See the attached file for more instruction
Peer Response Letter Instructions for Narrative Essay
What is a Peer Response?
Your classmate is your peer, someone who is your equal. When you give your classmate some feedback on his or her writing, you are doing a peer response.
For this peer response assignment, you will write your peer a letter that describes your evaluations and recommendations for the draft based on the criteria listed further on in these instructions. Your letter must be a minimum of 700 words to receive full points. Your letter should follow the format described below. In order to receive credit, you will be required to submit a copy of your letter on Canvas and also to give your peer a printed copy of the letter in class on the workshop day indicated on your course schedule and discuss each others responses.
Why Am I Writing a Peer Response for My Classmate?
By providing your peer with useful feedback on an essay draft, youre not only helping your peer, but you are learning to be a more careful reader of your own writing. You begin to recognize the problems that occur in drafts and how to fix them. Learning how to carefully read and evaluate others writing will help you become a stronger writer. And of course, your peer may point out problems in your draft that you may benefit from.
How Do I Write This Peer Response Letter?
A.Responses should be typed in letter format: they should start with Dear Peers Name.
Dear Jessica,
B.Start your letter with a few sentences that describe your overall impression of the draft. Tell your peer what letter grade you think the draft would get if no changes were made.
First off, let me say that I think your draft shows that you understand the assignment, but it is only adequate. If youre interested in getting an A or B on this essay, I think you need to work on it some more. Here is some advice that I hope will be useful for you.
C.The body of your letter must include 4 sections, subtitled, formatted and separated as they appear below. A peer response is a particular kind of letter in which you want your peer to be able to easily follow the advice and suggestions you give, which is why the organization below is required for this assignment. Consider the Sedaris and Stillman articles as exemplars as you respond; you might want to quickly review them before examining and responding to your peers draft.
1. The Narrative Genre:
Academic narrative writing involves the telling of a story and by doing so trying to make an important and substantive point. Non-fiction narrative writing is usually a combination of the telling of real events as they happened (which mayinclude dialogue between characters in the story) and commentary from you the narrator that analyzes, explains, evaluates or otherwise makes comments about the events. The balance between how much of the text should be telling the story and how much should be commentary about the story is something you the author must decide as you keep in mind the message you hope your narrative will deliver to your readers.
As you review your peers draft, how well do you feel it fulfills the characteristics of non-fiction narrative writing generally? (You will examine more specifics in 2 & 3 below) This should be your general reaction to the text given in a constructively critical but courteous tone.
2. Thesis:
The thesis in narrative writing can be explicitly given but not necessarily toward the beginning as with non-narrative persuasive or argument essays. The thesis in narrative writing is the point or message the writer is illustrating and delivering through a story. Sometimes a narrative thesis is not stated explicitly anywhere in the text; the author intends for the reader get the point primarily through the story itself along with a judicious amount of commentary.
What do you feel is your peers thesis or message in the draft? Mention specific places where you feel the thesis is evident or explicitly stated if it is. Tell your peer how you reacted to her narrative and what message you got from it.
3. Storytelling v Commentary
As explained in 1 above, a narrative writer must make a rhetorical choice on how much story to tell and how much and where to sprinkle in comments about the story.
Identify for you peer places where you see storytelling and mention whether you feel the story portions are sufficiently and effectively detailed and described to create the intended reaction in you the reader. Then identify some commentary in the draft and comment on its effectiveness. Is it too much, not enough? Is it well balanced with the story portions to better deliver the essays message?
4. Mechanics: In this section, give any advice on sentence level issues like awkward or un-academic wording and/or weak grammar.
D.End your letter with a couple of sentences that close the letter and sign your name.
I hope my advice gives you some help. Good luck with your paper!
Sincerely,
Carlos
How Can I Earn Full Points for My Peer Response
Write a meaningful response: (Important while I encourage you to compliment your peer if you feel something is done particularly well, this is not the primary purpose for the response letter and should be kept to a minimum. Grade points for the response letter will be primarily based upon tactfully worded criticism and helpful advice.) Your response should demonstrate that you have carefully read your peers text, worked to give meaningful and helpful advice, and followed this instruction sheet.
Essay Grading Rubric: A basic essay grading rubric is posted in the Files section on Canvas; I encourage you to read it over for general essay writing conventions, particularly for section 4 Mechanics.
Give equal attention to each response category in these instructions: Make sure that you address each numbered response category in these instructions carefully. I am looking for you to demonstrate your ability to respond to every category. If you do well on one category but neglect another, your grade for the response letter may be lowered.
Give specific advice: Mentioning specific places in the text that need work is much more helpful than just making general comments. Dont just write add more description. Instead, be specific: add an example to paragraph 3 that describes a specific time when you and/or students you know were behaving or working in a manner contrary to what the author is suggesting most students do. When you do this, you make it easier for the writer to revise. Being specific also shows me that you can identify particular areas for improvement. Furthermore, it proves to me that you spent time reading and evaluating your peers paper.
Word count requirement:
Be sure that your letter contains at least 700 words. Points will be deducted for under 700 words.
