Read your classmate’s paper through once. Then, read it again and, comparing it to your own, answer the following questions:
- What is the argument of your classmate’s paper? Write it in your own words.
- Is a counter-argument identified in your classmate’s paper? If not, can you think of one? Does the counter-argument (whether the one included in the paper or the one you thought of) seem valid to you? In other words, does the thesis seem arguable?
- Which paper, yours or your classmate’s, do you find more persuasive? Why? What does the less persuasive paper need to make it more persuasive?
- Which paper, yours or your classmate’s, has more information? Does either paper need to have information added or removed? Which one?
- Regardless of which paper has more information, if you were going to add information to three spots in your classmate’s paper, which three spots would they be? What information would you add?
- Specifically, where would you add evidence (i.e., information with the purpose of proving the thesis or a subordinate claim) to your classmate’s paper?
- Which paper, yours or your classmate’s, spells out the reasoning more—i.e., how it gets from the evidence to the conclusion (the thesis)? This includes defining key terms so the reader understands how they are being used in the argument. Point to three spots in the less explicit paper where more explanation can be added to make it clearer.
- Which paper, yours or your classmate’s, has a clearer organization (pieces in the right places, connections among ideas clear)? Point to three spots in the less organized paper that you would change, and explain how you would change them (move them, add connecting language, delete them, etc.).
