a. Read through each of your Group Member’s essays twice. The first
time you read through each essay, read it as any other reader would.
Don’t try to take notes, make suggestions, or answer any questions
about the essay, just read the essay for content.
b. The second time you read through each essay, take notes and answer
(in your notes) all 12 of the following questions:

  1. Does the essay contain five paragraphs?
  2. Does the Introduction Paragraph begin with a hook?
  3. Does the Introduction Paragraph have a clearly written Thesis
    Statement that incorporates into ONE (and only ONE) sentence all three
    of the essay’s reasons or examples?
  4. Does the essay develop each of its three reasons/arguments or each of its
    three examples/illustrations in its own Reasons or Examples Paragraph?
  5. If the essay is a Reasons-style Essay, do the three reasons read as
    arguments or justifications rather than examples or illustrations? If the
    essay is an Examples-style Essay, do the three examples read as
    illustrations rather than arguments or justifications?
  6. Are the reasons compelling or the examples informative?
  7. Does the essay have a Conclusion Paragraph?
  8. Does the Conclusion Paragraph contain a Re-stated Thesis Statement
    that summarizes in ONE (and only ONE) sentence the three reasons or
    examples?
  9. Does the Conclusion Paragraph end with something witty or
    memorable?
  10. Are ALL FIVE paragraphs structured according to the Paragraph
    Recipe with FIVE sentences in each paragraph (a Topic Sentence, three
    Supporting Sentences that provide evidence, examples, or details, and a
    Conclusion Sentence)? Check this twice! It’s important!
  11. Is the essay free of grammatical errors?
  12. Is the essay free of spelling errors?

c. As a peer reviewer, your job is to answer the above questions and
share your answers with the author of the essay, For any question
that you answer ‘no,’ you can suggest ways to improve the essay so the
answer will be ‘yes,’ but you’re not responsible for re-writing the essay.
d. Be respectful to each another, but be honest in identifying any
weaknesses (i.e., answers to the above questions that are not yeses).
e. Remember you’re not the author of someone else’s essay. You might
not have the same reasons/arguments as someone else, and you’re
unlikely to have the same examples/illustrations. You might not have
even chosen to also argue in favor of the thesis (or, conversely, to also
argue against the thesis). That’s ok.