Reader Response Peer Editing Worksheet

Updated on November 8, 2016 Virginia Kearney moreAfter over 20 years of teaching college English, VirginiaLynne loves to share tips, teaching plans, and information about the profession. Why Have Other People Respond to Your Paper? Simple answer, you will write a better paper. Publishers and professional writers know this. That why all published works are thoroughly read and re-read by friends, family members, and other writers along with an editor. You can get the same sort of help. My worksheet makes sure that your editors focus on important things that can help you improve your paper. Do this with some friends and it works even more effectively. Guided Self-Editing: The first part of the workshop gives you questions to go through in order for you to analyze your own paper. This analysis often gives you a starting point for revision. Learn By Example: As you read the papers of other people, you will often better understand the assignment and get ideas for revising your own paper. Learn by Editing: Next, as you answer the peer editing questions for other student’s papers, you will often get ideas which help your own writing.

Feedback From Others: Finally, you will get feedback from other students which will tell how well you communicated your point to your reader and will help you as you work to explain yourself more clearly. On Your Own: You can do this with a group of friends, or even with your roommate. Use the worksheet to help you edit your own paper and have people edit your paper. In Class: In my college English class, I find that groups of 4-5 students work best. Before the groups start, I have each writer fill out the “Writer’s Evaluation” section of the worksheet on their own paper. Then students exchange papers, read and answer the rest of the questions. When they finish one paper, I have them exchange for another one. It helps to have at least two people read your paper, or even more. That way, you can evaluate their comments. If they both tell you to add more examples, you better do it.. The following questions help you to take a look at your own paper from a different angle. Answer these questions first before you give your paper to someone else.

Underline your thesis and topic sentences in each paragraph. Label the summary section. Label the response section. Agreeing/disagreeing and telling why. Explaining Like/Don’t like and why. Comparing what is in the article to your own experience. Analyzing rhetorical situation: audience, occasion, purpose and context and whether writing is effective. Analyzing the writer’s style, tone, word choice and examples. Explaining how the author makes you feel the way you do after reading the article. 1. What I want the reader to understand is….. 2. My essay is strong in…. 4. I’d like suggestions on….. Try to read at least two papers and write comments on them. You will probably spend the most time on the first paper. The main thing to remember is you want to help them write a better paper. Read the Writer’s Evaluation Comments. Read the paper and be an active reader by annotating and making comments as you read. Underline any grammar/spelling errors you see and put a question mark or comment in the margin. ·Mark positive comments like “Good,” “interesting,” “nice analogy” along the margins.

·If you don’t understand something or think the writer needs to give more explanation of a point, write that in the margin. Mark sentences which are weak. ·If you can think of an example the writer could use or a way they could organize or present the material more clearly, tell them! Introduction/Conclusion: Do these tie together? How could the writer improve these? Summary: Do you understand the summary? Does the summary omit anything you think needs to be added? Do they use author tags correctly? Thesis: Re-write the main idea of the paper. Does the writer make their thesis and purpose clear? How could they sharpen their focus? Response/Body: In your own words, write what you think the writer is saying in the response. What audience is the writer addressing? Where could they better convince that audience? Where could they add more or better evidence and details? Do they need to expand their response?