Due Session 5:
Marked-up essays and individual response letters. Email to instructor before class and writers after class discussion. Note: All student work and your comments are considered confidential. It may be helpful to keep the Essay 1 prompt in front of you as you review your classmates’ work.
After completing your first version of Essay 1, email the essay as a Word document out to your peer review group. Review each essay and type a letter of one to one and a half pages (double-spaced) to each writer. Also make marginal comments on the essays.
Your letters should identify at least (a) two or three specific strengths of each piece and (b) two or three specific aspects of the essay that need work. Make clear, specific and proactive suggestions for improving each essay. Our primary focus is strengthening the essay as a whole, rather than more minor problems of “polishing” (e.g., grammar and punctuation).
Acknowledge first what you like about an essay, before identifying problem areas and suggesting changes.
Some questions to consider in your letters:
- How well does the title engage you as a reader and begin to set a context for the piece? How well does the introduction engage you and establish a context for understanding the meaning of the treasured object(s)? Suggestions for improvement?
- How well does the essay connect the object with wider themes in the writer’s life or in society more generally? How well does the writer use the tools of fiction (setting, character, dialogue)? Suggestions for improvement?
- What else do you, as a reader, want to know about this object(s) and its broader meaning? Does the essay present a clear perspective on the object(s)? (“B” connects with what we might call “argument” in an expository piece.) Note: a “clear perspective” might be ambiguous or conflicted.
- Is the piece clearly organized so that you can follow the movement of thought? Does the writer use time (e.g., chronologically, flashback) in a way that works for this piece? Are there any transitions that could be more effective? Suggestions for improvement?
- How effective is the conclusion in (a) dynamically closing the piece and/or (b) opening up reflection about broader issues? Suggestions for improvement?
- How might the author strengthen the essay on the paragraph or sentence level? Mark recurrent grammar or punctuation errors (e.g., comma usage) only once. The writer’s job is then to find other instances of this problem.
- Other comments or suggestions?
