Given the brevity of the assignment, you do not need to provide much in the way of an introduction or background context – the focus of this assignment is how you are engaging with the material. You may begin by discussing what you (dis)liked about a particular text but the bulk of your response should engage with the material in a more substantive way. For instance, you can take an analytical approach by exploring how a particular theme (isolation, oppression, despair, etc…) literary device (symbolism, motif, mood, allegory, etc…) is used within the text (or a small group of texts) and for what reason(s) or analyzing how the larger conventions of a particular genre are expressed in the text(s). Exploring how a given text, or small group of texts, creates a particular commentary (social, political, religious, etc…) is also entirely viable. You can also do a more detailed character study in terms of looking at how a particular character expresses, embodies, and/or deviates from certain ideals and for what purpose(s). Noting anything that you learned from the text, or how a given text helped your understanding of a given subject are also acceptable topics to expand upon. Here, you can also mention anything about the text that you found to be particularly relatable and why.

The Reading Responses will need to conclude with a small section that includes potential research and project-related topics that pertain to the text(s) that you have chosen to address in your Reading Response. For this component, it may be best to approach things from one of the following perspectives: ‘If I had to write a paper on this text, what things would I want to explore’ or ‘what elements of this text are interesting enough for me to write a paper on’ or ‘this text would be useful in a paper/project about x). This final component is designed to help you start thinking about project and paper topics and for me to provide feedback that can be used to settle on a topic.