Reference no: EM133584524

Assignment: Alice Walker "Everyday Use"

Submit your draft for the paper and review one person's paper based on the questions below.

You will receive 10 points for the draft -- as long as it's submitted by the deadline -- and 10 points for peer review.

Make sure that the essay answers the questions below. I will do the peer review and it is just a guide for you to follow for the essay.

Peer Review Questions

A. Submit a five-page paper with a Works Cited page (page 6) for peer editing in the link above by Friday night.

B. Choose one peer's paper (if someone already has a review, move on to someone with no reviews), and review the paper using the questions below. As you are responsible for one peer review, respond to ALL the questions in a succinct yet thorough manner and submit them as a reply to the peer whose work you're reviewing.

Peer review is helpful in several ways. First, it gives the writer a real audience, readers who can point to what pleases or puzzles them, who make suggestions, who may often disagree (with the writer or with each other), and who frequently, though not intentionally, misread. Though writers don't necessarily like everything they hear (they seldom hear "This is perfect. Don't change a word!"), reading and discussing their work with others almost always gives them a fresh perspective on their work, and a fresh perspective may stimulate thoughtful revision. (Having your intentions misread, because your writing isn't clear enough, can be particularly stimulating.) The writer whose work is being reviewed is not the sole beneficiary. When students regularly serve as readers for each other, they become better readers of their own work and consequently better revisers. And, as you probably know, learning to write is in large measure learning to read.

Note: It's not a bad idea for you to ask yourself these questions before you give a draft to a fellow student.

Checklist for Peer Review:

Read the draft once quickly. Then read it again and jot down brief responses to the following questions.

A. What is the essay's topic? Is it one of the assigned topics or a variation of one of them? Is the title appropriate? Does the draft show promise of fulfilling the assignment?

B. Looking at the essay as a whole, what thesis (main idea) is stated or implied? If implied, try to state it in your own words.

C. Is the thesis plausible? How might it be strengthened?

D. Looking at each paragraph separately:

1. What is the basic point?

2. How does each paragraph relate to the essay's main idea or to the previous paragraph?

3. Should some paragraphs be deleted? be divided into two or more paragraphs? be combined? be put elsewhere? (If you out¬line the essay by jotting down the gist of each paragraph, you will get help in answering these questions.)

4. Is each sentence clearly related to the sentence that precedes and to the sentence that follows?

5. Is each paragraph adequately developed? Are there sufficient details to support the generalizations

E. Are the introductory and concluding paragraphs effective? Why/why not?

F. What are the paper's chief strengths?

G. What are the paper's weaknesses?

H. Make at least two specific suggestions that you think will assist the author to improve the paper.