Response to Literature Essay Format

Response to literature essay basically denotes a specific type of writing in which the writer first reads the literature and then tries to describe the key points of the literature by giving his own illustrative examples. These examples might have been experienced by him in his day to day life. These responses mostly describe the important message of the literature and also depict the impact the literature has created on the writer. Setting the background, let us move forward to understand what steps should be followed while writing the responses to literature essay. A simple way of remembering the rules of writing the response is “I See Personal Connection” where each capital letter denotes one specific meaning as follows:

I: Introduction to the literature

S: Summary of the Story

P: Establish Personal Connection

C: Conclusion

•    Introductory Paragraph: The most important paragraph where we need to establish the thesis or the statement which we are trying to convey to the readers. The first one or two sentences become the most vital and hence act like a hook which grabs the reader’s attention. A hook can be a universal truth or a meaningful quote from the literature, an analogue, etc. Once the reader is hooked to your story, then try giving a few backgrounds of the literature stating why/where/whom of the literature. Next statement should establish your thesis or point of view. This statement should express what the purpose of your writing is and what can be expected by the readers.

•    Personal Connection Paragraphs: These paragraphs should begin with the topics which provoked you to think and write the article. Make sure these topics establish a connection with the thesis statement you have described in the introductory paragraph. Be expressive in explaining how the article has made a deep impact in your life. Try to give more illustrative examples which the reader gets connected to emotions.

•    Conclusion: Make sure each and every paragraph ends with a statement which re-establishes the fact which you have mentioned in your thesis. Explain the overall main lesson which is learned.

•    One other aspect to remember is the format of writing. Since this is a response to literature essay the response paragraph should be written in first person.No extra-large spaces should be used between the paragraphs.