Your role as a peer reviewer is to provide suggestions for places that the writer can expand, delete, or otherwise revise. Peers who offer comments only on the superficial elements of an essay (spelling, for example) are doing the writer a disservice. Focus on revision of the writer’s content and style; very few of your comments should relate to issues of grammar, punctuation, or
YOUR ROLE AS A PEER REVIEWER:
- Provide honest — but supportive — comments on your classmate’s essay.
- Discuss the paper’s strengths.
- Identify specific places where the draft is confusing, unclear, or awkward. Don’t be timid; writers must be able to give and accept criticism.
- Assess the appropriateness of the writer’s tone and style.
- Make suggestions to the writer for how to strengthen the essay’s structure, organization, or content. Don’t focus on grammar, punctuation, or spelling.
HOW TO PEER REVISE:
- The writer tells the reviewer what s/he would like specific feedback on by jotting a few notes at the top of the essay. The writer will direct his or her reader to look out for areas where the writer is having problems. For example, the writer may be having trouble coming up with realistic dialogue, so she may write at the top of her page -“Please look at my dialogue and offer ideas.”
- As you read a student’s essay, you should mark both strengths of the essay and unclear/awkward/weak spots on the peer revision worksheet.
- After you have completed your reading and finished your comments on a peer revision sheet, return the essay and the worksheet to the writer. Take time to discuss each essay.
- When you are discussing your essay, push your partner to give you feedback that is useful; ask your partner to re-read paragraphs that are giving you trouble, direct them to the questions listed below, or find other ways to prompt more thorough critiques.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
After reading and completing a peer revision sheet, use some of these questions to help you discuss with your partner his or her work.
- Is the belief interesting/unique? Why or why not?
- Does the writer illustrate his or her belief with a story? Is the story realistic and believable? Why or why not?
- Does he or she use concrete imagery and sensory details to describe the details of the story?
- Which sections are most effective? What accounts for their effectiveness?
- Which sections are weakest? How could these areas be strengthened?
- What are the most descriptive sections of the story?
- What ideas can be eliminated?
Reviewer’s Name:__________________________________________ Date:___________________
Author’s Name:____________________________________________ Block:___________________
Title of Essay:______________________________________________________________________________
First: Read through your partner’s paper and make notes and comments in the margins.
Then: Complete this peer revision sheet using examples to make suggestions for improvement
I. Introduction
- Does the first sentence effectively capture the reader’s attention? Make specific suggestions on the opening.________________________________________________________
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- Does introduction give some background information to give readers a clear picture of who the author is and what the author believes? What could be clarified? ___________________________________________________________________________________
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- The thesis will be the sentence that answers the question: “What does the writer believe?” Is the thesis a clear, concise idea about one particular belief? __________________________________________________
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- Is the belief interesting and unique?_________________________________________________
- How could the writer make his or her thesis clearer? Be specific: _____________________
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- What two suggestions do you have to help the author improve his/her introduction?
1)_________________________________________________________________________________
2)_________________________________________________________________________________
II. Body
- Does each body paragraph contain a clear topic sentence? ___________________________________________________________________________________
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- Does it make logical sense?________________________________________________________________
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- Do all the body paragraphs elaborate on the writer’s belief? If not, what should be taken out?_________________________________________________________________________
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- Does each paragraph end with a transition sentence that sums up the idea of the paragraph and introduces the next idea? __________________________________________
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- Does the writer thoroughly reflect on how the belief has impacted his or her life? Do you, as a peer reviser, feel that the writer has left anything out, made any assumptions, or not thoroughly explained something?_____________________________________________
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III. Conclusion
- Does the writer end strong? What could be improved? _________________________________________________________
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- Does the author bring all the ideas of the essay together by the close of the paper? ___________________________________________________________________________________
- Does the paper end with a powerful clincher sentence?________________________________________________________
IV. Style
- Does the writer use concrete images and sensory details to describe his or her ideas (i.e. adjectives that elaborate on how something feels, looks, smells, etc.). List an example from the essay here:______________________________________________________
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- Does the writer avoid abstract and vague language? List any vague or abstract descriptions here:__________________________________________________________________
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- What is your favorite line in this essay? Why?________________________________________
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What are three suggestions you could give to the author as he/she revises the essay:
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