Reading Response
What it is
When experienced writers are asked to give beginning writers advice on how to improve their writing, the experienced writers almost always give the same advice: read, read, read. You cant develop your writing skills and knowledge without reading literature, and even more importantly, reading literature with a writers eye. Reading literature with a writers eye means reading for craft, that is, reading to observe how stories and poems are constructed, and why authors make the choices they do in constructing their work. The reading response assignment will give you the opportunity to practice reading like a writer, and to apply your skills and knowledge in writing craft to a story or poem of your choosing from our reading list.
What to do
Choose one story OR one poem from our reading list that youd like to write about. You may choose work that weve discussed in class already, but if you do, be sure you dont simply repeat ideas and insights that we discussed in classcome up with something new.
Next, carefully craft a thoughtful, detailed, insightful 3-4 page (double spaced) response to the items listed below. Use the knowledge youve developed about writing craft to practice reading like a writer, and teaching yourself about literary craft through your reading and response-writing. Your response is a formal essay, not a freewriting exercise or a simple Q&A. Pay attention to things like organization, focus, coherency, spelling/grammar, etc.
Items to address:
Exploring Personal Connections: one brief paragraph
Whats the specific subject matter of the work? (What specific idea, experience, topic, etc., does it explore? It might help to ask yourself what the authors thesis statement might be.)
You do not need to summarize or recap the piece that youve chosen to read or write about.
How do you connect to it, personally? (What experiences have you had that are similar? What does the works subject matter remind you of in your personal life? Think of things that have happened to you or that you have witnessed around you.)
Exploring Craft: 2-3 pages
What do you notice about the craft of the workhow the author has constructed it?
If you write about a short story from the list, focus on one or two of the following: plot, characterization, setting, imagery, point of view and/or tense
If you write about a poem from the list, focus on or two of the following: form, imagery, meter, rhythm, or rhyme.
Make observations about how the author is using these craft elements in the work youre exploring.
What questions about story/poetry craft do your observations raise for you? For example, does the story make you wonder about how characterization can/should be introduced in a story, or about effective plot resolutions? Does the poem make you wonder about where/how to craft a turn (which is the poetic equivalent to the climax in a short story) or what makes for an effective rhyme scheme?
Keep your questions confined to craft here; they should be ones with an answer that you can determine through looking at craft, rather than random questions about the writers personality, etc.
Drawing Conclusions: 1-2 detailed paragraphs
What does the work teach or show you about how stories/poetry is written? How does it help answer the questions you raised above?
How might you apply what youve learned from reading this work and writing this response to the story/poetry youre writing for this class? Alternatively, if this writers use of craft isnt at all how youd want to use that element, why is that, and how have you come to that conclusion by analyzing its use in this piece?
What to turn in
Turn in one copy of your properly formatted assignment on the due date.
How its graded
This assignment is worth 50 points.
The main thing Im looking at is your ability to use your knowledge of writing craftspecifically the craft elements youve learned about in this classto explore how your chosen work is constructed, and to teach yourself something about writing craft through the act of writing this essay. To that end, you might think of this assignment as a sort of quiz where you showcase what youve learned so far about elements of craft, so be as detailed and thorough as you can.
Your ability to craft your essay is important, too. Apply what you learned in ENG 111 to construct a well-organized, coherent, focused essay. Pay attention to spelling/grammar and formatting guidelines.
Poetry choices:
Joy Harjo, Everyone Has a Heartache: A Blues
Marge Piercy, It Aint Heavy, Its My Purse
Sylvia Plath, Mirror
Valvis, Here in America
Wattles, There Was Something Mean in the World That I Couldnt Stop
Lorde, Hanging Fire
Fiction choices:
Louise Erdrich, Saint Marie
William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
Glaspell, A Jury of Her Peers
Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
John Updike, A&P
