Reading Response Guidelines

Reponses should be between 150 and 250 words.

Very simply, in your reading responses you should connect the work you’re reading in class with the work you’re writing. The following questions may help:

1) Are there thematic or formal similarities between the work you’ve read for this week, the work you’ve workshopped and/or your own writing? What are these, precisely?

2) How does the reading offer answers to technical questions that might have been raised in class or workshop? How satisfying do you find those answers?

3) On the other hand, how might the writing from workshop or your own writing address a question the reading seems to raise?

4) What further questions or issues might be connected to the initial similarities?

It is unlikely that you will be able to discuss all the texts within a given week; you should address at least two, however.

The main idea here is to bring exciting, thought-provoking questions about the reading and writing to class—so feel free to bring some personality, as well as intellectual rigor, to these responses. Respectful engagement with others’ work is also a great way to get some interesting issues on the table.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License