How to Write a Response to Literature

Writing a response to a piece of literature involves breaking down the piece into various elements.

There are many different elements that make up a work of literature. These elements include plot, characters, setting, theme, point of view, symbols and imagery just to name a few. Throughout your education, you may be called on to write a response to a piece of literature. This is simply a formal way of focusing your reaction to your experience with the body of work. Writing a response involves breaking down the work into something that can be analyzed in order to be better understood.

Instructions

1. Take notes in the margin of your book or in a separate notebook. Jot down your reaction to the piece, explaining why you found this particularly striking. This will help you remember your reactions to the text that you can use to format your response later. When brainstorming ideas for your response paper, these simple notes will be a valuable resource.

2. Choose the subject matter for your response paper. In order to focus your essay, you may need to start with a broader topic before narrowing in on your thesis. For example, you may choose to analyze the protagonist of a book. To narrow it down, you could focus on the character's dominant traits, what this character represents and how this character affected the plot and theme of the piece.

3. Use your thesis to organize your response paper. For example, if your thesis is focusing on the role of setting in regards to the theme of the book, choose several ideas that support your thesis and use each idea as a basis for a section of your response paper. This can be as simple as dedicating one paragraph to a discussion about a portion of the book and how that ties into your thesis statement. It is a good idea to outline this first to keep you on track while writing your paper.

4. Write an introduction for your paper. Depending on the length of your response, this could be several sentences of several paragraphs in length. Start with a lead-in sentence that introduces your topic. Then, introduce your thesis statement. This should be no longer than two sentences in length. Generally, your thesis statement is the last sentence in your introduction.

5. Use your outline as a guide to structure your response. Include your ideas and the support for each, as separate paragraphs or sections throughout your essay. To add credibility to your response, support your statements with quotes from the book that will demonstrate your perspective.

6. Finish with a conclusion to give your response a sense of completion. Avoid simply summing up the ideas listed throughout the body of the piece. Rather, explain how the support you gave demonstrates your initial thesis statement. You might even pose other questions for the reader to consider on his own.

References

• Northern Virginia Community College: How to Analyze Literature: Advice for Writing the Activity Essays
• Freat Source iWrite: Response to Literature