Goal: Response papers will allow you to pose interesting critical questions about the text and draw evidence from the text to support your answers. You may decide to develop one of these short responses into the topic for your research paper.
A response paper is a 5-6 page paper in which you choose one or two key points or themes of the text that you find interesting and discuss them in detail, raising your own questions about them and attempting to answer them using evidence drawn from the text. A successful response paper will contain direct quotes or references to the texts to support your main points. If you quote or paraphrase a text, cite it using MLA format. Each response paper should start with a few introductory sentences that explain your topic and your rationale and should end with a few sentences that share your conclusions or answers. You can also pose further questions you were unable to answer in the scope of this paper.
Note! These papers must contain your ideas, and only your ideas. I am not interested in questions or answers you found on Sparknotes, Shmoop, or any other literature guide site or random blog.
A good response paper starts with a focused idea (no "since the beginning of time") and/or a question you can answer by examining certain parts of the novel in greater detail. For example:
"The conditions of the working class are clearly a main focus of Elizabeth Gaskell's novel Mary Barton, but how exactly is she portraying those characters? In this response paper, I will examine particular passages in the novel to see how Gaskell portrays her working-class characters, and then look at how that portrayal relates to the social and political arguments she makes as she narrates the story.
"As I was reading Pride and Prejudice, I couldn't help noticing how often Austen referenced writing and letters in the story. Obviously, letters were an important form of communication in Austen's time, but do the letters in Pride and Prejudice have a special role in the story? How does written communication compare to spoken communication? Is one more reliable than the other, or more clear? These are some of the questions I hope to answer in this paper."
"In the secondary reading we did for today, the author argued that various versions of the fairytale "Bluebeard" show the power struggle between the bride's family and the husband. I thought looking at the fairy tale in terms of families instead of just the husband and wife was an interesting approach. In this paper, I will evaluate the claims in her article and compare them to my own thoughts on the different versions of the fairy tale."
How do you come up with an idea? Think about the story. Think about what you noticed most, what bugged you, what made you curious, or what stood out. Think about themes, patterns, names, actions, or reactions. Brainstorm a list of what you remember about the book. If you get stuck, talk to a friend or the professor!