Unit 1 (Rhetorical Analysis) Peer Review

Unit 1 (Rhetorical Analysis) Peer Review

Please respond to these questions thoroughly, on the back of the writer’s paper or (for digital papers) on a clean sheet of paper.

1. If you’re reading a digital draft, select the “Track Changes” function (under “Review”).

2. Find the author’s thesis statement. Highlight or underline it. What rhetorical devices are mentioned in the thesis? What does the author argue that these devices “do” to the argument analyzed? (Note: if either specific rhetorical devices or their function is missing, make a note to the author.)

3. What do you expect the paper to be about after having read the introduction?

4. Read the body of the paper. Summarize each paragraph in the margins. Identify which part of the thesis each paragraph addresses (or, if a paragraph has nothing to do with the thesis, note that).

5. Each support paragraph should address one idea. Note places where one paragraph should be broken into multiple paragraphs, or where two or more should be pulled together.

6. Evaluate the author’s use of evidence: each paragraph should include specific, arguable claims about rhetorical devices in the argument analyzed. It is often a good idea to place these arguable claims at the beginning of paragraphs (as topic sentences).

a. In each paragraph, underline the arguable claims made.

b. In each paragraph, circle the evidence used as support for these claims (evidence must come from the argument analyzed).

c. Any time a claim is unsupported by specific textual evidence, write “evidence needed.”

7. Read the conclusion paragraph. Make sure it doesn’t begin with “in conclusion,” “to sum up,” or some similar phrase.

8. When you have read the paper through once, re-read the thesis. Does the author offer adequate support (in the form textual evidence) to support this thesis? If not, indicate this to the author.

9. Re-read the paper and mark sentences whose meaning is not clear (e.g. by underlining them and writing “unclear”).

10. There should be no first-person pronouns ("I," "me," "my," "mine") or second-person pronouns ("you," "your," "yours") in this paper. Identify any and make a note to the writer to remove them.

11. Indicate any errors you see in spelling, mechanics, usage, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar (even if you are not sure how to correct them; that is the writer’s job).

12. When you have finished critiquing your peer’s paper, go over your comments. Ask questions if your peer needs to clarify or be more specific about feedback.