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Reaction Essays: A Quick Guideline to Succeed on the Task

When writing reaction essays, you are typically required to provide feedback on a piece of reading. This reading may be either an article, or an essay, or a poem, or a novel; in any case it would include certain points of interest that provoke your reaction. Read on and find out how to handle your reaction essays efficiently.

Reaction Essays: Questions to Answer

Typically, your task when writing reaction essays will be in this or that way connected with answering the following possible questions:

1. How do you feel about what you are reading?
2. What are the points of agreement or disagreement?
3. How would you evaluate the story?

Reaction Essays: Preparation for Writing

Before writing your reaction essay, make sure you complete the following steps:

1. Read the assigned piece for general understanding, try to state the main idea, what the piece is about;
2. Make certain that you understand the language of the article and the meaning it bears;
3. Identify the issues and the conflicts of the piece;
4. Formulate the problematic issues in forms of questions;
5. Decide on your position as to the issues discussed;
6. Think of any supporting arguments you can provide either from your own experience or from other published sources.

Reaction Essays: Organizing the Paper

Having completed the background work for your reaction essay, set down to writing it according to the following scheme:

1. Introduction: provide information on the title and author of the work you discuss in your reaction essay; give a brief summary of its main ideas; state your position in a thesis — agree, disagree or evaluate;
2. Body: write separate paragraphs, each discussing one idea at a time; use examples, quotations, and details;
3. Conclusion: generally summarize what you have said in your reaction essay and prove your arguments are convincing.