1. Personal Response Essay

2. Generally: Purpose: to share our experience
We hope to receive the reader’s understanding, affirmation and appreciation – Participation
We are not trying to prove we are right
We show rather than tell
We hope our reader’s response will be something like “I see what you mean”.

3. Style and Content Considerations:
It is essential that we are anchored in the work we are discussing – through effective use of direct quotations and paraphrase.
The work must be most prominent
References to personal experience must be balanced with references to the work itself

4. “show” don’t “tell” -
Telling: ‘The story’s description is detailed and effective’
Showing : Owen crafts a brutally precise image of the suffering soldier, as he describes
“the blood/ Come gargling from the froth- corrupted lungs, /Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud/ Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues.”…

5. Finding a topic
Choose a work that has sufficient depth to offer you enough material
Write down your impressions and questions that came to mind before, during and after reading
Consider your feelings toward the work – are there aspects that you like or dislike? Why?
What do you find compelling about the work? Style? Plot? Character? Setting? Theme?

6. Can you compare or contrast the work with something you have read or experienced?
What details or passages in the work illustrate or support your ideas?
Does the work connect with or parallel your experience?

7. Voice and Style
Although you will try to write in your voice, so that the essay sounds personal, you will still consider your audience and context – an academic audience.
No contractions (I’m, don’t can’t …)
No slang
Correct grammar, spelling and punctuation
No “you”
No abbreviations – ‘etc’
No need to begin every sentence with “I think”

8. Example:
Although it seems on the surface to be a somewhat simple work, the poem often comes to mind as I drive down a two-lane highway near my home. Like the narrator, I am “Travelling through the dark”, and am careful to keep watch for deer emerging from the tree line at twilight. Perhaps it is the darkness and forest that inspires reflection, much as Stafford’s narrator can hear the wilderness listen. Whatever the reason, I feel that in my life, I am travelling through the dark, making decisions that I know are for the best, but sometimes feel morally questionable.