Field Research Essay Peer Review Worksheet
To Be Completed During Class on Tuesday, February 7, 2012
This advice is for:
Your name:
The Basics
1. What is the essay’s topic?
2. What is the essay’s claim?
3. Describe the essay’s main points.
Describe how each point relates to the essay’s central
argument.
4. Has the writer included enough detail and evidence to make an effective argument? (check one)
Yes
No
5. Is the essay unique and interesting? Yes
No
Why or why not?
6. Make notes on the draft to indicate places where the writer should include more supporting
evidence.
7. Make notes on the draft to indicate places where the essay doesn’t make sense.
General Impressions
Name three things you like about the essay.
1.
2.
3.
Name three things you think can be improved.
1.
2.
3.
Thesis & Focus
1. Retype the essay’s thesis statement here.
2. Suggest one idea to make the thesis more specific and/or original.
3. Does the thesis effectively introduce (if it’s at the beginning) or reinterpret (if it comes later)
specific evidence? Yes
No
Make suggestions to revise.
4. Number the essay’s paragraphs. List here, by number, paragraphs that don’t seem to contribute
directly to the essay’s focused argument.
List any paragraphs that don’t have a strong topic
sentence and strong supporting evidence.
Organization
1. Is the essay’s information arranged in a logical order? Consider the recommended organizational
patterns in The Bedford Researcher. (check one) Yes
No
2. Can you think of any sections that, put in a different order, help make the essay more
sophisticated?
better? Yes
Would a different organizational scheme described in your textbook be
No
If yes, which one?
3. Is any information confusing? Yes
No
If yes, what?
the order of the essay’s information clear things up ? Yes
Development
Also if yes, would changing
No
How?
1. What is the cultural significance of the essay’s argument?
Why do you care?
Why
should a reader who is not an insider to the culture, situation, or problem described in the essay
care?
2. How does the essay demonstrate original critical thinking?
What could the writer explore
to make the ideas less familiar and more unique?
3. Does the argument make sense? (check one) Yes
No
How so or not?
How can it
be improved?
4. Are you convinced by the essay’s argument? (check one) Yes
No
5. Why or why not?
Syntax & Diction
1. Describe the essay’s style. Are sentences simple? Complex? Casual? Scholarly?
2. Choose a paragraph from any part of the essay except the introduction, and retype it here.
Now, revise it for sentence and paragraph structure and type your revision here.
3. Do the essay’s language choices reflect an understanding of the audience? Yes
No
Name one way this can improve.
4. Is language engaging and interesting? (check one) Yes
No
; mark suggestions on the
No
; mark suggestions on the
draft.
5. Is the language precise and accurate? (check one) Yes
draft.
Research
1. Does the essay seem informed and credible? Yes
No
If no, explain.
2. What should the writer describe more thoroughly to increase the essay’s appeal?
3. How effectively has research been integrated into the writer’s own ideas?
4. Are there any places in the essay where the writer spends time describing the research process
(“I asked…” instead of integrating the research into the argument? Yes
No
If so, mark
those points on the draft and make notes here.
Mechanics
Make detailed line-editing corrections on the draft. Make overall mechanical suggestions here.
This draft contains:
No spelling errors.
No grammar errors.
Very few spelling errors.
Very few grammar errors.
Too many spelling errors.
Too many grammar errors