1. Effective Short Answer Response
Structure, Citation, and Examples

2. Structure and Content Paragraph form– 6-9 sentences Includes:
TS: Topic Sentence(s)– essentially your thesis– answers the essay ?
CD: Details from the text as support
a. Quotes, examples, details
CM: Commentary on the details
Clincher: a closing sentence linking back to the TS

3. Structure and Content Cont.
Don’t forget….
Respond to all parts of the questions
Grammar and conventions should be PERFECT– review and revise
Correct citations is used:
He States, “You can’t bury the past” (2).

4. Sample Short Answers:
The Question: What does the narrator say about the nature of the past? What can you infer is going to happen?
Weak:
The narrator says that “you can bury the past, but it will claw itself back out (2).
NO CM
Doesn’t answer both ?s
1 sentence long!!

5. Sample Short Answer STRONG:
Much of what forms a person’s identity is what happens to him/her in the past. It is often impossible to escape the past and its effects on us. In The Kite Runner, the narrator says that you can “bury the past, but it will claw itself back out” (2). He believes that what you do in the past, event if it has been hidden, still comes to light. From this, we can infer that the narrators past is going to resurface and come back to haunt him.