Reaction Paper Format: Main Ingredients That Have to Be Included

1. A brief description of the work that you intend to analyze. In particular, you need to name the author, his or her work, and the main topic that was discussed.
2. Your thesis or overall evaluation of this work.
3. Summary, discussion and assessment of the arguments and examples that the author gives.
4. The importance and wider implications of the book or study.
5. New ideas and concepts that you learned from the work you studied.

Structure is only one aspect of reaction paper format. It is important to remember the writing mechanisms, especially argumentation, grammar or citations. You need to take the following precautions when writing this type of paper:

1. First, you should use a direct quotation only when it best fits your sentence and when it cannot be properly rephrased. Remember that the overuse of quotations is not going to raise your grade.
2. Secondly, you should make sure that your reaction paper does not morph into a mere summary. You have to give however the gist of the work you discuss, but your main task is to assess it.
3. In case you disagree with the writer, try to explain why his or her arguments are not convincing.
4. Avoid the so-called appeals to authority. In other words, you shouldn’t say something like, “The author X is wrong because the author Y who is considered to be expert in this field says that X is wrong.” Such arguments significantly downgrade the quality of a reaction paper because they show that the student relies more on authority, than on facts and logic.
5. Pay attention to in-text citations and references. If you are borrowing an idea from someone else, give credit to this person.
6. Carefully proofread the paper. Punctuation and grammar mistakes might not necessarily destroy your paper, but they can definitely spoil the overall impression.

Reaction Paper Format: What Else You Need to Do

Writing Life Experience Essay: Main Steps

Many people struggle with the writing of life experience essays because they don’t know what events to choose. Certainly, almost any person had a life changing experience at least once, but it might be difficult to share this experience with someone else. To find the right event for your essay, here are the important preliminary steps that you need to take:

1. First, you should think of any past event that made you reevaluate your views about other people, or your values or moral principles. For example, you can describe an encounter with an interesting person that influenced you. Alternatively, you can discuss a situation when you had to make a moral choice.
2. Secondly, it is necessary to remember how this event took place and how you acted in those circumstances.
3. You should also compare and contrast your views and values before and after this event. This is probably the most important part of the essay.
4. Finally, you need to determine whether this experience can help you in the future.

Life Experience Essay: Recipe for Writing a Great Paper

There are several strategies that will help you when writing an essay about an important event in your life:

1. Start your paper with an attention-getter or a sentence that can make your reader interested. For this purpose, you can use a quote or a paradoxical statement that shows how two conflicting ideas can co-exist.
2. Secondly, your introduction should explain why you would like to choose that specific event or experience.
3. It is also important for you to find and maintain the balance between narrative and self-reflection. On one hand, your paper has to accurately describe an event. As it has been said before, you need to explain what happened and how it happened. On the other hand, your task is also to explain the impact the experience of that event had on you.
4. Finally, the conclusion of your essay has to explain how the experience can be generalized. In other words, you need to show what you learned from the event and how the knowledge you gained can affect your decisions in the future.

This is how you can approach an essay on life experience that profoundly influenced you. Overall, such a paper allows you to demonstrate your creativity and writing skills. So, try to be natural and this mindset will help you write a great life experience essay.

College essay prompts: different perspectives

Even though you cannot read the thoughts of others, when writing a college essay, you might at least try to do it. Here are some prompts to make you think of this:

• Today’s youth from the point of view of an elderly person.
• A baby who sees the seashore for the first time.
• A young teacher, entering the classroom for the first time.
• Newton: the first hours after explaining the law of gravity for the first time.
• A conflict situation in a supermarket from the point of view of a customer, a shop assistant and people in the queue.

College essay prompts: memorable experiences

Prompts to help you tell about your memorable experiences, so that teachers can get to know you as a person (be sincere, but try to convey the best image possible):

• Your earliest childhood memory.
• Would a five-year-old you be proud of your current achievements?
• A situation in which you took risks and its influence on your life.
• The easiest (most difficult) exam in your life.
• A negative experience and its impact on you.

College essay prompts: philosophical dilemmas

• Is “done quickly” better than “done perfect”?
• What is the main value in life?
• How can science tell people anything if scientists’ opinions are biased?
• Do people have souls? If yes, where is it located in the body?
• Are appearances always deceptive?

College essay prompts: common application

If you are not at college yet and want to write a common application essay (one essay to be sent to commissions of different colleges), you may choose between these six options:

• Evaluate an important experience, challenge or dilemma which influenced your personal development.
• Discuss a big problem on a personal, national or global level and its significance to you.
• Tell about a person, who strongly influenced your personal development.
• Write about a historical figure, a fictional character, a book or an artwork that influenced you; discuss that influence.
• Discuss a situation that illustrates the importance of diversity to you.
• Your choice.

College essay prompts: quotations

If you choose the sixth topic (your choice) for a common application essay or you are already at college and want to choose a good topic for a different essay, a famous quotation can become the perfect college essay prompt for you:

• Isaac Newton said: “Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.” Is it possible to balance sincerity and politeness?
• Marylin Monroe: “A career is wonderful, but you can’t curl up with it on a cold night.” Discuss the importance of balancing different spheres of life.
• Scarlett O’Hara, the main female character from the book Gone with the Wind: “I can’t think about that right now. If I do, I’ll go crazy. I’ll think about that tomorrow.” The main advantages and dangers of procrastination.
• Winston Churchill: “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” Are personal attitudes that important?
• Rudyard Kipling: “Gardens are not made by sitting in the shade.” Can lazy people be successful?

So, these prompts for college essays will miraculously cure you of writer’s block. Feel free to use any of these college essay topics to get started or if you have not already been assigned a specific question.

Reflective essay: main goals

A reflective essay is a paper that requires a critical response to a course, artwork, event or experience. The word ‘reflection’ means the image that you see in a mirror. . In college, a reflection essay is the result of your thinking process after you look deeply into books, or at artworks. When writing a reflective essay, try to mirror the main details and discuss what you think about that image. Yes, mirrors can be false. Still, you should try to be as objective as possible. Your main goals are:

• to briefly summarize the main points of a book (course, movie);
• to critically and objectively evaluate the quality of the work;
• to discuss the impact of the work on you.

Reflective essay: main components

Reflective essays will help you look back at what you have learnt and recognize your personal progress. This will not only raise your self-esteem, but also improve your understanding of study materials. Here are the main components you should include in a reflection essay:

1. A well-focused main idea. Develop it throughout your essay and echo it in a thesis statement, as well as in opening and concluding sentences of the body’s paragraphs and in the final conclusion. For example, if you write a reflection essay on the movie Black Swan, evaluate the author’s depiction of the girl’s psychological problems.
2. Logically arranged arguments and well-structured paragraphs.
3. The discussion of counter-arguments to your main points.
4. Relevant quotations and paraphrases.
5. A thought-provoking conclusion, discussing the practical implications of the main points presented.

Reflective essay writing tips

When writing a reflective essay, you can improve your results by using these tips:

• Define the specifics of the book (course or artwork). No general information, please. Writing that the movie was unforgettable and the director has done a great job is not enough. Use specific details to support your position. E.g.: The acting and dancing talents of Natalie Portman intensified the impression produced by the psychological thriller Black Swan on the audience.
• Say if your opinion has changed during the course of your reflection. What factors influenced it?
• Can you use the author’s messages (or skills you learnt, if any) in practice?
• Offer some suggestions for improvement of the work, if this is possible.

These strategies will help you make your essays reflective in the true meaning of the term, and you will receive excellent grades for them.

How to Write a Descriptive Essay: Remember the Crucial Elements

Writing descriptive essay papers can be rather tricky. To understand how to write a descriptive essay, you’d better first understand the main components of one. When writing a descriptive essay, make sure that you include these elements:
 
Descriptive writing: essay elements
 
When you write descriptive essay papers, make sure that you have in your paper all the components shown in the example below. Remember that, for descriptive writing, essays must have a specific atmosphere, providing the right background for the subject of your paper!

How to Write a Descriptive Essay: Check These Fantastic Examples

To write a descriptive essay successfully, you’ll need a sample of descriptive essay writing. Check the two samples below – each descriptive essay example definitely rocks!
 
Descriptive writing: essay example – an excerpt
 
One of the most striking features of the lead character of The Telltale Heart is the frightening mixture of cowardice, loath and despair. Pushing the surreal in his works to complete absurdity, Dali, nevertheless, makes efficient use of clear outlines and shapes in his The Persistence of Memory.
 
Examples of descriptive writing: essays excerpts
 
That’s an example of a descriptive essay! With such an example, descriptive essay writing won’t ever be a problem for you.

How to Write a Descriptive Essay: Amazing Paper Topic Suggestions

To make the descriptive essay you’re going to write a complete success, consider any sample of a descriptive essay topic from the list below:

• Describe the Person Whom You Admire Most and Explain Why;
• Depict the Artwork That Had the Greatest Impact on You;
• Specify the Peculiarities of One of Beethoven’s Compositions;
• Describe the Most Unbelievable Dish That You Have Ever Heard Of.

Pick an example of descriptive essay topics from the list above and create your own inimitable writing!

How to Write a Descriptive Essay: Remember These Recommendations

To make your essay descriptive enough, try to follow these simple tips on writing a descriptive essay:

1. Consider the object/phenomenon/person carefully;
2. Pick descriptive words, especially various adjectives and adverbs;
3. Provide sufficient evidence from various sources (quotes and citations).

Once you learn these tips on how to write descriptive essays, you’ll be able to describe anything in a blink of an eye. It’s time to write an essay for fun. Get excellent marks – learn how writing works and follow the descriptive essay writing prompts above!

Analytical essay example: introduction

Facebook is an extremely popular social networking site that became an integral component of popular culture and an important part of the daily routine of more than 845 million active users. Founded in 2004 in a dormitory room at Harvard University, the site made its main creator, Mark Zuckerberg, one of the youngest billionaires in the world. (Comment: these two opening sentences introduce readers into the subject matter and grab their interest with striking facts and statistics.)

Analytical essay example: a thesis statement

Key to Facebook’s success is the proper balance between tradition, experimentation and creativity as the main elements of its organizational culture. (Comment: the thesis statement defines the author’s stance, briefly outlines the main arguments and offers the roadmap for the paper. Note that it should be placed at the end of the introductory paragraph.)

Analytical essay example: main body

Traditional colors and design, as well as free registration and accustomed options are Facebook’s distinctive features, contributing to its popularity. Users might have difficulties navigating the site, but these traditional elements help them in finding their way quickly. The free registration offered and the age limit imposed (13 years) contribute to Facebook’s positive branding. Notably, traditions are regarded as sacred by Facebook engineers and are not broken, unless this is absolutely necessary.
 
Tradition goes hand in hand with innovation and experimentation at Facebook. Actually, Zuckerberg himself is a successful innovator, who was thinking outside the box, when he developed the code of this top-ranked site. However, the balance between innovation and conservatism is among the main Facebook’s principles. This organizational decision allows the engineering team to view problems from different perspectives and successfully face the challenges.
 
“Done is better than perfect” was a poster at Harvard campus and it is a motto preserved at this company, fostering the team’s creativity. It increases the speed of operations and enhances creativity. Creative thinking at all levels is an important factor contributing to Faceboook’s success. When Google launched the so-called “Facebook’s killer”, Google+, in 2011, Facebook engineers quickly improved a few of their options and preserved their competitive advantage (Comment: Pay attention to the topic and concluding sentences in each of the paragraphs.)

Analytical essay example: conclusion

The combination of tradition, innovation and creativity in Facebook’s corporate culture contribute to its competitive advantage over other social networking sites. (Comment: The concluding sentence summarizes the main arguments of the whole paper and echoes the thesis statement.)

Analytical essay example evaluation

Here are the main assessment criteria to critique this example and to take into consideration when writing an analytical essay:

1. FOCUS. Choose a narrow topic and express the central idea in a thesis statement. Make certain that every sentence of your paper is related to the topic. Avoid using any information that is not directly related to your topic.
2. STRUCTURE. The skeleton of good analytical essay examples consists of an introductory paragraph (containing a thesis statement), three or more body paragraphs (each related to the topic and having concluding sentences) and a conclusion.
4. LOGIC. Use your common sense to see if the arguments are strong enough to convince your readers. Don’t change your opinion in the middle of the paper.

As you see, examples of analytical essays can be truly helpful for understanding the main principles of analytical writing. By using this sample analytical essay, you will learn how to write an analytical essay by analogy and get excellent grades for your papers.

College application essay: three main options

A college application essay is an extremely important part of your admission process. The main goal of your college admission essay is to persuade the committee to choose you instead of other applicants. To achieve this goal, you can use any of these three options in your college application essays:

• “About yourself”. Convey the best image of yourself – your unique talents, abilities and experiences.
• “About your college”. Explain why you have chosen this profession and this college. Try to give strong reasons.
• “Astonish everyone.” Try to think outside the box and tell the committee something that nobody but you can tell. Use original content or format. For example, you might write an advertisement about yourself or a movie script about your college. However, be careful if you choose this option. This approach is risky, because some admission commissions might dislike too much creativity. Use your common sense. Try not to be too eccentric.

Warning! Before you choose the best suitable option from those above, check the requirements of the particular college you want to apply to. Visit their website or contact their admission committee and ask which of the formats is preferable for your college application essay. If they have no specific requirements, you may choose any of the above-discussed formats.

College application essay format

These are the main criteria for evaluating college application essays:

1. Original content. Try to put yourself in the shoes of the admission committee, who have to read thousands of application essays. Each and every essay tells when the applicant was born, what school he/she went to and what subjects he/she liked most of all. It can make anyone get bored to death. Try to be yourself and don’t waste words on unimportant statistical data. Instead, communicate your feelings, motivations and aspirations.
2. Enthusiasm. Show your burning desire to go to that college. Even if it is only half true, it will improve your chances for success.
3. Tone. Respect your readers and avoid shameless self-promotion. Feel free to use humor, but do not go too far with it. It will show the committee that you have a lively mind, but you also know where to stop.
4. Structure. When writing a college application essay, make sure to structure it logically and avoid long lists. A college application essay should not be confused with a resume or a curriculum vitae, which consist of lists of your competencies and experiences. The traditional essay structure (introduction, thesis statement, main body, and conclusion) would be great. Why to reinvent the wheel?
5. Style. Your grammar and writing style are important elements of your college application essay. Two main recommendations are to use active verbs and relatively short sentences. Some students think that long sentences and sophisticated grammar constructions can show how intelligent they are. This is wrong. Long words and complicated sentence structures can be rather annoying. Furthermore, it can prevent committees from understanding your brilliant ideas.

College application essay prompts

If you still do not know how to start writing your essays for college application, the following prompts can inspire you and get your writing process started:

• Write about your childhood experiences, such as designing a useful tool, playing computer games, or saving the lives of homeless kittens. These memories are always touching and provide valuable insights into your long-term preferences.
• Speak about the moment when you realized that nursing (engineering, design, etc.) is your calling. Maybe you wanted to help your granny when she had a bad headache. Or, you had good ideas to improve the design of your favorite computer game, but did not know how to put them in practice. If you do not recollect a specific moment, you should not fabricate it.
• Tell how you found out about this college (your friend told you, you found the information on the web or watched an advertisement on TV) and why you decided to apply to it.
• Speak about your dreams, which you will be able to realize after graduating from college (work on the cutting edge, save people’s lives or develop new chemicals, for example).

So, feel free to choose the best suitable approach, unlock your imagination and write a winning college admission essay to contribute to your better tomorrow.

How to Write a Proposal Essay: Start Your Fascinating Adventure!

Now, let’s read from the manual that people find when they search for “how-to an essay”. It says: no matter how good your paper is, you can’t keep your audience’s attention all the time.

People need to get some rest, and that’s why your speech should be like a cobweb, with several attention-getters and enough elements that can be skipped. To understand how to write a proposal essay, check this scheme:
 
After each section, make a pause to insert any ideas that you find funny, entertaining and relaxing; however, make sure that your audience shares your opinion. What’s more, there are plenty of things to avoid. When you know what must not be in your essay proposal, how to split the paragraphs is all that remains to be done properly.

How to Write a Proposal Essay: Avoiding Each Treacherous Pitfall

And now, check this impeccable how-to proposal essay manual! Containing a proposal sample element for each type of pitfall to avoid, these guidelines will help you answer the notorious question, “what is a research paper and how to write a proposal for it?”
 
Type
 

Well, this is a sample proposal writing example one could only dream of! With a sample of a proposal like this, you won’t have to cry “Help me write a essay!” anymore.

How to Write a Proposal Essay: Improvise, Interpret and Impress!

To make your writing truly perfect, make sure that you don’t fall for any of these widespread misconceptions:

• No use of the first person singular;

You are the author – why hiding it?

• Stating only commonplace ideas;

This is your paper – create something original!

• Mixing approaches is not good.

It’s nice to have proof of your objectivity – and mixed approaches will help you create the essay you want.

If you are concerned with such issues as what to write an essay on, you should remember that the best topic for you is the issue about which you have a lot to say. That takes care of the “What to write an essay about?” question!

How to Write a Proposal Essay: Check Essential Recommendations!

Check this list of widespread mistakes to avoid all of them and create an essay a student could only dream about!
 
Clichés and trite phrases;
Using passive voice;
Using such phrases as “In conclusion,” “To sum up” etc.
Argument inconsistency.
 
Congratulations, you went through all the manual – no more unanswered “How can I write an essay?” questions! Now that you know how to write an essay proposal, try creating your own – with all the tips and guidelines above, you’re bound to get through it with flying colors!

5 Paragraph Essay Writing: Incredibly Important Recommendations!

Before you learn how to write a 5 paragraph essay, check these tips:

• Be inventive – approach the topic in an original way;
• Create a specific atmosphere – pick appropriate wording, structure, etc.;
• Brainstorm the topic to include the most important elements;
• Be objective – consider the opponent’s ideas as well;
• Make logical transitions between successive paragraphs.

5 Paragraph Essay Writing: Remember Your Basic Arguments!

To understand how to write a 5 paragraph essay, you’ll first have to find out how to write a 5 paragraph essay outline, so fasten your seatbelts and get ready for another trip!

5 Paragraph Essay Writing: Learn the Structure, Check an Example

Just follow this outline for a 5 paragraph essay example and read these writing tips – you’ll reach the top! With this sample 5 paragraph essay, you’ll see the way 5 paragraph essay writing works.
 
Introduction
 

 
When dealing with an outline for a 5 paragraph essay, remember to introduce first the paper to the readers – and do it effectively!
 
Now, let’s move to the next element of the 5 paragraph essay example.
 
2nd Paragraph
 

 
Don’t forget to draw mini-conclusions like the ones you can see in an example of a 5 paragraph essay, at the end of each table here!
 
Now let’s get to the 3rd paragraph of this example of a 5 paragraph essay – there are a lot of cool tips in this 5 paragraph essay sample!
 
3rd Paragraph
 

 
Keep your eye on the thesis restatement – this sample of 5 paragraph essay shows clearly that this is the heart of your paper. Just follow one of the best examples of a 5 paragraph essay shown here!
 
Read some of these examples of 5 paragraph essay writing, and you’ll notice there’s something special about the 4th paragraph. What’s that? Take a look at this example of 5 paragraph essay writing, and you’ll get it!
 
4th Paragraph
 

 
You can check a hundred 5 paragraph essay examples, but you won’t find any that will be closer to perfection!
 
Finally, the last part – here it comes! What could a 5 paragraph essay outline possibly be without a conclusion?
 
Conclusion
 

 
So much for the 5 paragraph sample essay! If you keep the number of paragraphs to 5, essay paragraph writing will turn into an easy and exciting game.
 
A perfect outline for 5 paragraph essay writing, the 5 paragraph essay above is the shortest path to an A+ paper – just try it out, and you’ll see it works! Now that you know how to write 5 paragraph essay papers, why don’t you create your own outline for 5 paragraph essay writing?

Critical response essay: main dos

What is a critical response? It is your detailed examination of the main theme and organization of a book, article, movie, artwork or whatever you are assigned to critique. The next step is to fairly evaluate it. The main dos are to summarize, analyze, interpret and evaluate the work. These are the main issues that you should address in your critical response essays:

1. Has the author done a good job in selecting the topic and gathering the evidence?
2. What techniques did the author use to communicate the main message? Were these techniques effective?
3. Is the author’s style perfectly fitting the topic?

Critical response essay: main don’ts

The main don’ts when writing critical response essays are:

• Don’t pay too much attention to the topic discussed by the author. For example, if the topic of an article is positive thinking, it does not mean that you should discuss only the value of optimism throughout your paper. Instead, you should state the topic in a brief summary and then focus on how the author addressed the topic rather than on the topic itself.
• Don’t express your personal opinion and bias. The only part where you can express your opinion is your critical response (it is preceded by summary and analysis).
• Don’t fabricate false evidence to enable you to give thumbs down to the author. As it was already mentioned, critical essays do not necessarily have to be negative.

Critical response essay: main parts

The main parts of good critical response essays are:

1. Summary. Make it brief and ice-cold. Discuss only the main ideas and arguments offered by the author.
2. Analysis + interpretation. Discuss what the author’s main goal was and if it was achieved successfully. State with evidence, whether the arguments provided by the author were convincing enough (remember that you should not include your personal bias here).
3. Evaluation + response. After reading the first two parts, your readers are prepared for your objective response. To write professional response papers, you need to know how to actually include your critical responses into essays that are even entertaining to read.. Do not hesitate, and use strong language. If you consider the article under analysis weak and poorly-structured, you may state this directly. However, this is admissible only if you have provided enough evidence to show these weaknesses in your analysis and interpretation sections.

By keeping these simple truths in mind, you will be able to write a winning critical response essay and get an excellent grade for it.