Content and

Organization of
a Reaction
Paper
THE WRITING PROCESS

What is a Reaction
Paper?

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A reaction paper is...
a written assignment that provides a personal opinion
regarding a given piece of work. The paper should include a
short summary of the work, but the main focus is your
thoughts, feelings and rationalizations about what's discussed
in the original text. This requires analysis of the given work on
your part, followed by a focused, well-thought-out reaction
backed by outside sources, where applicable.
 How to write a
reaction paper?
1. Read and analyze
the work thoroughly
Fully understand why you're writing and what you're
reacting to
Take notes on parts that you find important so you can
easily refer back to them later
2. Craft your thesis
statement
Go back through your notes to get an idea of your
overarching angle
Craft a clear, concise statement as your thesis, ideally in
a single sentence
3. Create the paper's
outline
Start building the framework for your arguments
Fleshing out these ideas while writing your reaction
will be much easier and more organized when you're
following an outline
4. Compose a first
draft
Use your outline to form the first draft of your
work
Tip: write your introduction last; Circling back to it
after writing the rest allows you to tweak the way
you stated your thesis, if necessary.
5. Polish and repeat
There's a possibility that you'll be producing two, three or
even four drafts before the final polished piece is ready
to go
For each pass through the paper during editing, focus on
one main thing that you're editing for
First pass: spelling, grammar and punctuation
Next pass: organization of ideas, and so on
PARTS
OF
REFLEC
TION
PAPER PART 1:
A SUMMARY OF THE
PART 2 :
YOUR REACTION TO THE
WORK
WORK

 PART 1: A
SUMMARY OF THE
WORK

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To develop the first part of a
report, do the following:
Identify the author and title of the work and include
in parentheses the publisher and publication date.

Write an informative summary of the material.

Condense the content of the work by highlighting

its main points and key supporting points.
To develop the first part of a
report, do the following:
Use direct quotations from the work to
illustrate important ideas.

Do not discuss in great detail any single aspect

of the work, and do not neglect to mention
other equally important points.
Keep the summary objective and factual
 PART 2: YOUR
REACTION TO THE
WORK

Where you express your opinions, backed with

evidences

The MOST IMPORTANT section of this paper

To develop the second part of a
report, do the following:
How is the assigned work related to ideas and concerns
discussed in the course for which you are preparing the
paper?
How is the work related to problems in our present-day
world?
How is the material related to your life, experiences,
feelings and ideas?
To develop the second part of a
report, do the following:
Did the work increase your understanding of a
particular issue? Did it change your perspective in any
way?
Is this worthy?
Would you recommend this write-up to other? Why?
The second part should be:
Concise
Have a clear thesis
Have clear main points

Cited with the

resources (APA)
 Points of Consideration when

writing a reaction paper

USE THE FOUR BASIC MAKE SURE THAT PROVIDE SPECIFIC

PRINCIPLES OF EACH MAJOR REASONS AND
EFFECTIVE WRITING PARAGRAPH DETAILS TO BACK UP
(UNITY, SUPPORT, INTRODUCES AND ANY GENERAL POINTS
COHERENCE, AND THEN DEVELOPS A OR ATTITUDES YOU
CLEAR, ERROR-FREE SINGLE MAIN POINT. EXPRESS.
SENTENCES)
 Points of Consideration when

writing a reaction paper

ORGANIZE YOUR CHECK THE PAPER FOR USE THE APPROPRIATE

MATERIAL GRAMMAR, MECHANICS, DOCUMENTATION STYLE
PUNCTUATION, WORD TO CITE PARAPHRASED OR
USAGE, AND SPELLING QUOTED MATERIAL FROM
ERRORS. THE BOOK OR ARTICLE
YOU'RE WRITING ABOUT,
OR FROM ANY OTHER
WORK.
Points of Consideration when

writing a reaction paper

YOU MAY USE

PUBLISHING
QUOTATIONS IN THE
INFORMATION CAN BE
SUMMARY AND
INCLUDED IN
REACTION SECTIONS
PARENTHESES OR AS A
OF YOUR PAPER, BUT
FOOTNOTE AT THE
DON'T RELY ON THEM BOTTOM OF THE PAGE.
EXCESSIVELY.
SAMPLE REACTION
PAPER
Part 1: Summary
In Disney and Pixar’s A Bug’s Life, many characters attempt to
gain agency by resisting interpellation—in both its ideological
and repressive forms. The movie is about a colony of ants that
spends most of its time gathering grain for the grasshoppers,
who intimidate and frighten them into doing it. It leaves the
ants little time to gather food for themselves before the rainy
season begins, but it is a part of their culture, and so they
continue to repeat the tradition year after year. In the
beginning of the movie, the ants are preparing their yearly
offering when it is ruined by Flik, an ant in the colony. The
grasshoppers are very angry and demand that they gather
twice the amount of food before the last leaf falls.
Part 1: Summary
Flik decides to travel to the “city” to find “warrior” bugs to help
fight off the grasshoppers. He finds what he thinks are warrior
bugs, but are actually circus bugs, who in turn think that Flik is
a talent scout. They travel back with him to the colony, impress
everyone, and then discover their real purpose for being there.
They end up staying, however, and the ants come up with a
plan to keep away the grasshoppers—they make a bird scare
them. They all work together, but in the end, their plan is foiled.
Flik, however, stands up for the colony, the grasshoppers are
scared away, and the head grasshopper, Hopper, gets eaten by
a bird. In the end, the ants no longer have to gather food for
the grasshoppers—only themselves.
Part 2: Reaction First Reaction Paragraph

The character I wanted to talk about that demonstrates

resistance to interpellation is Flik. Flik is like the black sheep of the
ants, but only because he’s trying to help out but ends up making
things worse. The main problem is that through trying to make
things better for the colony, he brings in new ideas that the colony
is not willing to accept. They are so stuck in their old
ways/traditions, that anything new seems threatening or bad. The
other ants try to force him to act like everyone else. This provides
the viewer with the information that almost every ant but Flik is
dedicated to preserving their culture and traditions—everyone
else is ideologically interpellated—they all want to work hard just
like they feel they are supposed to.
Part 2: Reaction Second Reaction Paragraph

Flik resists interpellation, which also provides him with agency.

There are several examples of this throughout the movie, one of
which is the way that he stands up to Hopper. In the beginning of
the movie, he tells Hopper to leave Dot (Princess Atta’s sister)
alone, and then at the end of the movie he gets beaten up by
Hopper because he admits that the making of the bird was his
idea. He tells Hopper that ants aren’t meant to serve
grasshoppers and are a lot stronger because they are so
numerous. In this way, Flik gains agency because he acts on
behalf of himself and admits that he resisted interpellation
purposefully.
Part 2: Reaction Concluding Paragraph

In the end, however, everyone recognized that change was

good, because everyone started using Flik’s invention and
relaxing a bit more—they had no more grasshoppers to
gather for, only themselves, and they had plenty of time, as
Flik’s invention sped up the gathering process.
Thank You!