American Literature--Response Paper Suggestions*

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Some suggestions for your Response Paper:

1. Converse with specific points in the text that strike you, either positively or negatively.

2. Write about any personal connections that you have with the reading.

3. Write a letter to the author and/or return letter from the author to yourself.

4. If the piece raises an issue for you, write a letter (possibly to an editor of a newspaper or journalistic blog) in which you take a "stand," for or against the issue.

5. Write an imaginary interview with the author or with a character in a story, poem, novel, or play.

6. Compose a prequel (incidents occurring beforehand) or a sequel to a story, poem, or play.

7. Rewrite a work or part of a work from a point of view ("I," "he/she," or "you") different from that presented in the original text. (NOTE: If you choose to assume the persona of a literary character, please note this at the end of the passage.)

8. Rewrite a work or part of work into a different genre, for example, a poem into a story, a story into a poem, a play into a story, etc.

9. Explicate a poem.

10. Borrow an incident or theme from an assigned work to write a piece of your own based on a similar incident or theme.

11. Write a literary analysis essay about one of the works we have read so far. If you use research, don’t forget to cite your sources.

12. Do a character study of the main character in a story, poem, or play.

13. Do a character study of the narrator in a poem, story, or non0fiction piece that is written in the first person ("I").

14. Draft a fictional biography or autobiography of a character in a story, poem, or play.

15. If you are artistically inclined, draw a graphic version of one of our assigned readings, complete with dialogue balloons (for a student example, see Publishes.us)

TEXT: Discuss how the literary focus--e.g., point of view, characterization, setting, etc.--changes when the piece of literature shifts from plain text to text enhanced by visual representation.

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*Some suggestions are from: Schwiebert, John E. Reading and Writing From Literature. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997. 34.
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