Writing is a difficult lonely endeavor, and every writer is a perpetual beginner. Therefore, don’t be ungenerous with another person’s attempts. Such an act will only reflect on you.
The Peer Response is an attempt to describe the qualities of your peer’s essay specifically, to say more than, “I like this,” or “I think this is just beautiful,” which is no good, empty, unless you can say why. But the Peer Response is fundamentally different in that you are also charged with trying to help the author improve the piece. Because of this, you must always remember to be conscientious and constructive. Take a risk. You must say things that will help the author make their piece better, but say it in a way that it can be received well. And remember, this is a work in progress. SPECULATE. Make use the expression "What if..".
As you're reading, always keep in mind what the essay might still become, not just what it already is. Think about the next draft, and the draft after that.
Choose from the prompts below which compel you as they relate to your peer's draft. You can write your response on more than one prompt. Be thoughtful. Look closely and avoid vague generalizations. Always remember: DO NO HARM. If you can't say what you need to say without being cutting, don't say it. Your task is to have the author read your response, feel encouraged by it, but also have a concrete sense of what they might do next.
The following can't be said enough: Becoming a good editor of other people's work will help you become a good editor of your own work. You can see the flaws in other people's work far more quickly and clearly than you can them in your own work--even when those flaws very similar. Watching carefully how your peers' tackle their craft problems, and handle the advice they receive, will help you solve your own craft problems. So remember: you're not just helping your peer write a better piece with each one of these peer reviews, you're helping yourself, your own draft, and your future drafts as well. It's cumulative.
The Peer Response Buffet
What did you like about the piece? A perfect image, the way a mood is established, a well-drawn character, dialogue that flowed smoothly or credibly, the structure of the essay, the development of a theme or idea This is not empty flattery, but an attempt to link these qualities that are compelling to the deeper intent of the work.
What is the essay about? What are its large concerns? (Two or three sentences)
What about what it's about? For example, if the essay is about healing, what does it have to say about healing? What insight does it have about healing? How is this explored complexly? How might this be explored more complexly? What if...
Who is the essay's limited persona? Is the persona limited enough? How might the persona be more limited in the next draft? What if...
Is there a "time-of-writing" voice in the draft that is struggling to make sense of this past experience? How might this voice be rendered more fully? What might this voice reflect on? What if...
Why is the story being told now? In other words, how is this problem still a dilemma for the author at the time of writing? How is this problem still vexing, still thrashing around inside the author? (If the author seems at peace now with this problem, there's no clear reason why this is being told. If the author seems too much at peace (and you don't buy it), perhaps this is because the resolution is over-simplified, and the author hasn't yet embraced how this problem continues in the present. What if...
Do you have all the basic orienting facts? If not, what's missing? What if...
How does the beginning of the piece create an "exchange of expectations" (Smiley) between the author and the reader? Does the piece, as it evolves, meet these expectations? How does it fail (in this draft) to meet those expectations? How might it better meet these expectations in the next draft? Do the expectations created by the beginning of the essay need to change? Does the beginning need to change? What if...
How is the essay an exploration of change? How might this change be made more clear, more developed? What if...
What does the narrator want? What's in the way? Are the obstacles formidable enough? How might they be made more formidable in the next draft? What if...
Are the scenes rendered in this draft the most important scenes? If not, what if...
What questions do you have that the essay does not yet answer? What suggestions can you make that would move this story closer to what it really wants to be about? What craft areas might be developed that would make the draft stronger and more compelling? (A characterization more complexly drawn; a scene written that's only suggested; a scene expanded; the setting better described; an object or metaphor put to further use.) What if...
Notice how, in this response, you're not being asked whether you "liked" the piece as a whole. You're not in the business of judging this. It's not done. You're first being asked to describe the formal qualities of the draft. You're not being asked to "evaluate": you're not being asked to say whether the essay is good or bad. You're not being asked to decide whether you would ever want to hand this draft to someone else to read. You're being asked to describe it as a system. Hopefully, what this does for you, as a peer reviewer, is take the pressure off. At the same time, we also have to help the author make their piece better. All too often, the author has a lot more in their head than is on the page, and they think they've communicated something that they haven't yet, and they think the story means one thing, and the reader thinks it means something else. Help them by telling them what you think it's about, by alerting them to what's missing, and help them by speculating with them (but not prescribing) about the next draft.
The Peer Response should be 1-2 pages double spaced, typed. Make sure to indicate which questions you are answering by including the number above, along with your response to it. Peer responses will be graded. (You'll write 36 peer responses over the course of the semester, one for each of your peers' three drafts) Your first SIX peer responses will not be graded; instead, I will write you a note about how well I think you're doing and what grade you would have received had they been graded.
Make sure to be bring TWO COPIES of your peer response. One to give to me and one to give to the author.
Margin notes are the place where you say to the author: Nice image, or great dialogue, or good description, or Funny, or great transition, good characterization. When I like something in a draft, I usually put a checkmark by it. In your margin notes, you can heap on the praise and good will and fellowship. So read the draft with a pen in your hand, making margin notes along the way. Should you point out spelling errors, typos, individual sentences which confused you? Sure, that would help the author clean up their draft, but the real work you have before you is in the answers to the "big picture" questions up above. Good Luck!