1. English 101
This assignment was locked Feb 24 at 11:59pm.
Hi All,
We are having a first Response Essay which will be due Friday, February 24; 11:59PM.
The purpose of this Response Essay is to invite you to start thinking about writing more
formal essays (in view of our upcoming Essay 1 which we will start next week, Week 4).
Write about 300 words (a bit over one page, double-spaced).
Even though you do not yet know the prompt for Essay 1, consider this Response Essay as a
possible first kind of draft, a thought-exercise about your possible essay. We will do the
same for next week's Response 2.
Prompt: Write your thoughts on at least two of the readings from Weeks 2 and 3 (so
Chopin's three stories, Faulkner, T.C. Boyle) and comment on a possible connection of
themes between these two stories.
The Response Essay does not have to be (yet) a formal essay; that means that you can use
informal language (for example, you can use "you"; you don't really have to observe a
structure) but your focus will be on analyzing a common theme in your chosen stories.
Questions to Ask When Writing a Response Essay (from Duke Writing Center with some of
my edits and tweaking):
Consider texts individually:
What is the main problem or issue that the stories are addressing?
What are the stories' central claims, or point?
Do the protagonists in the stories experience an epiphany?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the protagonists?
2. Why are the problem(s) interesting or important?
Let me know if you have questions!
