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Response to Literary Criticism Essay

The goal of this assignment is for students to get exposure to academic literary criticism in an accessible way. To do this, they will select a piece of literary criticism from a teacher-curated list, complete several directed readings, and then write an essay responding to one idea in the critical essay. 

Response to literary criticism essay assignment overview

I. Select a critical essay from the provided list.

 

Skim the titles and subtitles of the essays; read a section or two. Choose an essay that seems interesting to you. (“Interesting” does not have to mean that you think you agree with the ideas in the piece. You might select an essay that has ideas you completely disagree with, or ideas that seem completely unfounded—and that could make for a very interesting paper.)

 

II. Read and annotate your critical essay.

 

FIRST READ THROUGH: Read through first for a basic understanding.  Look up words you don’t know.  Look for the author’s main argument(s). Make annotations as you go.

 

SECOND READ THROUGH: Look for the main idea in each paragraph/section and paraphrase that idea in the margin.  Mark passages that resonate with you—passages that deepen, challenge, or change your thinking.  Use a different color for your annotations to indicate notes from your second reading.

 

III. Analyze a segment of your critical essay.

 

SELECT A PASSAGE FOR CLOSE READING AND RESPONSE: From the critical essay, select a passage of 100-300 words.  This should be one of the passages that resonated with you from your second reading--one that deepened, challenged, or changed your thinking.  

 

TYPE UP AND CLOSELY ANNOTATE PASSAGE: Type up your selected passage.  Double space it to leave lots of room for annotation (using wide margins is nice, too).  Either print it out or use the “comment” function in Google Docs to annotate the passage.  Your annotations should:

  • put the meaning of the passage into your own words, sentence by sentence

  • connect ideas from the passage to your own ideas

  • make note of where you might have more to say or add to the argument (more examples, perhaps)

  • make note of places where you disagree or where you might have examples that oppose the argument of the article’s author

  • ask questions

 

IV. Write in response to your critical essay

 

Address each of the following in order:

 

  1. Summarize the critical essay.  What is the thesis?  What points does the author offer in support of the thesis?

  2. Introduce the passage you selected for close reading. Quote it, using proper MLA formatting. Explain what you think the author is saying in your own words.  

  3. Respond to that quote with your own analysis of the book.  You may choose to offer further support for the point or you may choose to offer contrary evidence.  

  4. Include specific text references and/or quotations from your book to support your own point. ​

To access a complete version of this assignment, including fully editable materials and sample work from each step, including two samples drafts, visit my store at teacherspayteachers.com. 
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