Student Peer Review

WR2 | Workshops

Peer Review Work

Reflective Prologue

Take a moment to reflect on your work. Consider the following questions and write answers to them at the conclusion of your essay draft. Please ensure that this reflective work appears in the essay draft you turn in to Canvas as well.

  • What did you learn by writing this draft?
  • What was the most challenging thing about creating this draft?
  • What do you like most about this draft?
  • What is this draft’s greatest weakness or problem?
  • How do you plan to make this draft better?
  • Do you have any specific things you’d like your reviewers to consider or help you with?
  • Do you have any questions?

Respond

After you’ve read the essay carefully, try to offer several clear ideas on how the essay could be improved. Assuming most of you are working in Microsoft Word, you may use the comment feature to add your observations to the outline of your colleague’s essay.

You might consider some of the following for guidance or inspiration:

  • How is the introduction? Does it hook you? Are you captured by its allure and drawn irresistibly into the body of the paper? Or is it flat? Boring? Can you offer some suggestions on how to improve it?

  • How is the argument? What are the specific strengths of the argument? Does the argument seem to go wrong at some point? What could be added to make the argument stronger? Or should something be deleted? Is the evidence strong? Are you convinced? Or do you have a specific objection to something that the author should take note of in his/her revision?

  • How are the paragraphs? Do they have descriptive topic sentences that indicate the main point of the paragraph? Is each paragraph focused on a single idea? Or do they lack unity? Brainstorm with your peer to discover ideas for revising the paragraph.

  • How is the sentence-level writing? Are there any fantastic turns of phrase that are really praiseworthy? Are there grammatical errors? Do some sentences not make sense? Note each instance of this on the paper itself. Discuss each of the problem sentences—explain why you think it fails to communicate effectively.

  • Are quotations integrated well? Are there problems with the integration of sources? Do the sentences with quotations make sense? Are they grammatical? Cited properly?

  • Is the paper organized? Is there a logical flow to the essay? Or are there abrupt shifts in ideas or topics that are confusing or hard to follow? Do the paragraphs seem to transition into each other well? Or are there sudden “leaps” between them?

  • Do you have questions? Is there something that you’d like to ask about why the author chose to write something in the way that he or she did? Are there any ambiguities that you need resolved before you can properly understand something in the paper?

  • What about the formal properties of the essay? Does the essay use MLA format incorrectly? Discuss what you think the error might be in your group. Use the handbook to find consensus.

  • What’s the big take-away? What is the single biggest thing that the author should concentrate on in his or her revision?