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DESCRIPTION |
RESPONSE
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I. Purpose
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Describe the author's overall purpose (to inquire, to convince, to persuade, to negotiate or other purpose)
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Is the overall purpose clear or muddled?
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How did the essay or text actually affect you: did the author's purpose succeed?
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How does the author want to affect or change the reader?
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Was the author's actual purpose different from the stated purpose?
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II. Audience/Reader
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Who is the intended audience?
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Are you part of the intended audience?
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What assumptions does the author make about the reader's knowledge or beliefs?
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Does the author talk to or talk down to the reader?
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From what context or point of view is the author writing?
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III. Thesis and Main Ideas
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What question or problem does the author address?
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Where is the thesis stated?
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What is the author's thesis
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Are the main ideas actually related to the thesis?
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What main ideas are related to the thesis?
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Do key passages convey a message different from the thesis?
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What are the key moments or key passages in the text?
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What assumptions (about the subject or about culture) does the author make?
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Are there problems or contradictions in the essay?
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What bothers or disturbs you about the essay?
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Where do you agree or disagree?
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IV. Organization and Evidence
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Where does the author preview the essay's organization?
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Where did you clearly get the author's signals about the essay's organization?
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How does the author signal new sections of the essay?
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Where were you confused about the organization?
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What kinds of evidence does the author use (personal experience, descriptions, statistics, other authorities, analytical reasoning, or other).
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What evidence was most or least effective?
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Where did the author rely on assertions rather than on evidence?
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V. Language and Style
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What is the author's tone (casual, humorous, ironic, angry, preachy, distant, academic, or other)?
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Did the tone support or distract from the author's purpose or meaning?
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Are sentences and vocabulary easy, average or difficult?
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Did the sentences and vocabulary support or distract from the purpose or meaning?
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What words, phrases, or images recur throughout the text?
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Did recurring works or images relate to or support the purpose or meaning?
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Remember that not all these questions will be relevant to any given essay or text, but one or two of them may suggest a direction or give a focus to your overall response.
When one of these questions suggests a focus for your response to the essay, go back to the text to gather evidence to support your response.
