{"id":7716,"date":"2018-11-12T12:55:41","date_gmt":"2018-11-12T20:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.essaypop.com\/?p=7716"},"modified":"2020-08-30T15:08:38","modified_gmt":"2020-08-30T22:08:38","slug":"the-short-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.essaypop.com\/style-guide\/the-short-response","title":{"rendered":"What is a Short Response Essay?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Dear God, please grant me patience\u2026 P.S. Please hurry up.” \u00a0\u2013 A Prayer<\/span><\/em><\/h4>\n

The Shorty<\/h2>\n

Oftentimes your teacher will assign a quickie — a short response paper that might be assigned after a classroom discussion or after reading a short story, a poem or an article. Some teachers refer to these as <\/span>essay paragraphs<\/b>. In terms of length, a short response can range from a single paragraph composed of anywhere from 150 – 400 words to a couple of paragraphs with 250 – 500 words – even longer if you have a lot to say. These, of course, are estimates, but you get the idea. Sometimes these short essays are assigned in class and may even be timed — \u201cYou have 25 minutes to respond to the author\u2019s argument in a 300-word essay. Ready? Go!\u201d —\u00a0 Sometimes these essays will be assigned as overnight homework.<\/span><\/p>\n

One example of where short responses are required is on the University of California Freshman Personal Insight Questions. This application requires applicants to write four, short, personal essays, each of which can be no longer than 350 words in length. Applicants are actually penalized if they exceed this word count. The Common Application used by many private universities sets the range for their essay at 250 to 650 words.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The fact is, you are not always going to be assigned a long-form, multiple-paragraph essay. The short responses are just as common, and, guess what, in terms of your grades, they add up. The problem is, inexperienced writers often believe that because the responses are short, they can just churn them out quickly with little regard for organization and structure. This is a mistake.\u00a0 It is just as important to have a structured plan when approaching a short essay as it is when tackling a longer one.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It should also be noted that many of the elements of the short response are also found in the longer, multiple-paragraph essay. Both types of essays have a hook and a thesis statement, for example.\u00a0 They both present evidence and commentary as well. In fact, if you can master the short response, you will have learned most of the skills needed to produce a longer, multiple-paragraph essay.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Basic Structure<\/span><\/h2>\n

Even though your response may be a single paragraph, it still needs to begin with some sort of introductory <\/span>hook<\/b><\/span>.\u00a0 You need something to set a context for the writing. It also requires a clear statement that precisely asserts what the main idea of the response will be. We call this the <\/span>thesis statement<\/span>.<\/b> It then needs to include some sort of researched information that you are discussing such as a statistic, a quote, a statement, a fact, a personal anecdote, etc\u2026 We call this the <\/span>research detail <\/b>(also known as concrete detail, evidence, text evidence and proof)<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The response also requires the voice of the essay writer in the form of commentary, explanation and an overall <\/span>making sense of things<\/span><\/i>. We call this part the <\/span>interpretation <\/b>(also known as analysis or explanation)<\/span><\/span>. Finally, the response should have some sort of closing sentence or two at the end to wrap things up and give the reader the sense that the essay is finished. We call this the <\/span>closer<\/b><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, essentially, the most basic short response will have the following structure:<\/span><\/p>\n

[<\/span>H<\/span> +<\/span> TS<\/span> + <\/span>RD<\/span> + \u00a0<\/span>INT<\/span> + <\/span>C<\/span>]<\/span><\/p>\n

If any of these aspects are missing, the response will not be sufficient, and this will be reflected in your grade and in a look of confusion on your reader\u2019s face. You need all of these parts. Of course, there are multiple variations to this structure. After the hook, some writers might opt to flip the script and compose their interpretation first, then follow that up with a relevant research detail. Or the essayist might choose to add a second interpretation because they have more to say and wish to elaborate. They may even want to add a second research detail. There is a lot of flexibility within the essaypop system as long as you have a structure that is organized and cohesive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The following models are short responses to various response-to-literature, persuasive, expository, and personal response prompts. The color-coding used above will be used to distinguish the various short-response elements.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Model 1<\/span><\/h3>\n

This model represents the most basic form of short response. It is brief (234 words) and was written fairly quickly (just 20 minutes), but it has all of the elements that a basic response needs: a short <\/span>hook<\/span>, a clear <\/span>thesis statement<\/span>, some text-evidence (<\/span>research detail<\/span>), some explanation (<\/span>interpretation<\/span>) and a closing sentence (<\/span>closer<\/span>). This response does the job in the most efficient way possible. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Type of essay: <\/b>short response \/<\/span> response to literature
\n<\/span>The prompt:<\/b> In Denise Levertov\u2019s poem, \u201cMoon Tiger\u201d, what is the moon tiger really? Use textual evidence to justify your answer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Template Formula: <\/b>H<\/span> + <\/span>TS<\/span> + <\/span>RD <\/span>+ \u00a0<\/span>INT<\/span> + <\/span>C<\/span>]
\n<\/span>Word count:<\/b>\u00a0234
\n<\/span>Time spent:<\/b> 15-20 minutes<\/span><\/p>\n

It seems that poets and authors take great delight in camouflaging their real themes and thoughts with strange symbols and figurative trickery. It becomes our task to analyze the sometimes inscrutable clues to get to the bottom of the writer’s real meaning.<\/span> In her poem, \u201cMoon Tiger”, Denise Levertov provides the reader with some some very subtle clues that, if looked at very carefully, reveal the true and literal identity of the work\u2019s creeping tiger.<\/span> Consider the following lines from the poem: “Look. Its white stripes\/ In the light that slid\/ Through the jalousies”.<\/span> Levertov is inviting us to pay close attention to a very specific clue: the white stripes coming through the room\u2019s blinds. It is a physical fact that moonlight becomes separated into lines that are projected onto the floor when they pass through louvered blinds (jalousies in this case). The speaker in the poem seems to be a child who observes these lines of moonlight slowly traveling across her room; she imagines that they are the stripes of a tiger “prowling sleekly” across the room. Everything else in the poem, the small head, the large feet, the prowling, the sniffing, is all imagined by the child. The moon “tiger” is, very simply, the creation of a child’s overactive imagination and nothing else. <\/span>It’s amazing how poet’s often hide that which is obvious in plain sight, but few people seem to notice.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Notes<\/span><\/h4>\n