your thesis and give support for your ideas from your personal experience, and your own thinking and reading. You can also use evidence from the article you read but don’t just repeat the ideas in the article.

Conclusion:

Contrary to what you may have learned in previous writing classes, you should not repeat or summarize your arguments in the conclusion (that is sometimes appropriate for in-class essays when you are not sure you’ve been clear about your main points, but it is not appropriate for college writing). Instead, you need to actually conclude your arguments. You can often use the same type of techniques that you use in an introduction. You can also: call attention to larger issues, call for a change in action or attitude, conclude with a vivid image, appeal to the reader to agree with you, or link back with your introduction by finishing the story/scenario, revising it, or explaining how it proves your point...

Cell Phones Should Not Be Used in Cars (agreeing with an article and extending one of the ideas).

Intro:

Paragraph 1: Dramatic re-telling of a personal story of picking up my cell phone and then realizing that I am going to crash into another car. Stop the story right before the crash.

Paragraph 2: Like most people, I thought I was a good enough driver to handle using a cell phone while driving. I found out I was wrong. It turns out I’m not unusual. Mary Johnson in her article “Cell Phones are Dangerous” argues that as statistics of cell phone use while driving goes up, so do accidents. According to Johnson, we should not use our phones while driving and should educate others not to use them either. Johnson gives statistics showing that talking on a cell phone is as dangerous as driving drunk. Moreover, she points out the increasing number of accidents caused by cell phone use. Her conclusion is that we need to personally decide not to use a cell phone while driving and that we need to educate our friends and family to give up using cell phones while driving too. I agree with Jones that cell phones are dangerous and that we should personally choose to not use one while driving; however, I’d go further than Jones by adding that we need to have laws that prohibit anyone from using cell phones in cars.

Body:

Each of these statements would be the topic sentence of one of the body paragraphs. For the first one, I also give examples of the type of arguments and support I would use to write that paragraph and prove my point.

1. Laws make people realize that cell phone driving is dangerous (below is an example of some support I could use to back up this idea—you can use ideas from the article but do not repeat the article)

• support with anecdote of friends or family thinking call is more important
• use statistics from article
• argue some people will be convinced by being educated, but not everyone
• use example of seatbelt laws saving lives
• argue that using a cell phone endangers others and not just yourself

2. New technology requires changes in public policy

3. People in my generation feel obligated to take a call, but if it is illegal to call while driving, they won’t feel that pressure.

4. Using hands-free headsets won’t work because it is the call which is distracting, not holding the phone.

5. This law will save a lot of lives.

Conclusion:

I would return to my personal story and pick it up where I left off. I do crash and there is a lot of damage to my car, but no one is hurt. I can explain my great relief that my cell phone use did not end more tragically, and my personal decision to put my cell phone where I can’t reach it while driving. End with an appeal to the reader to do the same, but to also support legislation to prohibit cell phone use while driving.