What to say in your comments.

As promised in class today, here are the questions you should try to answer in the comments you leave for your peers. Try not to leave the same advice as those who left comments before you. (Hint: This is one of those places where it pays to do your work early rather than late. The early bird and all that...) Remember, you're trying to help the author improve their paper as much as possible, and I'll be looking at your comments and judging them on quality of help you provide to the author.

Your comments should follow this format:

1. What is the author doing well and should continue doing in other writing in this genre?

2. What are the next two steps you would take in revising the text. Pick the two steps with the highest impact in terms of improving the text. In your comments, refer to specific places in or aspects of the text. eg. "In the second and third paragraphs, you need to add examples from the primary sources. You might try X." OR "Your thesis is vague. You might try, X, Y, or Z." Think of the kind of help you want, and try to provide it. In short, be specific and detailed.

3. Point out the one or two surface level errors do you fine most annoying. eg. "You need to learn how to combine sentences." or "Man, your sentences are complex and long." Here, you're trying to help the author develop a working error log. (What you don't know what an error log is? Well, when you are finished with this post, scroll down to the one on proofreading. In it, among other advice, I suggest your keeping an ongoing list of your most common errors. I also tell you how to use this list to focus your proofreading.)

4. Suggest something your peer could do to improve their writing technique/process. Here, research online about improving process or adapt ideas from the text, the class discussion, or the class blog. eg. "You need to include a step in your revision stage where you look at nothing but staying on a single topic in each paragraph." [For right now, this last is the section where I expect the least from you. After all, you're still getting a handle on your own writing process and how to use it and improve it.]

As always, write or stop by my office with questions, concerns, etc.