Talk:How to Write an Essay/Free Response

Dear Pingvo,

Here are some of my perspectives on Free Response.

I'm not American, but many things of this type are done all over the world.

When you had the question/cue: "A person's identity is shaped at birth",

a usual and useful point to the breakdown is looking at the key words.

This would be "identity" (the thing belonging to the person. Identity can be things that are similar to other people, as well as the things that make us different, individual or unique) "shaped" (the concept that is being created or changed, or sometimes destroyed) and "birth" (literally, the time when we are all brought into earth, sometimes it can have connotations of a 'spiritual' or 'emotional' birth, particularly when we are looking at literary texts).

It's good to do this kind of discursive analysis. It alone can suggest many directions for the burgeoning essay, though often this is not enough. You have to look at the essay question/cue as a whole thing, that it COMMUNICATES as a question, and is ASKING you something vitally important. It then allows you to COMMUNICATE and EXPRESS many things.

A good philosophical way to go about it is "What if [it were true/not true] that a person's identity [or other thing that stands in its stead] is shaped [what else happens if it's shaped 'the wrong way', or not at all] at birth?" That means essentially reversing the propsition, or subverting it, or considering other possibilities. It's a free response after all! You can do that!

Also free responses are written in certain genres (types of written work that has certain conventions of form and content). Where I study there is a unit of English known as a "Writing Folio". This basically contains all our non-text work. Another important part of our non-text work is where we look critically at things in the media and that's usually called Issues. It's on a current media text.

A free response can be any of these: (Which sounds very much like what you've been doing)
 * A document suited to the workplace like a letter, memorandum, letter or e-mail, or a report
 * A fictional narrative or other extended personal/imaginative piece
 * A non-fictional piece intended to convey complex or technical information
 * A report of an investigation, presented in journalistic style
 * A biographical/autobiographical account
 * A poem/short fictional piece (like a short story)
 * A reflection on an issue dealt with in one or more texts
 * and a piece intended to present a point of view persuasively.

Some of these have VERY DEFINITE how-tos, some of them have great flexibility and others are free for all. Generally the free-for-alls are NOT recommended by teachers. We are told, for example, that poetry loses us marks because it's hard to do.

I notice that in your piece you use several openers and closers, and you put it into four pretty standard paragraphs: an introduction, two paragraphs of argument or discourse and a conclusion. You seem to be commenting about what it means for the plot, the character and the theme; as well as what it means for us out there in the wider world. Nearly all texts comment on something, and it's important for students to show an understanding of this, particularly as they get into more advanced grade/year levels.

The structure of writing is very important as it makes it easier to tell someone what you're going to say. Academic writing has a very strong structure, which is indicated by words and phrases and where they are. If you know these words and phrases, and how to use them appropriately and fluently, then you're halfway there to good academic writing. Ideas, of course, are the other half. They indicate the levels of a text.

Also it's very important to have the sense of authorship, and readership. You must know your audience, purpose and form. In an examination, or in an assessment task for class, you write for a mature and educated readership. Most texts are written for that readership, but the people who assess your exams are a small part of that readership in real life. So focus on them only to the extent that promotes good scholarship and academic truth and freedom. This neccestates original ideas, and thatyou can respond to a situation. So many many examiners complain of trite and regurgitated ideas and structure. This can be corrected by many references to the author and his/her intentions (many text questions do ask about these, directly or indirectly), and how the reader feels/responds/thinks. Many times this reader will be a 'general' or 'ideal' reader, and when or if you encounter post-modernist ideas, there is the idea of many readers and meanings and texts. In post-modernism, we create the text ourselves from the raw material and information we are given, so there's no general or ideal reader as such. Or if there is, it's one who actively engages with the text.

Perhaps most important in a "Free Response", after you have conformed thus to the requirements, is the ability to 'freestyle' or 'improvise'. Of course you must give your reader some idea of where they are heading. I can't very well go into your head and see any freestyling or improvising, but they mark the top students and the top writers. Top writers aren't always top students, as I'm sure you can appreciate! But they can be, they can be!

Ah, thanks for the post. I should probably do some more looking around at other websites talking about AP writing. BTW, I'm not very far into the AP program, having only taken it for a couple of months before I read this essay.

I should probably start with the stricter types of essays (DBQ, etc.). Also, it would be great if a better writer sent in an essay to use. It looks like this will be quite a project, as well as very interesting. ;-) - Pingveno 23:34, 15 Feb 2004 (UTC)