Peer Review Assignment
For this assignment, you will read papers by other students in the class and offer your own comments on them. The point of the exercise is
to let you see how different students approached the topics you were writing about,
to give you some additional feedback on your paper, which you may want to take into account in your rewrite,
to give you practice asking the kinds of questions you should be asking about your own paper.
For each paper, you will be asked to answer the following questions.
What is this paper’s thesis, and how clearly is it expressed?
Were you persuaded by the argument and evidence given in this paper? Why or why not?
Does every sentence and paragraph of this paper contribute in some way toward developing the thesis? If not, what sentences or paragraphs could be omitted without weakening the argument?
Can you think of any relevant passages from the text that this paper overlooks?
Did grammatical errors or awkward phrasing or word choice ever impede your reading of this paper? If so, give some examples.
Does the author address counterarguments or possible objections to his or her thesis? How? Are there any objections you think should be addressed but are not?
Do you have any other constructive advice for the author?
Your comments will be anonymous. Use the golden rule: give the kind of comments you would want to receive yourself. Be honest, but not mean, in your criticisms.
Mechanics
Starting on September 27, when you log in to the course page on http://turnitin.com and click the Peer Review tab, you should see the Peer Review assignment for the first paper. When you select this assignment, you should see two papers. Click the pencil beside each paper to review it. You will be able to see the entire text of the paper. Read the whole paper at least once before beginning. Then answer each question as it comes up by typing in the text box provided.
After you’re finished with each answer, click Submit to go on to the next question. Your answers will be stored in the website’s database, where they will be visible to the author of the paper and to your GSI; you need not turn in a hard copy for this assignment.
The deadline for completing the assignment is Friday, October 5.
Starting October 6, you will be able to read the Peer Reviews that have been submitted for your paper (in your class portfolio).