Will Hochman

English 101

Fall 2004

Peer Review Worksheet

The following 10 elements are intended to help readers discuss drafts with writers after the writer has read his or her essay aloud. The worst thing a reader can do is fail to listen to the writer's ideas and fail to answer any of these prompts. We need to "be there" for each other and that means caring and thinking about other students' essays as though they were your own.

Thinking about writing is speculative. Readers should make suggestions based on possible improvement. Students who have nothing to say to writers, or just say, "it's good--don't change a thing" are failing to help writers think about the range of possibilities in their essays. The job of readers in peer review is to offer writers possible suggestions. The job of writers is to listen carefully to suggestions and decide later what he or she will use toward improving the draft. Try to help other writers as much as you would try to help yourselves by covering as much of each others' essays as possible. Writers are responsible for their own work. As "the captains of their own ships" they will decide later which suggestions are usable, so our job today is to give as many useful suggestions as possible. When you practice offering another criticism, you will strengthen your ability to criticize your own work more powerfully.

1) Is the thesis clear and well written so that it strongly asserts a focussing idea? Can you "echo" it back to the writer to show you understand the direction of the essay? Then, what can you suggest to narrow the thesis that may make it more specific and interesting?

2) What do you think of the way the ideas are organized in the draft? Can you phrase the organizing pattern in a way that shows how the ideas progress? Try to see an alternative to the organizing pattern that the writer might consider.

3) We learned with idea structuring to pair thesis and conclusion to see our whole idea more clearly. Can you see the logic of how ideas in the draft progress to the conclusion? Do you see how the conclusion advances the thesis into the essay's whole idea? Has the writer avoided merely restating a thesis as a conclusion?

4) Think about the development of key points. Do you see if they are linked to the thesis (or not)? Can you offer reader feedback to confirm or redirect the writer's intended effects about any of the essay's points? Has the writer been fair and seen ideas and issues from several points of view?

5) What about the essay did you find most worthwhile knowing? Can you use your enthusiasm for some of the essay's ideas to encourage the writer to develop more thinking?

6) Are the sources in the paper integrated smoothly into the writerπs ideas? Can you suggest or imagine other sources?

7) As the essayπs audience, can you point to a place in the essay where you became confused or where the writer might analyze ideas more carefully?

8) Can you suggest new ways for the writer to frame or support his or her ideas? Can you think of additional points, insights and specific details that could add interesting thinking or better guide other readers?

9) What did you find least effective about the essay? Explain specifically why you think something isn't working.

10) Has the writer followed standard formatting? Can you point out some problems with grammar, punctuation, titles, and/or spelling? Has the writer followed MLA style of documentation?