(You may find electronic comments useful in responding to some questions.)
- Does the writer establish a clear direction for the essay within the first few paragraphs?
- Underline the clearest statement of the essay’s focus or central issue.
- Note any problems.
- Can you see the relationship between this initial direction and the subsequent points within the essay?
- If not, where does the writer seem to shift focus?
- Can you help the writer articulate a more coherent thesis/central question for the essay? Offer some suggestions.
- Does the conclusion (if it has been written) make clear what the reader has gained by following the writer’s path through multiple sources?
- Can you discern the link between the introduction and the conclusion?
- How might the writer strengthen that connection?
- Does each text mentioned in this essay play an active role in the critical essay?
- In other words, do you learn something new each time the writer examines a specific text? Identify and explain any exceptions.
- Do you know what the writer thinks about each text? Does he/she spell out this thinking?
- Identify each major quoted passage with a Q in the margin of the essay. Consider the role it plays in the paragraph within which it appears.
- Can you understand all of the references within the quoted passage?
- Can you see why the writer chose this passage?
- Does the writer spell out the significance/implications of this passage?
- Identify any problems below or in the margins.
- Are you confused by some aspect of the current essay?
- If so, try to identify the point at which you lose track of the writer’s reasoning. (Place an asterisk * at the point that you have identified.)
- Write out a question that might elicit a clarifying answer. In other words, what do you need to know?
- Is there another question or a new perspective that the writer might consider as he or she revises the third essay?
- Ideally, the question or new perspective that you propose should help the writer view his or her material from a slightly different angle.
- Choose three sentences that would benefit from extensive revision.
- Underline the phrases that seem problematic.
- Identify the problem and, where possible, suggest alternatives.
- Explain more complicated problems in a marginal note.