Response Essays
Prose Passage
• Generally one page excerpt from a work to
read and analyze.
• Determine your ability to read and interpret a
sustained piece of literature.
• Demonstrate your ease and fluency with
terminology, interpretation, and criticism.
• Determine your ability to make connections
between analysis and interpretation.
• Connecting terminology to meaning.
Prose Essay
• Analyze narrative and literary techniques and
other resources of language for characterization.
• How does a narrator reveal character?
• Explain the effect of the passage on the reader.
• How does the passage provide characterization
and evaluation of character(s)?
• Analyze style and tone and how they are used to
explore the author’s attitudes toward his or her
subject.
Poetry Essay
• Same as prose but with poetry.
Poetry Essay
• How does language of the poem reflect the
speaker’s perceptions, and how does that
language determine the reader’s perception?
• How does the poet reveal character?
• Discuss similarities and differences between two
poems. Consider style and theme.
• Contrast the speaker’s views toward a subject in
two poems. Refer to form, style and imagery.
• Discuss how poetic elements such as language,
structure, imagery, and point of view convey
meaning in a poem.
Free-Response Essay
• Based on a provocative question that
highlights specific insights applicable to a
broad range of literary texts.
• Question provides for varied personal
interpretations and multiple approaches.
• Create specific substance within your own
essay.
Free-Response Essay
• Demonstrate a mature understanding and
defense of the prompt.
• Readers looking for literary insights and
awareness of character, comprehension of
theme, and ability to transfer specific ideas
and details to a universal concept.
• Reference to plot- not summary!
Free-Response Essay
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The journey as a major force in a work.
What happens to a dream deferred?
Transformation (figurative and literal)
An ironic reversal in a character’s beliefs or
actions.
• Perception and reality.
• Ceremony or rituals play an important role.
Working the Prompt
• Read and re-read.
• Locate key terms and underline/ circle.
• Understand what the prompt is asking.
Prompt
Often in literature, a literal or figurative journey
is a significant factor in the development of a
character or the meaning of a work. Choose a
full-length work and write a well-organized
essay in which you discuss the literal and/or
figurative nature of the journey and how it
affects characterization and theme.
Opening Paragraph
• Include author and title
• Address the key ideas of the prompt
Opening Paragraph
“There was no possibility of taking a walk that
day” says young Jane in Chapter One of
Charlotte Bronet’s novel, Jane Eyre. Little did
she know that her very existence would evolve
from her personal odysey as she journeyed from
Gateshead to Lowood to Thornfield and beyond;
from childhood to adolescent to woman. This
literal and figurative journey enables Bronte to
develop both the character and the theme of
her work.
Opening Paragraph
In the Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad a
literal journey from England to Africa becomes a
nighmare of realization and epiphany for the
main character, Marlowe. Conrad develops his
themes through Marlowe’s observations and
experiences on his figurative journey from
innocence to corruption, idealism to cynicism,
and optimism to depair.
The Body Paragraphs
• Where you present your interpretation and the points
you wish to make.
• Use specific references and details from the chosen
work.
– Incorporate direct quotations when possible.
– Use quotation marks.
• Use connective tissue in your essay to establish
adherence to the question.
– Use repetition of key ideas in the prompt and in your
opening paragraph.
– Try using echo words (synonyms)
– Use transitions from one paragraph to the next.