Peer Response: Essay 1Two benefits of peer response: 1) you get critical feedback from a classmate on your paper before submitting it for a grade; 2) examining the strengths and weaknesses of others' writing will help you recognize strengths and weaknesses in your own writing.
How it works: You read your peer's craft critically, then respond with advice on how the paper might be improved. When you're finished, give the paper and your written response back to the author. Later, read your classmate's comments, and if you agree with the suggestions, revise your paper accordingly, addressing the problems and weaknesses noted by your peer. Turn in your classmate's response to your work along with your paper when you turn in the final draft.
Get mean: While you might comment on the paper's strengths, your primary concern is to focus on its weaknesses, particularly in the areas of logic, structure, format, and overall development of argument. Be tactful and considerate in your comments, but critical all the same—do it nicely, but "let 'em have it." Praise and back-patting will not help your peer improve his or her paper.
Important: Write your response on notebook paper, not on a printout of this web page. Indicate your name as the "Peer Responder" and your peer's name as "Author." Your response should be approximately 1½-2 pages.
Instructions: Read the entire paper and then answer the following questions in order. Your comments are not restricted to these questions alone, though: any and all advice you can offer that might help your classmate improve the paper is appropriate.
1. Is the introduction neutral? Point out specific sentences in the intro that might give away the author's viewpoint.
2. What is the literal question raised in the introduction? Is the question appropriate? That is, does it a) define an issue that has two or more different "sides"? and b) address the assigned topic squarely? Suggest how the intro question might be sharpened or improved.
3. Does the body of the discussion address the issue raised in the "intro question," or does it seem to stray in places, addressing a different issue? Indicate where the discussion gets away from focusing on the stated central argument.
4. Identify the "opposing views." Do the opposing views answer the intro question directly? Does the paper present the opposition viewpoint fairly and fully? How could the opposing views be improved? Suggest additional opposition viewpoints.
5. Does the author succeed in refuting or discounting the opposing views? That is, does the author explain why the opposing views are not the best answer(s) to the intro question? Suggest improvements in refutation or concession.
6. Outline the major points of the author's own views on the issue. Are the author's primary points elaborated appropriately in separate paragraphs? Does the topic sentence in each paragraph of the author's views answer the intro question directly?
7. Which one of the author's points is least effective? Explain why and suggest improvements. Are other points also ineffective? If so, why? and how could they be improved?
8. Explain why the paper is or is not likely to convince the opposition to think like the author does.
9. Are the quotes the author uses effective in illustrating the paper's major claims? Explain why ineffective quotes are ineffective, and if you can, suggest other quotes that might work better to illustrate the claims in question.
10. Is the conclusion effective? Does it leave the reader impressed with the culmination of the writer's argument, or does it just fizzle out? Suggest improvements, particularly in the thesis statement.
11. On the draft itself, identify problems in grammar, diction, punctuation, etc., paying special attention to the golden rules, nuggets, "simple stuff," and quotes and documentation.
Golden Rules
1. Avoid contractions.
2. Never use "you" or "your."
3. Pronouns agree with antecedents—"they," "their," and "them" are most problematic.
4. Avoid using "this," "that," "these," etc. as free-standing pronouns. Be sure the antecedent of "it" is clear.
5. Avoid sentence fragments.
6. Avoid fused sentences.
7. Avoid comma splices.
8. Parallelism, especially in lists or series.
9. Avoid successions of short, choppy sentences.
10. Avoid overly long, complex sentences.Nuggets
1. Avoid plot summary.
2. Use the literary present tense.
3. Introduce quotes and incorporate them smoothly so that all references within the quotes are clear.
4. Ellipses are correct in placement, number of "dots," and spacing, and the two sides of the omission fit together grammatically.
5. Punctuation marks next to quote marks are placed correctly: small marks of punctuation inside quote marks, larger marks outside quote marks unless they are an integral part of what's quoted or indicated as a title.
6. Avoid ending paragraphs with quotations.
7. Indicate titles correctly with underlining or quotation marks: "small" works take quote marks, "larger" works take underlining.
8. Dashes and hyphens, if used, are typed and spaced correctly.
9. Spelling: especially the names of characters, authors, and titles.
10. Proofreading errors.