Your thesis should answer the question posed in the prompt you choose and should appear at the end of the introduction.
Also in the introduction, after providing a hook to grab the reader’s attention, summarize the poem or short story you are responding to.
Make sure each body paragraph has a topic sentence that includes a point or reason that supports your thesis. Also, thoroughly explain your points/reasons.
Use at least one quote in each body paragraph (most likely each paragraph will include more than one if not several). Your quotes should come from the poem/s and/or short story/ies you are writing about, but they can come from outside sources (magazines, books, the internet, etc.). Remember to explain your quotes—you can never assume that the reader will understand a quote in the same way you do, so explain how they support the point you are trying to make in any given situation or paragraph. Also, cite your quotes, providing the page number in parenthesis at the end of the quote.
Use appropriate poetic terminology throughout.