By Chong Bretillon
Although it’s not the most common genre of academic writing, a student will most likely be assigned at least one reaction essay during their college careers, usually in liberal arts courses. Reaction essays, sometimes called “response” or “reflection” essays, typically involve viewing a film or painting, attending a play, or reading a short story/passage and then composing a cohesive response to it. These assignments offer students the chance to build valuable writing skills that are transferable to other contexts.
First, let’s describe what a reaction essay is NOT: It’s not an opinion piece or an uncritical description or summary of the work. The writer should not use the essay to justify their like or dislike of the play they attended–nor should the essay praise the director/playwright/artist for what they did well at every turn. A reaction essay is also not a journal or diary entry, where the writer notes down their reflections in a narrative way.
Now, for what a reaction essay IS: the objective of a reaction essay is to describe one’s observations of the work viewed/read/experienced with clarity, precision, and organization, using the vocabulary of the discipline or genre. Successful reaction essays move from an observation of a work to an analysis; writers should trace the beginnings of a complex idea or concept within the discipline and/or genre which will eventually open an avenue to further analysis. In fact, drafting a reaction essay is a great way to brainstorm for a research paper.
Reaction essays are also opportunities for writers to become familiar with the genre- and field-specific vocabulary needed to enter into a deeper analysis of a concept. For example, a student may be required to write a reaction essay after viewing Renaissance paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and can practice using terms such as perspective, sfumato, contraposto, etc. in their responses. Developing vocabulary in a low-stakes assignment is helpful in building writerly confidence.
Lastly, reaction essays help student writers learn one of the most fundamental skills of academic writing: to negotiate the link between the general and the precise in order to build a claim. These assignments allow students to practice linking one idea to a larger issue, debate, or discussion in the field or discipline—or even in society at large. In other words, a strong reaction essay might begin by zooming in on one or two aspects or details of a work (the feisty dialogue of a contemporary play, the grainy camera work in a film) and then zoom out to analyze the impact of this directorial choice on the work as a whole. Moreover, reaction essays require students to justify and validate their responses, even if it is as simple as giving examples. These skills are all cornerstones of claim-making in writing–providing and analyzing evidence, showing that a claim is relevant in the field, and positioning oneself in an argument.
Published September 12, 2019
