Response Essay Example
Responsive Reading on Tattoos
Dragon Tattoo
Source: michaeltattoo CC-BY via Flicker
Reading Response Poll
Why are you interested in reading response papers?
What is Reading Response?
Reading Response essays are fundamental to writing a Research Essay. They have two main features:
After you have written your essay, you will want to do Peer Editing and also use my 10 Steps for Essay Revision to make sure your essay is the best it can be!
- A summary of a text (article, essay, book, poem, image etc.)
- A response to that text (agree/disagree, what is effective/not effective, how this could be applied in another context)
After you have written your essay, you will want to do Peer Editing and also use my 10 Steps for Essay Revision to make sure your essay is the best it can be!
Reading Response Outline and Format
Like all College English essays, your Response essay needs to have:
1. Introduction (1-2 paragraphs) which grabs the reader's attention and states your subject and purpose.
2. Body (3-5 paragraphs) which:
Below is an example of an outline from a student paper which was responding to an article about cell phone use in cars. The original article is not online, but I've provided a link to a New York Times debate on this issue which is similar.
See Essay Basics: Organizing Essay for more help on format.
1. Introduction (1-2 paragraphs) which grabs the reader's attention and states your subject and purpose.
2. Body (3-5 paragraphs) which:
- Summarizes the article you read.
- Gives three or more responses to the article with evidence to back them up.
- Responses include answers to questions like the following:
- What do you think about the ideas in the article? Do you agree or disagree? Why?
- How do the ideas in the article relate to your own experiences?
- How do the ideas in the article relate to other things you've read?
- What do you notice about the way the article is written? What about the way it is written makes it more or less persuasive?
Below is an example of an outline from a student paper which was responding to an article about cell phone use in cars. The original article is not online, but I've provided a link to a New York Times debate on this issue which is similar.
See Essay Basics: Organizing Essay for more help on format.
Example Response Essay Introduction
Introduction: (frame story which introduces subject vividly)
Living in Central Texas where 100 degrees is normal in the middle of summer, I've spent a lot of time at our local water park recently.That means I've also spent a lot of time standing in line at the water slides staring at people's backs, which more often than not are covered with tattoos. I've seen wings, flowers, hearts with names imprinted on them, faces with dates and "in memoriam," and. on the most memorable of all, a picture worthy of a medieval drawing with a large Celtic cross being fought over by a demon and an angel.
(transition and introduction of essay)
As a 50 something college professor, I'm not in a peer group which generally goes out and gets tattoos on the weekends, so I was fascinated by Chris Adrian's article from the New York Times "Under My Skin" which explains his own decision to get a tattoo and describes the experience in detail.
Living in Central Texas where 100 degrees is normal in the middle of summer, I've spent a lot of time at our local water park recently.That means I've also spent a lot of time standing in line at the water slides staring at people's backs, which more often than not are covered with tattoos. I've seen wings, flowers, hearts with names imprinted on them, faces with dates and "in memoriam," and. on the most memorable of all, a picture worthy of a medieval drawing with a large Celtic cross being fought over by a demon and an angel.
(transition and introduction of essay)
As a 50 something college professor, I'm not in a peer group which generally goes out and gets tattoos on the weekends, so I was fascinated by Chris Adrian's article from the New York Times "Under My Skin" which explains his own decision to get a tattoo and describes the experience in detail.
Response Paper Sample Summary
Summary of article (notice underlined author tags which keep it clear that each sentence is still part of the summary)
Adrian explains that he decided to get a tattoo after breaking up with his girlfriend. He didn't do it on a drunken binge, but rather in a spirit of self reform. Vaguely desiring something spiritual, he nevertheless rejects his initial idea of having John Calvin's face on his back since the reference seems too obscure. Would people think he had a bad tattoo of Calvin and Hobbs? he wonders. Noting that he wanted something big and permanent to remind himself to be a person who was more responsible and more selfless, Adrain settles on a large dragon as a sufficiently menacing warning to himself.
After four hours of pain, he leaves the tattoo parlor with his dragon on his back, and a certain amount of uneasiness in his soul. He asks himself: Was such a large dragon really a good idea? Why did he get it on his back where he can't see it? Ambiguity pervades Adrian's conclusions about his experience. While he is not elated with his new permanent body art, he doesn't seem to be quite ready to go out to find a tattoo removal business right away either.
Adrian explains that he decided to get a tattoo after breaking up with his girlfriend. He didn't do it on a drunken binge, but rather in a spirit of self reform. Vaguely desiring something spiritual, he nevertheless rejects his initial idea of having John Calvin's face on his back since the reference seems too obscure. Would people think he had a bad tattoo of Calvin and Hobbs? he wonders. Noting that he wanted something big and permanent to remind himself to be a person who was more responsible and more selfless, Adrain settles on a large dragon as a sufficiently menacing warning to himself.
After four hours of pain, he leaves the tattoo parlor with his dragon on his back, and a certain amount of uneasiness in his soul. He asks himself: Was such a large dragon really a good idea? Why did he get it on his back where he can't see it? Ambiguity pervades Adrian's conclusions about his experience. While he is not elated with his new permanent body art, he doesn't seem to be quite ready to go out to find a tattoo removal business right away either.
Reading Response Essay based on information in this article:
- Lives - Under My Skin - NYTimes.com
A story of one man's journey toward getting a tattoo.
Response Essay Thesis
Your
thesis sentence should be your main response to the essay. This
response can be positive, negative or a both. You can respond to one or
more of the following:
My Thesis: In spite of the fact that Adrian himself is not completely sure about this decision, Adrian's article is a persuasive argument for tattooing.
- Ideas in the essay.
- The way the essay is written.
- The topic.
- The personality of the writer.
- How this relates to your own experiences.
- How this reminds you of something else you've seen or read.
My Thesis: In spite of the fact that Adrian himself is not completely sure about this decision, Adrian's article is a persuasive argument for tattooing.
Tattoo
How do you feel about tattoos?
See results without votingBody of Response Outline
The
body of your essay will now give reasons for your thesis. Each one of
these reasons will be a full paragraph, so you would write 3-5
paragraphs to explain the thesis and give examples.
Each paragraph will have a topic sentence which is one of the reasons to believe the thesis. Here are the 4 topic sentences I've written as an outline for the body of my essay:
Body Paragraph One: The choice of personal experience for this article presents the ideas more effectively. (To expand this paragraph, I would give examples of the author's use of personal example and explain how he does this effectively)
Body Paragraph Two: He interested and intrigued me by focusing on the idea that getting a tattoo can be an expression of a spiritual commitment. (I would explain how this idea was new to me and why it changed my mind about tattoos and why people get them. I would then add the example from my own life of the time I saw a tattoo of a face with "in remembrance" along with name and dates)
Body Paragraph Three: People who get tattoos may have the same mixed feelings about wearing them that I have about seeing them. (How ideas in article relate to my own experiences.)
Body Paragraph Four: Adrian draws even an unlikely reader like myself into his experience through his engaging images, honest tone, and engaging style. (How the writing of the article is persuasive)
Each paragraph will have a topic sentence which is one of the reasons to believe the thesis. Here are the 4 topic sentences I've written as an outline for the body of my essay:
Body Paragraph One: The choice of personal experience for this article presents the ideas more effectively. (To expand this paragraph, I would give examples of the author's use of personal example and explain how he does this effectively)
Body Paragraph Two: He interested and intrigued me by focusing on the idea that getting a tattoo can be an expression of a spiritual commitment. (I would explain how this idea was new to me and why it changed my mind about tattoos and why people get them. I would then add the example from my own life of the time I saw a tattoo of a face with "in remembrance" along with name and dates)
Body Paragraph Three: People who get tattoos may have the same mixed feelings about wearing them that I have about seeing them. (How ideas in article relate to my own experiences.)
Body Paragraph Four: Adrian draws even an unlikely reader like myself into his experience through his engaging images, honest tone, and engaging style. (How the writing of the article is persuasive)
Response Essay Sample
Dragon Tattoo Art
Source: OpenClips, CC-BY via Pixaby
Response Essay Conclusion
In the conclusion, try to return to the ideas in the introduction as well as leaving with a final thought.
Reading Adrian's article about his personal experience with getting a tattoo actually did get under my skin. I found myself wondering, for perhaps the first time, whether there was any circumstance which would make me take that fatal step into the den of the tattoo artist. More importantly, it made me look more sympathetically on the tattooed skin around me. While I am not shaken in my idea that a person ought to look at some samples of the artist's work before giving them your skin to draw on, I do think find that I now see tattoos as part of a life story. Moreover, I'm curious about that story. If I get brave enough, the next time I'm in line at the water slide, I may ask the girl in front of me to tell me about her tattooed wings.
virginialynne.hubpages.com/hub/Response-Essay-Example
Reading Adrian's article about his personal experience with getting a tattoo actually did get under my skin. I found myself wondering, for perhaps the first time, whether there was any circumstance which would make me take that fatal step into the den of the tattoo artist. More importantly, it made me look more sympathetically on the tattooed skin around me. While I am not shaken in my idea that a person ought to look at some samples of the artist's work before giving them your skin to draw on, I do think find that I now see tattoos as part of a life story. Moreover, I'm curious about that story. If I get brave enough, the next time I'm in line at the water slide, I may ask the girl in front of me to tell me about her tattooed wings.
virginialynne.hubpages.com/hub/Response-Essay-Example
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