Peer Review

Revision Guidelines for Peer and Self

Questions to ask and think about regarding the entire ESSAY:

1. What was the PURPOSE of the paper or assignment? Does this paper address that completely? Does it go above and beyond what was assigned or its purpose?

2. Does the writing have a THESIS or FOCUS? Does it stick to that focus throughout? If not, where does it lose its focus?

3. Is the paper INTERESTING to read? What would make it more interesting? Think in terms of concrete details rather than abstractions and generalizations.

4. Are the ideas and descriptions in the paper THOROUGH? What would you like to know more about?

5. Does the paper have a TITLE that captures your attention and has something to do with your purpose? Provide suggestions if you can think of any.

Questions to ask and think about regarding PARAGRAPHS:

1. What is the topic of each body paragraph? Each paragraph should have one topic. Go through each paragraph and note when there is more than one topic. (If you find out you have more than one main topic in each paragraph, and it’s an important topic you want to elaborate on, then write a new paragraph for the second of more topics. Or maybe you veered off the main thesis of the essay and decide to delete that topic.)

2. What is the function of each body paragraph in relation to the thesis or purpose of the paper? For instance is the paragraph providing a definition, an example, a story to move things along, evidence, connections to sources, analysis etc.

3. Is the paragraph CLEAR and COMPLETE? Does it need to say more? Or less? Does it need to be divided into two or more paragraph because there’s too much information for only one paragraph? (You can only have one topic per paragraph but you can have several paragraphs for one topic.)

4. Does the paragraph need to be in the paper? Does it closely RELATE to the THESIS? Or did it veer off topic and should be taken out?

5. Is the paragraph properly placed within the essay or would it be more EFFECTIVE or UNDERSTANDABLE elsewhere? Think about how you would rearrange the paragraphs to create a different structure that might work better. For instance, if the introduction starts off not very interesting, maybe move a paragraph with a story to the beginning of the paper and then it will have a two paragraph introduction.

6. Are the sentences within the paragraph all the same LENGTH? Or is there some variation? If the sentences are all short, then the writing might sound choppy and disconnected. If all the sentences are long, it may be more challenging to read. It’s best to use a mix of sentence length. Think about where it makes sense to use short sentences and where it makes sense to use long ones. Be conscientious of the choices you make. Don’t choose randomly.