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How to Write a Reading Response Essay

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How to Write a Reading Response Essay
What is a Reading Response Essay?
A Reading Response essay: * Summarizes what you read. * Gives your reaction to the text.
Your reaction will be one or more of the following: * Agreement/disagreement with the ideas in the text. * Reaction to how the ideas in the text relate to your own experience. * Reaction to how ideas in the text relate to other things you've read. * Your analysis of the author and audience. * Your evaluation of how this text tries to convince the reader and whether it is effective.

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Reading Response Introduction and Conclusion Ideas Introduction | Conclusion | frame story: start a story (personal or in reading) | Finish the story | …show more content…

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.
Transition and Thesis
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.

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