A Guide for Students Writing Diploma Exams

Suggestions for Writing the Personal Response to Texts Assignment

Because the Personal Response to Texts Assignment is thematically connected to the Critical / Analytical Response to Literary Texts Assignment, read and reflect upon both assignments before you begin the first assignment.

As you read the texts provided, consider all titles, captions, commentary, and footnotes. This information may help you to understand the texts and their contexts. Choose a planning strategy that is effective for the ideas that you want to communicate.

You are expected to reflect on and explore ideas and impressions prompted by texts provided in the examination and the assignment topic. Your composition will be assessed on the basis of your ability to relate the topic to your ideas and impressions of a text or texts and to your previous knowledge and/or experience. When considering which text to explore, select the text
that is most relevant to your own ideas. Compositions that do not demonstrate a connection to one or more of the texts provided in the examination are assessed as Insufficient.

There is no prescribed answer or approach to the Personal Response to Texts Assignment.

As you read and reflect upon each text, ask yourself the following questions:

• What ideas, feelings, or impressions does the text communicate to me about the topic?
• What details in the text create and convey these ideas, feelings, or impressions?
• What have I experienced or learned that is relevant to my ideas, feelings, or impressions of the topic and/or the text?
• What ideas and support will allow me to compose the most effective response to the topic?
• How might these texts relate to one another, my ideas, and the topic?

Because students’ responses to the Personal Response to Texts Assignment vary widely — from philosophical discussions to personal narratives to creative approaches — you will be asked to briefly identify the central idea from each of the texts that you reference in your response. You will also be asked to identify what idea you intend to explore. As you indicate the central ideas
most relevant to what you intend to explore, you will be anticipating writing in such a way as to convey a central idea.

Having confidence in what you are writing about will enhance the creation of your writing voice. Trust your ideas. Use your time efficiently. If your response is clear, focused, organized, on topic, and supported with reference to the text or texts provided and to your previous knowledge and/or experience, you have done all that you can to be successful.

Remember, you need respond only to one text, but the connection to the text must be clear to your audience.

When considering the prose form that will best communicate your ideas, ask yourself the following questions:

• What prose form will allow me to communicate my ideas and impressions most effectively?
• What prose forms have allowed me to communicate successfully in the past? Have I been able to master a creative approach? Are my skills better suited to a personal or analytical composition in the context of a timed test?
• What prose form will best suit the ideas I want to present to the audience?
• How can I use language and develop my ideas to make my writing communicate effectively?