Response essay

Writing Assignment #1 Response Essay

Summary of assignment

 Task: The response essay asks you to examine an article and discuss your reactions to it. The essay will not incorporate other source material other than the article to which you

are responding.

 Length: 700-1000 words

 Format: APA

 Sources: one source, which is the article to which you are responding

Articles to select from to respond to

In this essay, you will write a personal response to the following pair of articles. Both articles

are available in the e-reserves section of your WRTG 291 class in LEO.

 Teller, J. R. (2016). Are we teaching composition all wrong? The Chronicle of Higher Education, Retrieved from http://www.chronicle.com/

 Stewart, E.M. (2016). No, we’re not teaching composition ‘all wrong.’ The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.chronicle.com/

Please read both articles in preparing to construct your first draft of your response essay. You

might compare what Teller says to what Stewart says, consider your own experiences in writing

classes when reading their arguments, and note areas of agreement, disagreement, or partial

agreement/disagreement you have with either author.

Please incorporate both authors into your response essay. Do not simply respond to one of the

authors. Respond to both Teller and Stewart as a pair of essays.

Point of view

For this essay, feel free to use “I” and “me” (first person point of view) in responding to the

article. While you may have been discouraged from using first-person point of view in previous

classes, please note that this essay is one that allows the use of first-person point of view because

you are responding to an article.

However, you should not write "to the reader" by using the pronoun "you" (second person point

of view) in referring to the reader. For example, instead of “When you read this article, you have

the impression that the author is…” you would write, “When I read this article, I had the

impression that the author was…”

APA Style

The paper should be formatted in APA style. The video How to format your paper according to

APA style might be helpful to watch. In summary, you should observe the following:

 Use one-inch margins.

 Double space.

 Use size 12 Times New Roman font.

 Include a running head.

 Include page numbers.

 Include a title page.

 Do not include an abstract. This paper is not long enough to warrant an abstract.

Submitting the assignment:

You will submit a first draft of the essay to the assignment folder. The first draft will not be

graded. The instructor will provide comments to it.

After receiving comments from the instructor, you will submit a revised draft. The final draft

will be graded.

Helpful Resources and Websites

 Graff, G. and Birkenstein, C., They Say / I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing with Readings. The chapter in in the e-reserves of our class. It mentions

various techniques to apply in stating what an author said and your response to the

author. It is recommended that you read through that chapter so that you might apply

these techniques to this essay.

 Cahill, Kathleen. (1999). Writing a Reaction or Response Essay. LEO: Literacy Education Online. http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/reaction.html

 Writing@CSU. (2012).Writing Effective Summary and Response Essays. Colorado State University, 1993-2012. http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/teaching/rst/pop5i.cfm

 Alberdeston, J. (2009).Guidelines for Effective Response Essays. http://upraenglishhonors.blogspot.com/2009/09/guidelines-for-effective-response.html

 McGee, Chris. (2012). Sample Response Essays. Longwood University, Virginia. http://www.longwood.edu/staff/mcgeecw/sampleresponsepapers.htm