..." \~<! t~ ~'\~ ,~- ow .. (and Why) to Write ru~ a Response Paper Up until now, you have been led to believe that the purpose of writing is to assert opinions and defend them with facts. The idea is, when you write a paper you're trying to create a bulletproof "case" for some interpretation or point of view ... often in about 5 paragraphs. The problem is, the best writing usually looks nothing like that 5 paragraph essay you've been dutifully practicing for the past 10 years. A good writer doesn't pretend to know all the answers, but introduces more questions than he or she answers. and looks deep into the mysteries of the text without forcing a decision about what is "true.· Good writers know that every time they sit down to write about a text, they're really writi ng about themselves, and that their own souls are the mystery at the heart of the text they're supposedly explaining. Whoa. That's deep. Good writi ng begins with something that looks a lot like what I call a Response Paper. You're going to be writing a bunch of these, so pay attention. Here's how to do it. WRITING TO CREATE IDEAS In your writing up until now, you've probably been reporting on facts or ideas that you came up with before you started writing. At least, that's probably what your teacher wanted you to do. Maybe you even created an outline based on these predetermined ideas before you started writing , and you filled in each line of the outline with one of these "pre-packaged" ideas or facts that sup posedly proved some larger point. Either that, or you never thought about your writing at all. You just started typing and didn't stop until you had 2 pages, or whatever was required, and you handed it in, and forgot about it forever. Yeah, I've done that, too. Personally, I think that both of these ways of writing are pointless. Don't blame yourselves for all those 5-paragraph essays-blame your teachers. Your teachers before me, that is. And you can blame me for last year, too, I guess, but I had to do what I did. The state was holding me hostage. But this year I've changed, I really have .. .
