Literary Response Essay 5/26 Per. 5/6

Literary Response Essay
Procedures and Reminders

A Literary Response is very similar to a persuasive essay. You will be demonstrating your understanding of a major theme in the novel and have accurate interpretations and clear ideas about this theme.

Prompt: In this essay, you will discuss one of the novel’s themes that “family relationships are important in our lives” by choosing to write about one of the following; Art’s relationship with his mom or with his dad and what lessons he learns from this relationship.

Format Guidelines:
I. Intro:
A. Hook: Start with an interesting opening that “hooks” your audience in (anecdotes, quotes, profound statements, and thought provoking questions work well).
B. Quick Review: This should be a one to two sentence introduction of the book including the title (see the example below), author, and the theme or Art’s relationship with his mom or dad.

Sample Intro: In S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders, the main character Ponyboy, involved in his friend group called the Greasers, struggles to get along with the Socs.

C. Thesis: This is your answer (opinion statement) to the prompt with your reasons why- these reasons will then become your topic sentences for your body paragraphs.

Sample Thesis: While there are many themes that Hinton addresses in the novel, the most apparent one is that gang violence is futile because the main conflict surrounds this theme, tragedy occurs as a result, and the characters learn important lessons.

II. Body paragraphs:
A. Topic Sentence: This is your 1st, 2nd, or 3rd reason stated in your thesis.

Sample Topic Sentence for the Body Paragraphs: First of all, the basic situation and conflict introduce this important theme of gangs and violence.

(Note- notice the transition to start the paragraph!)

B. Two-Three Paragraphs: This is made up of two parts.
1. Concrete Details (CD)/Quotation from the book: This is your evidence that should be either paraphrased or directly quoted from the story you are analyzing.

For example, after Ponyboy runs away from his brother Darry and scurries out of the house, he calls out to Johnny, “Come on. We have to leave now” (34).

(Note- the punctuation should go after the last parenthesis just like this example!)
2. Commentary (COMM): This explains how your concrete details or quotes support your topic sentence. You should have at least double the amount of commentary as concrete detail. One sentence of Concrete Detail should have two sentences of commentary or more.
COMM Tip: Some helpful sentence starters you can use for your commentary include but are not limited to:
-This event in the novel shows/proves/explains…
-Because of this…
-One can see from this…
-This is interesting/fascinating/disturbing because…
-The author includes this in the story to show…

For example, after Ponyboy runs away from his brother Darry and scurries out of the house, he calls out to Johnny, “Come on. We have to leave now” (34). This shows that Ponyboy is worried….


C. Concluding Sentence: This should wrap-up your body paragraph by re-wording the topic of the paragraph in a fresh way.
Conclusion:
A. Thesis re-worded in a fresh way.
B. Closing thoughts: (at least 2 sentences!) Make interesting points to leave the audience with a strong final feeling about your topic (anecdotes, quotes, profound statements, and thought provoking questions work well here.

Literature Response Tips for Success:

· Use this outline carefully to make sure your essay has everything it needs to be a success!

· Don’t use first person personal pronouns like I, we, you, or me or second person pronouns like you, yours, and your. The focus should be on the literature, not on yourself or the reader.

· Avoid filler phrases like “Well…” or “I think that….” or “I believe…”; just get straight to the point of what you are saying. We know you think what you write because you are the author!

· Use present tense verbs because fiction happens as we read it, not in the past.

· Use active verbs, not “to be” verbs like is and are.
Poor example: He is running away.
Corrected example: He runs away.

· Use formal language (no clichés or slang like “it was sweet”) .

· Vary the vocabulary (a thesaurus can help!) trying not to repeat words or use low impact, generic words like good, bad, happy, sad.

· Make sure to read your essay out loud to catch simple mistakes.