Written Peer Response
To learn how to read more actively and
to help others' improve upon their writing, you'll respond to first drafts
of 3 or 4 of your peers' papers. Construct a concise constructive
critique of each of your peer's papers in response to these questions and
issues.
- Respond to the writer's three questions.
- Is the introduction successful? Does it grab you? Does it provide
a blueprint of the essay's argument and structure? Does it have a clearly
identifiable thesis?
- Summarize the author's controlling purpose/main idea/theme/thesis/argument/analysis
as you the reader understand it. By the end of the essay, do you understand
her point? Do you agree or disagree with her analysis? Why or why not?
- How do the specific examples and ideas presented in the essay support and
develop it's purpose? Do they in fact convey it's purpose to you the reader?
- How does the essay's organization affect the essay's purpose (does it,
for example, help or hinder)? Does the essay need to be reorganized
in order to make it more effective?
- Does the conclusion rehash the thesis, restate the main points, and generally
put the essay in perspective?
- Discuss what recurring issues of style, grammar, and syntax, if any, affect
your reading, either positively or negatively, of the essay.
- What issues has the essay provoked you to consider or reconsider?
What do you wish to say to the author about the presentation of her ideas?
- Offer other suggestions for revision.