Description
You will read each group member’s rough draft and respond to all of the questions below. In addition to answering these questions directly in your feedback replies, download your group members’ rough drafts and insert any comments, highlight any sections, etc. Then, rename these and attach them to your replies.
Use the grading rubric for writing workshops to help you develop your forum posts. Make sure your feedback to all group members is posted by 10:00 p.m., Tuesday, March 16 (note that these questions are adapted to illustrate the essay grading criteria/rubric in the Course Syllabus.).
STUDENT GUIDELINES FOR PEER REVIEW
- Before you even make your first comment, read the rough draft all the way through.
- Make sure you leave enough time for you to read through, respond, and for your peer to edit his/her document with your comments before any deadlines.
- Point out strengths as well as the weaknesses of the document.
- Offer suggestions, not commands.
- As a reader, raise questions that cross your mind, points that may have not occurred to your peer author.
- Try not to overwhelm your peer with too much commentary. Follow the questions/instructions below and the issues you are supposed to address.
- Be careful to not let your own opinions bias your review (e.g. don’t suggest that your peer completely rewrite the paper just because you don’t agree with his or her point of view).
- Read your comments before passing them on to your peer. Make sure all your comments make sense and are easy to follow.
ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS, WHICH ARE ADAPTED FROM THE GRADING CRITERIA FOR ESSAYS:
THESIS:
- Is there a thesis?
- Is the thesis clearly introduced and maintained throughout the rough draft?
- Is it too general or ambitious to thoroughly address in the essay’s length requirements (1000 words maximum)?
- Explain your answers:
DEVELOPMENT:
- Are there areas that require further development and/or specific phrasing? If so, please, point these out to the authormark these directly in the rough draft, and offer comments in the margin. Directly in the rough draft, explain to the author why additional development or phrasing revision is necessary.
- Identify areas where ideas are well-developed. Again, point these out directly in the rough draft, marking these sections directly in the rough draft and offering marginal comments. Directly in the rough draft, explain what works well in these areas.
- Does the author maintain a reasonably objective tone throughout the rough draft?
- If not, please point out where the shifts in tone take place.
Remember, this is the author’s opportunity to receive feedback from members of his or her “general audience” and your opportunity to further fine-tune your critical reading skills. Does the author maintain a reasonably objective tone throughout the rough draft? If not, please point out where the author’s opinion reveals itself.
ORGANIZATION:
- Are ideas logically organized?
- Do strong paragraph-to-paragraph and sentence-to-sentence transitions make connections clear between these ideas?
- Is unity or coherency lost anywhere within the rough draft? If so, where exactly? Mark these directly in the rough draft.
DOCUMENTATION AND TREATMENT OF SOURCES:
- Sources are limited to those in the textbook (this excludes any of the videos Behrens and Rosen suggest throughout the chapter). Has the author used any sources not found directly in the book? If so, kindly remind them of the essay’s source requirements.
- Does the author cite all paraphrased and quoted material?
- If the author has not cited any paraphrased or quoted material, remind him or her that forgetting to cite sources is plagiarism.
- Randomly select a quote and a paraphrased idea and compare it to the original (in your textbook).
- Highlight this quotation and paraphrased idea directly in the essay.
- Has the quote been treated appropriately (i.e., Is it accurate and not “taken out of context”)?
- Is the paraphrase acceptable, or is it still too close to the original phrasing, which would fall under the realm of plagiarism?
- Do you see any plagiarism, intentional or unintentional? (Point out areas where sources may need to be cited.)
- Are there any dropped quotations?
- Are the authors ideas distinguishable from his or her sources?
- Remember to mark directly on the rough draft any potential concerns.
LANGUAGE SKILLS:
You should focus on the global concernsthe big picturerather than the local concerns (e.g. grammar). However, if you do come across any grammatical or phrasing concerns, point these out to the author. Remember, though, that your feedback should not focus on grammatical issues (your peer authors will address these kinds of concerns when the essay is near completion).
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
- UO:1.1: Meet and work with your classmates (CO:6),
- UO:1.6: Evaluate ideological and rhetorical perspectives for a general audience and explanatory synthesis (CO:5).
- UO:1.8: Construct an explanatory synthesis (CO: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6)
Requirements: no length