How to Outline a Response Essay on the Rite of Passage

This is the third and final guide in the series. If you haven’t had a look at our first guide on 10 facts on the rite of passage and the second one on 20 topics on the rite of passage, we highly recommend you read through those first. Reading our complete series in the correct order will substantially assist you in writing a brilliant response essay.

Without further ado, here is how to write a response essay on your chosen subject:
Writing a book or essay requires professionalism and certain degree of formality in the writing. However, in a response essay, things are a little different. In this essay, what you actually do is review a book or article and discuss your personal perspective on it. It might sound a bit strange at first, but in a response essay you can use phrases like “I believe”, even though it is a formal assessment.

Response essays are all about the work you are observing, whether it’s a film, book, or artwork of some sort. One essential ingredient to add to this type of essay is your own personal opinion and impressions.
Here is what you have to do first before writing a response essay:

Visualize the assignment and make an initial comprehension about it
Go through it again and contemplate
Note down any kind of thoughts or conceptions about your assignment which run through your mind as it will help in writing the essay
Form a thesis accordingly
Write an outline of your essay and construct it appropriately

In the first paragraph, it is necessary to include the title of the object you are responding to and the name of the author and creator who made that object. For example: “Batman – The Dark Knight Rises by Christopher Nolan”. Between the first and last sentence, you summarize what you have reviewed on the topic. In the last sentence of your first paragraph, it is compulsory to add a thesis or statement on the particular subject you are writing on.

Once you have written a strong introductory paragraph, it is time that you move on to share your opinion with the reader. Even though it might sound strange to include words like “I feel” or “I thought”, this is actually how your professor is expecting you to write your response essay. Don’t hesitate to include these kinds of phrases. It is vital for a response paper to have personal opinions on the subject.

There are two types of formats you can use to write a response essay:

Write an introduction and thesis first, and present a summary in two or three paragraphs. After that, you follow up with the summary by writing your response (agreements and disagreements) on the subject. Finally, you end it with a thoughtful conclusion.
Write an introduction and thesis as usual but instead of writing a block of summary, you’ll merge it with agreements and disagreements, relative to your summarized points. After that, you wrap up your essay with an introspective conclusion.

If you’ve read all three guides in this series, you should feel very confident in producing a stellar response essay on the Rite of Passage or any other particular subject, with ease.