This peer editing sheet should take 30-40 minutes to complete. Don't leave any questions blank. Your section leader may ask you to download two from the web, if you are reading two different people's essays.

Remember that it is important to get feedback to the other person promptly and well before the final draft is due so that the writer can use your comments in the revision process.

Your section leader may allow you to use e-mail or you may contact your partner in the dorms or by telephone to discuss your criticism so the process can move more quickly.

Overly general or uncritical comments in peer editing will lower your class participation writing grade.

This peer editing sheet includes page references to the Writer's Handbook, but you may also want to point out helpful passages from Writing from A to Z. Remember that both books have alphabetical indexes!

NAME OF WRITER ____________________________________

NAME OF READER ____________________________________

GENERAL RATING OF COMPLETENESS AND POLISH OF THIS DRAFT BY THE READER (1-10, where ten is highest) ____________

GENERAL RATING OF THOROUGHNESS AND HELPFULNESS OF PEER EDITING COMMENTS BY THE WRITER (1-10, where ten is highest) __________

1. The Writer's Handbook says that a thesis statement should have a "specific" grammatical subject (83). How could the writer improve the subject matter of the thesis?

2. The Handbook also says the thesis should be "arguing" rather than just "describing" (83). How could the writer present a more arguable central claim?

3. List two interesting ideas in the body of the essay that you found, which the writer could develop and incorporate into his or her thesis.

4. What logical relationships is asserted by the thesis, e.g. a claim about comparison, contrast, causality, value, etc. (84-84)?

5. Is the thesis sufficiently "complex" and "sophisticated" (85)?

6. Show the writer and example of a "yes . . . but" thesis (85) that is based on his or her two competing thesis. Work on the wording for five minutes and write your best version below.

7. Take five minutes and write a "yes . . . but" version of your own thesis for your own paper here. (You may not choose to use it, particularly if you feel it makes your position or opinion less clear.)

8. What techniques of definition does the writer use (41-43)?

9. List five abstract nouns in the essay that could be more clearly defined or specified from the most important one to the argument to the least important one.

10. Where does the writer show that he or she understands the genre of the play Antigone (37) particularly well?

11. Where is the presentation of genre weaker? How could the writer improve his or her analysis with more information about the genre of tragedy? Or is an interpretation of genre unimportant for the writer's thesis?

12. List all the specific techniques from the Analysis Checklist (46-47) that the writer uses.

13. Which quotation in this essay most effectively supports the argument?







14. Which quotation in this essay least effectively supports the argument?

15. What page in Writing from A to Z would you recommend to the writer to improve his or her grammar and mechanics.