Page 151 - ESSAY WRITING - 4 September 2019

Exercise 2 Reading about the topic

After reading, teachers often want to see what their students think or feel about

some piece of writing. The following article discusses what to consider in
giving response to an article.

Responding to an Article You Have Read

Reading is a significant activity as it involves a series of intricate cognitive
processing in order to derive meanings from a text. As a student, reading is a part of

your educational journey. In some classes, your teacher might even assign you daily
reading exercise. However, it is more likely that you are asked to perform a follow-up

activity. You will be probably asked to respond to the text you have read. This activity
aims to aid your effort in expanding your knowledge of the subject matter and to give
you practice in evaluating ideas in the subject area in a critical manner. There are several
points that you can consider in giving response or reaction to text article.

The first point you can evaluate is the textual aspect which deals with the merit of
the work, for instance: the importance of its points, its accuracy, completeness, organization,
and so on. As sources of high-quality information, the articles may offer a considerable

amount of benefits to a wide range of fields or to people from different backgrounds; thus,
good readers should be able to identify them. If the text is accurate, the information it
contains is correct. Reading accurate texts allow people to avoid being misinformed
whatever the purpose they have when reading them. Additionally, a well-organized

article assists the readers to understand the article with ease.
The second point to consider is the relevance of the text to the current situation.
You can reflect on whether the issue in the text is related to problems in our present-day

world. When reading an article, you should practice to become a critical reader. That
being said, you can understand what is discussed in the article and you can also relate it
to the current situation. It means that you should be able to see the appropriateness of
the article with real life issues happening right now. In order to be able to make

connections between what is discussed in the article and the currently-happening
situation, you should keep abreast of the news and be fully aware with the most recent
facts. Actively reading books and news websites will help you keep informed of

important events happening locally, nationally, and internationally.
The next point you should examine from an article is the relevance of the text to
your subjectivity – how the material is related to your life, experiences, feelings and ideas.
You can ask yourself these questions; what emotions did the work arouse in you? Did you

Reaction Essay 149