Peer Critique Letter Guidelines

After you have thoroughly read your partner's paper, use the following questions as a guideline for composing a critique letter to the writer about his/her draft. Your critique letter should be written directly and personally to the writer (not to me) and should offer an informed, intelligent reader response to the draft. Your aim in not merely to point out weaknesses in the draft, but more importantly, to explain its strengths and to offer concrete recommendations for how the writer can improve upon the draft, giving it greater clarity of ideas, depth and insight, and readability of the prose.  

What did you learn from this working draft? How attentive and insightful is the writer's reading of his/her chosen texts?  What did the analysis reveal to you about the texts or topic that you hadn't considered or been aware of? Explain.

What is the thesis?  How, if at all, could the thesis be modified to strengthen the paper?

Do you agree (or disagree) with the writer's interpretation of the selected texts?  Why or why not?   Does the author use sufficient textual evidence to support her/his thesis?  Does he or she demonstrate careful and insightful close reading of the text?

What did you like best about this paper? Why?

What did you like least about this paper? Why?

What suggestions do you have for the writer in terms of the writing of this paper?

Directly on the text, make any corrections in grammar, punctuation, or spelling.