At a glance, the gist of a response essay is pretty clear. In a few words, you are supposed to write an essay in response to a literary work, a movie, or a work of art.

Yet, when it comes to writing response essays, almost all students have one major question. What does writing a paper in response to something actually mean? Do you have to introduce your personal opinion or give some kind of critical comments?

Actually, the quality and effectiveness of response essays depend on the right answers to the above-mentioned questions. Probably, the right answer to these questions would be “A good response essay is a balance between personal and critical writing”. You may find several sample response essays and check what this balance is all about or read explanations below.

Where you should start

Your work on the response essay should start with an analysis of teacher’s instructions. Read an assignment sheet carefully and check what exactly the teacher wants you to do. He/she might ask to do the following when writing response essays:

* to give your interpretation of a text;
* to analyze some critical elements;
* to compare different aspects of a literary work or a work of art;
* to evaluate some specific issue.

Most teachers appreciate analytical and interpretive types of writing. This means that your response essay should not be a mere re-telling and reflection of your opinion, but a critical piece of writing.

How to organize a great response essay
Thi s post originally appeared on http://essayblog.org/essay/essay-writers