How Do You Write A Free Response Essay?
Free response essays are increasingly common in both high school and college courses. Some free response essays have supplemental resources (such as a passage, image, or data set) that students need to respond to, while other free response essays require students to develop an argument using only their prior knowledge. High school educators increasingly use free response essays in order to better prepare students for the demands of college. These essays can also provide teachers with a strong assessment of a student’s ability to develop a thesis, synthesize information and craft a compelling, well-organized essay. Read the essay directions carefully. Underline key words and important phrases as you read. Verify the directions by attempting to put them in your own words. For example, “I need to explain how this poem uses metaphors to talk about death” or “I need to explain how the graph suggests population growth will be a problem in the next hundred years.” Read the relevant passage(s)
