Peer Editing Sheet - Essay Five: Frederick Douglass’ “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
Brian Thill
Peer editing is valuable for several reasons. Your writing and thinking about this assignment will benefit from a thoughtful, candid assessment of your work by your peers at the drafting stage, and your writing and thinking will also benefit from the act of reading the works of others and seeing how and why they approach the same analytical task you are approaching in your own work. Lastly, good writing requires good rewriting, and the more practice you get with treating critical writing as an ongoing process and not just the creation of an end product, the stronger your work will be, in this assignment and in future assignments.
This peer editing sheet should take 30-40 minutes to complete. 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. Overly general or perfunctory comments in peer editing will lower your class participation writing grade.
1. Read through the entire essay. Mark the thesis statement and the central arguable claims of the essay as you read.
Where are this essay’s other main claims located? Are they clearly linked conceptually to the overarching thesis? If not, how might this writer begin to address that problem?
Which rhetorical techniques, strategies, and features from Douglass’ complex speech does this writer devote particular attention to in the essay? Be sure to provide a thorough account.
Why are these the particular rhetorical elements this writer focuses on? What are the primary arguments and claims this writer uses that rhetorical evidence to argue?
Does this essay address the prompt-related matters of identification and division? Why or why not? How effective is this component of the essay?
Does this essay address the prompt-related matters of performance and the body? Why or why not? How effective is this component of the essay?
Does this essay address the prompt-related matters of “Invention,” and work through the multiple steps in that section in a clear and compelling fashion (audience, historical contexts, the structure of Douglass’ speech, etc.)? Why or why not? How effective is this component of the essay?
Where and how does this writer address the nature of Douglass’ ethos and (s)he sees it operating in his speech?
9. Are the topic sentences, thesis, transitions, and other central arguable claims clear and interconnected throughout the essay? Identify specific strengths and weaknesses in each of these.
10. Does the writer employ correct formatting and citation throughout the essay? If it does not do so in this third essay of the quarter, explain how and why this detracts from the authorial ethos of the essay.
11. How would you assess the completeness and thoroughness of this essay and its incorporation of all required components of the instructor’s assigned drafting processes: excellent, satisfactory, partially complete, deficient?
12. At this stage, how would you rate the following components of the writing in this essay: a) its conceptual understanding; b) rhetorical strength and purpose; c) clarity of thesis; d) development and support of arguments; e) coherent flow and well-organized structure; and f) quality of language and mechanics?
13. What are the two greatest strengths of this essay, and how can the writer use those as a way to think about revision strategies?
14. What do you see as the two biggest problem spots or challenges this writer is attempting to confront in this essay? What specific advice would most help them deal with these in the revision process?