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.