Questions for Peer Critique

Good Wednesday to you. Here are some questions to consider while you critique your classmates' blogposts. A revision of this post is due February 2nd. Your post will make up 70% of your grade for this assignment, and the success of your group members will make up the remaining 30%. You have an interest, then, in helping as much as you can and I will take into account the substance of your assistance.

1. Is there a clear, argumentative thesis? Please identify it. Is the thesis about two images, or has your group member gone in a different direction? Does the thesis still make sense within the context of the assignment?

1b. Are the name of the author and the name of the work immediately identified?

2. What support is offered for the apparent thesis? Are there applicable direct quotes from the text? Are they introduced properly (we can talk about this--See below)?* Are these the best examples to strengthen the thesis? Can you think of other parts of _The Liars' Club_ that might be more applicable? After direct quotation, has the writer analyzed the text or are quotations left to stand alone? Does the analysis connect to the thesis?

3. What parts of this post seem like summary? Are there places where this summary doesn't help the argument? Are there places where a bit more summary is necessary? Remember, we should assume that a reader of this post is familiar with the book but looking to the post to be reminded, instructed, convinced.

4. What are possible counter-arguments to the thesis? Have they been addressed? Identify some counterarguments and help your group members refute them.

5. Identify mistakes in grammar, punctuation, spelling. Be polite, but not too polite!

6. Is the writer's opinion used as proof? Remember, opinions are terrific, but there's a difference between an opinion and proof. Though you're arguing a case, and that is, of course, a form of opinion, there's a way to do that with direct statements of fact. Be confident in your arguments and support everything.

7. Are there places that don't follow the thesis, that seem to get off track? Why do you think the writer included those? Are there ways that they can be integrated into the thesis, or should they be taken out?

Please read each post once before writing anything. Then, while re-reading, answer as many of these questions as you can and post your answers in a comment to the writer. You'll have about 25 minutes for each person in your group.

I'll be circulating in class to check on your progress. Also, you should expect responses to your posts and to the quizzes you took last week by Saturday.

Good luck.


* Quotations should be introduced as follows:

Karr writes, "That night I fell right to sleep for the first time in weeks. And the worst dream came to play itself on the back wall of my skull like it was wide-angle TV" (173).

Note that a comma separates the introduction and the quotation and that the period comes after the page number in parentheses.

If your quotation is not a complete sentence, you may write something like the following:

Karr writes that her father's shirt was "spattered with blood" (173), and the image emphasizes the frightening nature of the dream.

In instances like these it's not necessary to separate the introduction from the quotation.

Click here for suggestions on smooth quote introduction and here for examples and rules.

For citation, only identify the name of the author if you're discussing more than one work in your paper. For us, page number will be enough.