Peer Review Guidelines Purpose Peer review serves multiple purposes in a classroom context: 1) It allows you to gain a new

perspective on your writing (and thus to revise more effectively); 2) It offers you the opportunity widen your sense of audience at the drafting stage (and thus to create more effective communication); 3) It helps you to develop a language for considering what makes communication effective or ineffective (and thus creates the possibility for deeper reflection on your own writing); and, finally, 4) It creates an opportunity for you to engage in a writing process that is typical for most professional contexts (where colleagues, collaborators, or clients routinely offer advice and feedback leading to revision). Overall Approach Rather than thinking of yourself as a judge evaluating your peers writing, the most constructive position to adopt is that of a reader reporting your experience of your peers writing. Sometimes that reporting might include specific recommendations for revision, but more often it simply involves telling the writer what you saw as you read and raising questions that the writing provokes for you (usually in some combination of marginal comments and face-to-face discussion). While you might point to any patterns of grammatical or mechanical error that you notice, fixing such errors is not your responsibility nor should it be a main focus. Your value as a reader lies in the higher order observations about how well a message is being conveyed to you (in terms of clarity, logical coherence, completeness, etc.) General elements to focus on: 1: Introduction: Is it engaging? Does it clearly identify the purpose of the essay? Explain. Sample comments: Your thesis is a little vague. Is this your thesis? Im not sure your thesis is answering the question. Or, Im not sure your thesis is answering the whole question. Very clear, strong thesis that provides a clear indication of the direction and purpose of the essay. 2. Support: Does the writer offer appropriate and sufficient evidence and/or examples to support his/her claims? What aspect of the argument is the most well supported and which the least? Sample comments: I think you might be right about this, but I dont see any evidence (or, this isnt enough evidence, or you arent really explaining how this is evidence, or this doesnt seem to be the right evidence). Isnt there evidence that ____________ is the case instead? This argument is very well supported with clearly presented evidence/reasoning. 3. Overall structure: Are ideas developed in a logical order with identifiable phases? What is the organizational logic? Are there any gaps or seemingly misplaced elements of the argument? Sample comments: How does this paragraph relate to the thesis? The main point you are making is here, but it would be much more helpful if you said this earlier. Your thesis said you were going to do X, but the essay is structured as if it were doing Y. Great transition between these two parts of the essay. 4. Style: Is the language and phrasing clear and precise? Do the sentences flow well from one to the next? Are there good transitions between parts? Are there significant errors in grammar or mechanics? Sample comments: How does this sentence relate to the sentence before it? What does this phrase mean? This sentence was a little hard for me to follow: what are you trying to say here? (Or, Do you mean this _________________________ or this _________________________?) 5. Specific to this assignment: