A Reader’s Response
This is a writing guide for a reader-response essay, which is also called a reader’s response. This kind of essay draws on reader-response criticism, a school of literary theory that prioritizes the individual’s experience of a text.
This can be done with any text, so you may have been assigned one (e.g., The Bean Trees) or allowed to choose one. You must obviously start by reading the text closely. Most other requirements are explained through this guide or fall naturally under the auspices of our course. You will use our writing process to produce the essay, and you will rely on grade abatement to monitor your process.
You’ll also, as always, need to read the instructions and feedback given to you even more carefully and closely than the subject of your reader-response writing. This is the backbone of our course. It will always matter most that you learn to explore a post like this, since that skill will translate to your close reading of a novel; the reverse is not always true.
How to Choose the Text
Note: If you are assigned a text, skip down to the next section.
If you have a choice, you can choose a text from a wide range of genres and mediums. The options that make the most sense, when they are available:
- Shorter texts that can be read repeatedly for more meaning
- Longer texts that you have wanted to read
- Texts that you’ve read before and would like to revisit
Time is always a factor. Assess your reading ability and schedule honestly, and then choose a text that you can read in the time allotted. Again, you can consider almost any genre or medium — even atypical ones like video games. The “text” of a game like Shadow of the Colossus lends itself to this sort of essay, for instance, as this example shows. Graphic novels and manga will work, too, as with this reader’s response on Dorohedoro.
You can print a copy of the Dorohedoro example here: https://tinyurl.com/doro-readres-ex. This version can be used in class to identify the sections of a reader-response essay in the real world.
You are most likely reading this post as part of an English course. You can and should experiment, but you cannot go wrong by using a work of established literary merit as your focus. You must also remember that this is a reader’s response; certain texts will not work, no matter how interesting or engaging they might seem1.
How to Write the Essay
A reader-response essay is built from the same universal elements of effective writing as all writing. The responsibility for the writing process work is also, as always, yours: You must use the many resources of our course and school to navigate this process. For instance, the four-part structure below was used to create these resources:
As these worksheets suggest, you can adapt this structure. You can even design your own structure. For most students, however, the first reader-response essay should adhere closely to the four-part structure outlined below.
Note that the pilcrow symbol (¶) denotes a section of a response, not necessarily a single paragraph. This outline, if you used it, has four sections; it may have many paragraphs within each section.
¶1 offers the context in terms of plot (i.e., what is happening in the text). What does a person unfamiliar with the text need to know in order to understand the rest of the essay you will write? This is background and exposition. It provides the context with regard to the text itself, including the sort of essential questions or universality you will be addressing in ¶4.
¶2 analyzes the text by breaking down literary elements (e.g., character development or thematic development). This should not be traditional literary analysis. Instead, you are acknowledging that there is art in how the text was text. You are acknowledging the elements of that art, from the depth of a character to the arc of a conflict to the poetry of a descriptive scene. Authorial choices and writing strategies create the connection you feel to a text.
¶3 explicates or unfolds your connection to the text — as a reader, your experience of and reaction to it. You might answer one or more of these questions, which are cobbled together from other sources:
- What about the text is significant? Does it deliver a message or moral, teach a lesson, invite thought? What about the text is most interesting and compelling?
- What personal connections can you make? As the text resonates, what events, people, beliefs, etc., from your own life come to the surface?
- What is your favorite section or idea from the text? (Treat the word “favorite” as the start of something more precise and meaningful, e.g., a look at philosophy you love or a consideration of stylish writing.)
¶4 concludes by addressing the universality and worldly relevance of the text. This could be a study of essential questions, if you’ve been given those to use. It could be a discussion of why this text is important and should be studied. You might also ask: If the text teaches a moral, why is it crucial for it to be taught? If the concepts raised deserve further study, why is that? Why does this text matter beyond an English classroom2?
Grades
Here is a chart built on the universal skills and traits of grade abatement that can be used as a reference for reader-response writing:
Click here to load a printable PDF copy of the chart.
With that said, you should note that the first two examples given to you are well outside the canon: a video game and a manga. This is deliberate. The experience of the story and the writing about that experience are a reader’s response. For our purposes, it is best to have a text that you can read well. ↩
You aren’t likely to mention an English classroom in your essay, of course, but you want to write something that looks like it didn’t come from an assignment at all. You want authenticity, and these questions should help you think in those terms. ↩