5.4.3 Preparing for a Personal Response Assignment

Your main idea is a corner stone for your personal response. It is the basis or starting point of other ideas, such as why you believe what you do about the subject.

To examine your main idea or statement further . . .

1. Brainstorm reasons for believing your main statement is accurate.

2. From your brainstorming, take at least three appropriate ideas that you can explore further. You can explore these three ideas in your essay discussion.

3. Find evidence from your own experiences and evidence from a text in the course to support these ideas and your discussion.

A good way to plan your personal response is to make a visual mind map.