There are two types of reader’s responses. In one type, you identify and analyze the rhetorical techniques that an author uses in his or her essay and the effects that he or she accomplishes by using these techniques. In the other type, you explain why you agree with, disagree with, or partly agree and partly disagree with the writer’s argument or point of view.
This handout explains how to write the first type of such a response. Guidance is in red. Text that results from the application of this guidance is in blue. As additional new text is added in blue, previous text is retained, in black.
Assume that you are writing in response to this assignment:
Using a pen, in your own words, summarize "The First Hours" (pages 195-98 in your textbook). Start your summary with these words:
In "The First Hours," Tim Townsend. . . .
If you refer to the author again, by name, simply call him by his last name, "Townsend."
- Then, respond to these two questions:
1. Identify six specific techniques that Townsend uses to create a sense of immediacy for his reader concerning the horrific events he describes, explaining, with regard to each technique, whether or not it effectively achieves this purpose.
2. What internal evidence (that is, evidence within the text of the essay itself) suggests that Townsend is a reliable first-person narrator? Explain.
- Your summary and responses to items at least three pages long (and it probably will be longer).
Start with a summary in your own words. (Any use of direct quotations on your part should be brief and few; the vast majority of the summary should be in your own words. Any material that is quoted directly from the original author’s work must be placed in quotation marks, even if it is just a word or a phrase--unless it is a commonplace word or phrase; if in doubt, use quotation marks or put the idea in your own words.) Begin with the preposition “In,” followed by the title of the essay (in quotation marks) to which you are responding, including a comma before the closing quotation marks, and then the writer’s full name. If you mention the writer again, as you probably will, refer to him by his last name only:
In "The First Hours," Tim Townsend
Follow this opening phrase with an appropriate action verb:
In "The First Hours," Tim Townsend describes
Next, finish your sentence with a summary, in one or more sentences, of the essay as a whole, providing the essence, or gist, of it; make sure that you are accurate and objective:
In "The First Hours," Tim Townsend describes the horrific aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks upon the World Trade Center.
Then, present the author’s thesis. A professional writer seldom writes an explicit, specific, unifying, one-sentence thesis, but suggests his or her main idea a bit here and a bit there, throughout the essay, leaving it to the reader to piece together the essay’s implied thesis. Therefore, you will probably have to generate a thesis that encapsulates the author’s main idea:
In "The First Hours," Tim Townsend describes the horrific aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks upon the World Trade Center. These attacks, which occurred on September 11, have had long-term, devastating social and personal effects upon the victims and other Americans.
Identify the parts or sections of the author’s essay. Then, include only one- or two-sentence summaries of the major supporting elements of each part or section. (Make sure that this part of your summary, which should be only a few additional sentences, remains restricted to the ideas that make up the original author’s thesis, as you have developed it, based upon his or her essay):
In "The First Hours," Tim Townsend describes the horrific aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks upon the World Trade Center. These attacks, which occurred on September 11, have had long-term, devastating social and personal effects upon the victims and other Americans. Townsend’s essay has three sections. In the first, he recounts incidents as a mere observer; in the second, he recounts further incidents, as one of the victims, when he becomes a participant in the events; in the third, he reflects upon the horrific, ongoing repercussions of the attacks.
Now, write a sentence that transitions to the next paragraph of your response, the one in which you are going to consider the techniques that the author uses to create a sense of immediacy for his reader. (If you are using a prompt that your instructor or textbook provided, use the wording of the prompt as a springboard into your own sentence:
In "The First Hours," Tim Townsend describes the horrific aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks upon the World Trade Center. These attacks, which occurred on September 11, have had long-term, devastating social and personal effects upon the victims and other Americans. Townsend’s essay has three sections. In the first, he recounts incidents as a mere observer; in the second, he recounts further incidents, as one of the victims, when he becomes a participant in the events; in the third, he reflects upon the horrific, ongoing repercussions of the attacks.
Beginning his narrative account of the event in media res, Townsend uses descriptions of vivid sensory details, empathetic identifications with victims, personifications, allusions to famous local landmarks, descriptive snapshots of individual victims, and the first-person point of view of a reliable narrator to create a sense of immediacy for his reader concerning the horrific events that he describes.
For each of the rhetorical techniques that you have identified, include examples and brief, infrequent direct quotations from the text of the original author’s essay to support and develop your claim. In doing so, make sure that you include transitions to keep your own reader on track. Depending upon the length of your paragraphs, you may want to break your writing into shorter paragraphs, perhaps giving your analysis of each of these rhetorical techniques a short paragraph of its own:
In "The First Hours," Tim Townsend describes the horrific aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks upon the World Trade Center. These attacks, which occurred on September 11, have had long-term, devastating social and personal effects upon the victims and other Americans. Townsend’s essay has three sections. In the first, he recounts incidents as a mere observer; in the second, he recounts further incidents, as one of the victims, when he becomes a participant in the events; in the third, he reflects upon the horrific, ongoing repercussions of the attacks.
Beginning his narrative account of the event in media res, Townsend uses descriptions of vivid sensory details, empathetic identifications with victims, personifications, allusions to famous local landmarks, descriptive snapshots of individual victims, and the first-personal point of view of a reliable narrator to create a sense of immediacy for his reader concerning the horrific events that he describes.
For example, the essay begins in the middle of the action that it presents, as the reader, like the narrator, sees a series of bizarre sights without understanding what has happened. There is no context; the reader has no idea what has caused the incidents that the narrator reports. It is as if the reader has, along with the narrator, stepped into a situation that is already underway. Transitions suggest that the narrator is taking in the sequence of actions as an eyewitness who is present as the state of affairs unfolds, piecing together the situation as it takes place before his eyes; in addition, these transitions suggest that he is ambulatory, that he is walking: “The first thing I saw,” “half a block east,” “I ventured a block south,” “at first,” “someone mentioned.”
His description of details is vivid. The particulars with which he acquaints the reader are bizarre, which suggests that the situation he relates is likewise peculiar; he sees “burned luggage”; “cars. . . on fire”; a man wearing nothing but a towel, shaving cream still “on the left side of his face,” a man “walking barefoot over shards of glass”; a “hail” of glass; “body parts”; “mangled flesh”; “a leg”; and “hunks of metal. . . strewn for blocks.” These visual details are complemented by the narrator’s references to sounds that are just as unusual and unsettling: “a low metallic whine,” “a high-pitched whoosh,” “the shrill squeal of sirens,” screams, and “shrapnel. . . whizzing by.” The narrator’s use of such vivid details, like his appeal to the senses of sight and hearing, help to create the sense, for the reader, that he or she is there, seeing and hearing what the narrator sees and hears as these uncanny incidents occur.
The narrator also places the reader on the scene, as it were, by inviting him or her to empathize with the plight of the men and women who, he says, leap from the ninetieth story of a burning skyscraper: “What must have been going through their minds to choose certain death? Was it a decision between one death and another? Or maybe it wasn’t a decision at all, their bodies involuntarily recoiling from the heat.” The invitation to the reader to put him- or herself in the shoes of these terrified victims both humanizes them and causes the reader to imaginatively identify with their plight, as if the reader were not only on the scene him- or herself, but is an observer--and, indeed, a victim--as well.
The narrator also uses personification to create the sense that the reader is present as the incidents take place. Damage to a building is described as a “gash,” rather than as damage, as if the building is made of flesh, rather than steel and glass, as if it is a human being rather than a building. In a way, the skyscraper, as a symbol, is a synecdoche for the people who work in the building; it is wounded because its human occupants are wounded. This personification of the building is unusual enough to drive home the point to the reader that men and women had been injured or killed in the attack upon the buildings, and this identification with them as human beings rather than merely abstract characters in a narrative helps the reader to sympathize with the victims, as if the reader were present, watching the people leap from the building, as the narrator does, and helps the reader to feel the narrator’s horror and sorrow on the jumpers’ behalf. The narrator also anthropomorphizes the cloud of smoke and ashes that results from the explosion, as if it is an enemy that pursues him and his fellow victims as they flee the potentially deadly debris that the cloud carries, the “shrapnel of metal, glass, and concrete” that could go “whizzing. . . through” one’s “head.” This cloud not only chases them, as if it is a predator, but it also blinds and chokes the narrator: “It was difficult to breathe or even keep my eyes open.” Since readers identify with the protagonists of stories and the narrator is the protagonist of this narrative essay, the reader identifies with him, imaginatively sharing his plight. The cloud is a threat to the reader, as it is to the narrator and the other victims; being pursued by this menacing, potentially deadly cloud of blinding, choking smoke places the reader on the scene as the narrative’s incidents continue to unfold.
The narrator’s allusion to famous local landmarks helps to place the reader in New York City as the action progresses: “The South Tower of the World Trade Center,” “Battery Park,” “Manhattan,” “FDR Drive,” “Brooklyn Bridge,” “North Tower,” “Brooklyn.” Not only do these references orient the reader, allowing him or her to locate the action that takes place, but they also place him or her on the scene, first as an observer and then as a participant, in the story’s incidents.
The narrator also provides verbal snapshots of individuals, helping to humanize the crowd while creating the impression that the reader him- or herself witnesses the plight of these individuals. He describes “a woman” who, turning “to run,” drops her “black bag,” spilling “a CD holder” and “sending bright silver discs across the ground” and an elderly gentleman who trips and takes “a face-first drive across the pavement, glasses flying off his face.” At this point, the reader has become more than merely a participant; he or she is involved in the incidents, a witness who is present among the other victims, so close to the action that he or she can see what happens to individuals in the crowd of “thousands” of fleeing “refugees.”
The narrator’s use of the first-person perspective also creates a sense of immediacy, for he relates to the reader as a fellow human being, not as an objective, anonymous reporter, but as an “I” speaking directly--and passionately--to the reader as a “you.”
Once you have completed the second section of your response, introduce your third section, using a sentence that is both transitional (provides a transition) and topical (introduces a topic):
Townsend’s use of a reliable first-person narrator also helps him to create a sense of immediacy for his reader while imparting credibility to his role as the narrative’s narrator.
Then, include examples and brief, infrequent direct quotations from the text of the original author’s essay to support and develop your claim:
Townsend’s use of a reliable first-person narrator also helps him to create a sense of immediacy for his reader while imparting credibility to his role as the narrative’s narrator. He admits that he had “always wondered what” he might “do in a life-or-death situation,” hoping that he would respond in an altruistic, even heroic, manner. However, he disappoints himself. When an opportunity arises to assist a fallen, elderly gentleman who is fleeing from the toxic cloud that resulted from the explosion of one of the buildings, he hesitates. When he turns back to assist, “two younger guys” have already come to the man’s aid. In addition, he seeks only his own safety, separating himself from the crowd and hiding in a “flower bed.” Whether cowardice or the instinct for self-preservation motivated these actions, he admits that he is ashamed of himself: “September 11th, 2001, at 9:45 A. M. was not my finest moment.” Although he is obviously uncomfortable with his behavior on the scene, Townsend is brutally honest with the reader in confessing his conduct and his feelings regarding his actions. If he is honest about reporting such a personally painful moment, especially when he didn't need to mention it at all, it seems likely that he can be considered a reliable narrator concerning the other incidents he relates.
You have now completed a reader’s response that includes both a summary in your own words of the essay and your analysis of the rhetorical techniques that the essay’s author uses--in this case, to create a sense of immediacy for his reader and to indicate that his first-person narrator is reliable. Here is the result, in its entirety:
In "The First Hours," Tim Townsend describes the horrific aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks upon the World Trade Center. These attacks, which occurred on September 11, have had long-term, devastating social and personal effects upon the victims and other Americans. Townsend’s essay has three sections. In the first, he recounts incidents as a mere observer; in the second, he recounts further incidents, as one of the victims, when he becomes a participant in the events; in the third, he reflects upon the horrific, ongoing repercussions of the attacks.
Beginning his narrative account of the event in media res, Townsend uses descriptions of vivid sensory details, empathetic identifications with victims, personifications, allusions to famous local landmarks, descriptive snapshots of individual victims, and the first-personal point of view of a reliable narrator to create a sense of immediacy for his reader concerning the horrific events that he describes.
For example, the essay begins in the middle of the action that it presents, as the reader, like the narrator, sees a series of bizarre sights without understanding what has happened. There is no context; the reader has no idea what has caused the incidents that the narrator reports. It is as if the reader has, along with the narrator, stepped into a situation that is already underway. Transitions suggest that the narrator is taking in the sequence of actions as an eyewitness who is present as the state of affairs unfolds, piecing together the situation as it takes place before his eyes; in addition, these transitions suggest that he is ambulatory, that he is walking: “The first thing I saw,” “half a block east,” “I ventured a block south,” “at first,” “someone mentioned.”
His description of details is vivid. The particulars with which he acquaints the reader are bizarre, which suggests that the situation he relates is likewise peculiar; he sees “burned luggage”; “cars. . . on fire”; a man wearing nothing but a towel, shaving cream still “on the left side of his face,” a man “walking barefoot over shards of glass”; a “hail” of glass; “body parts”; “mangled flesh”; “a leg”; and “hunks of metal. . . strewn for blocks.” These visual details are complemented by the narrator’s references to sounds that are just as unusual and unsettling: “a low metallic whine,” “a high-pitched whoosh,” “the shrill squeal of sirens,” screams, and “shrapnel. . . whizzing by.” The narrator’s use of such vivid details, like his appeal to the senses of sight and hearing, help to create the sense, for the reader, that he or she is there, seeing and hearing what the narrator sees and hears as these uncanny incidents occur.
The narrator also places the reader on the scene, as it were, by inviting him or her to empathize with the plight of the men and women who, he says, leap from the ninetieth story of a burning skyscraper: “What must have been going through their minds to choose certain death? Was it a decision between one death and another? Or maybe it wasn’t a decision at all, their bodies involuntarily recoiling from the heat.” The invitation to the reader to put him- or herself in the shoes of these terrified victims both humanizes them and causes the reader to imaginatively identify with their plight, as if the reader were not only on the scene him- or herself, but is an observer--and, indeed, a victim--as well.
The narrator also uses personification to create the sense that the reader is present as the incidents take place. Damage to a building is described as a “gash,” rather than as damage, as if the building is made of flesh, rather than steel and glass, as if it is a human being rather than a building. In a way, the skyscraper, as a symbol, is a synecdoche for the people who work in the building; it is wounded because its human occupants are wounded. This personification of the building is unusual enough to drive home the point to the reader that men and women had been injured or killed in the attack upon the buildings, and this identification with them as human beings rather than merely abstract characters in a narrative helps the reader to sympathize with the victims, as if the reader were present, watching the people leap from the building, as the narrator does, and helps the reader to feel the narrator’s horror and sorrow on the jumpers’ behalf. The narrator also anthropomorphizes the cloud of smoke and ashes that results from the explosion, as if it is an enemy that pursues him and his fellow victims as they flee the potentially deadly debris that the cloud carries, the “shrapnel of metal, glass, and concrete” that could go “whizzing. . . through” one’s “head.” This cloud not only chases them, as if it is a predator, but it also blinds and chokes the narrator: “It was difficult to breathe or even keep my eyes open.” Since readers identify with the protagonists of stories and the narrator is the protagonist of this narrative essay, the reader identifies with him, imaginatively sharing his plight. The cloud is a threat to the reader, as it is to the narrator and the other victims; being pursued by this menacing, potentially deadly cloud of blinding, choking smoke places the reader on the scene as the narrative’s incidents continue to unfold.
The narrator’s allusion to famous local landmarks helps to place the reader in New York City as the action progresses: “The South Tower of the World Trade Center,” “Battery Park,” “Manhattan,” “FDR Drive,” “Brooklyn Bridge,” “North Tower,” “Brooklyn.” Not only do these references orient the reader, allowing him or her to locate the action that takes place, but they also place him or her on the scene, first as an observer and then as a participant, in the story’s incidents.
The narrator also provides descriptive snapshots of individuals, helping to humanize the crowd while creating the impression that the reader him- or herself witnesses the plight of these individuals. He describes “a woman” who, turning “to run,” drops her “black bag,” spilling “a CD holder” and “sending bright silver discs across the ground” and an elderly gentleman who trips and takes “a face-first drive across the pavement, glasses flying off his face.” At this point, the reader has become more than merely a participant; he or she is involved in the incidents, a witness who is present among the other victims, so close to the action that he or she can see what happens to individuals in the crowd of “thousands” of fleeing “refugees.”
The narrator’s use of the first-person perspective also creates a sense of immediacy, for he relates to the reader as a fellow human being, not as an objective, anonymous reporter, but as an “I” speaking directly--and passionately--to the reader as a “you.”
Townsend’s use of a reliable first-person narrator also helps him to create a sense of immediacy for his reader while imparting credibility to his role as the narrative’s narrator. He admits that he had “always wondered what” he might “do in a life-or-death situation,” hoping that he would respond in an altruistic, even heroic, manner. However, he disappoints himself. When an opportunity arises to assist a fallen, elderly gentleman who is fleeing from the toxic cloud that resulted from the explosion of one of the buildings, he hesitates. When he turns back to assist, “two younger guys” have already come to the man’s aid. In addition, he seeks only his own safety, separating himself from the crowd and hiding in a “flower bed.” Whether cowardice or the instinct for self-preservation motivated these actions, he admits that he is ashamed of himself: “September 11th, 2001, at 9:45 A. M. was not my finest moment.” Although he is obviously uncomfortable with his behavior on the scene, Townsend is brutally honest with the reader in confessing his conduct and his feelings regarding his actions. If he is honest about reporting such a personally painful moment, especially when he didn't need to mention it at all, it seems likely that he can be considered a reliable narrator concerning the other incidents he relates.
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