Thursday, April 8

Dear Illustrious Authors,



You are ready to take the next step in making your pens mightier than swords. You are ready to give one another analytical-writing feedback without my intervention (well, sort of).



Working with a partner, you will be assigned to read three (3) of your peers’ paragraphs.



Follow these instructions:



1. Before you even read the paragraphs, paraphrase the question. Make sure you know what kind of answer you’re looking for before you read. Keep in mind, there will be many possible answers, but they all must respond to the topic.



2. Read the paragraphs. Take turns reading aloud to one another.



3. For each paragraph, ask the following questions:

• Does the paragraph have a topic sentence?

• Does the topic sentence answer the question?

• Is it a good answer?



4. Rank the paragraphs according to topic sentences. Best---Not-so-much-the-best.



5. For each paragraph ask the following questions:

• Does the author use quoted evidence?

• Does the evidence connect to the topic sentence?

• Is this the best piece of evidence the author could have used? (i.e., did they make a good choice, but not the BEST choice?)



6. For each paragraph ask the following questions:

• Does the author analyze the quotation with word-by-word exploration?

• Does the analysis make sense?

• Does the analysis make the same point that the topic sentence makes?

• Does the author stay on track?



7. Rank the paragraphs according to evidence & analysis. Best---Not-so-much-the-best.



8. FINALLY, for each paragraph, do a punctuation, grammar, typo check.



9. RANK the paragraphs. Which one is the strongest? Which one is the weakest? Be prepared to explain your choices tomorrow.



Partners & Reading Assignments:
Peter-- Max (Blake, Carroll, Hawthorne)

Johnny-- Wizard (Dickens, Shelley, Twain)

Findlay-- Michael (Woolf, Baldwin, Dreiser)

Chris-- Ruvkun (Conrad, Hemingway, Forster)

Henry-- Kevin (Kerouac, Nabokov, Blake)

Juan-- Ryan (Carroll, Hawthorne, Dickens)

Caspar-- Aaron (Shelley, Twain, Forster)