MODULE 7 Peer Reviews of Tiny Love Story Rough Drafts.
There are now 4 “Peer Reviews of Tiny Love Story Rough Drafts” Discussion Boards (DBs). Each of you is assigned to 1 of those DBs. Your names are in the title of each Discussion Board.
1. Peer Reviews for Emily.
Hold On
I’m defeated, drowning. “It’s like quicksand up to my neck,” I tell my husband, Jerod. Seven years we’ve been married, and this darkness of mine has only spread, seeped deeper. We sit in silence on the couch, legs touching, worlds apart. “What can I do?” He asks. He’s always asking. “It’s like quicksand up to my neck,” I tell him. Did I already say that? Jerod turns to me, draws his hand up and back, that hand of his that’s rough from work and my deepest comfort, and mimics tossing me a rope. 150 words.
2. Peer Reviews for Amrit.
Too Little Too Late
I’m bad at relationships. I’m not some hopeless romantic that’s constantly trying to get their partner to swoon from all the love I catapult towards them. I wish I was. She would call me constantly, wanting to talk for hours when we weren’t with each other. I didn’t. She would bombard me with affirmations. I didn’t. She dedicated every ounce of her heart and soul to me, and I didn’t. I don’t know if it’s because “women mature faster than men” but I just wish I could go back and show her I cared. I know how now. 150 words
3. Peer Reviews for Jude.
Imaginary Faith.
I was raised Roman Catholic. Bright and early, I went to church every Sunday with my mother, and we would recite God’s scripture. Every Wednesday, I would go to class, learning my rosary prayers and prepping for communion. But slowly, as life hardened and tore me down time and time again, the idea of a higher being having a hand in human affliction became primitive. Who in their right mind would ask an imaginary thing for strength and guidance? But there I was, always parking at the church parking lot, crying for my own and others’ salvation. 150 words.
4. Peer Reviews for Alison.
Happiness Really Does Exist
The 47-year-old mom of five is now divorced. All five raced off to college leaving me alone for the first time in my life. Loneliness enveloped me. I began to re-invent myself. I went back to school and launched a new career. And I met him. He told me that I was effortlessly beautiful. If he only knew, I thought… He showed me the world of hockey and sailing and the opera. I became a lifelong fan. Of his. The kindest man I’ve ever met. Four years later we are married. He still tells me I’m effortlessly beautiful. 150 words
You’ll write peer reviews of the Tiny Love Story (TLS) Drafts by everyone else on the Discussion Board (DB) with your name in its title. For most of you, that’s 4 peer reviews.
Assignment Specifications
1. 150 words per peer review
2. Paragraphs
3. Use quotation marks around the title of a Tiny Love Story (TLS) Drafts, a poem, or a short story. (No italics, bold, underline). Capitalize the title words that the writer put in caps.
4. Open with 2 sentences that provide an overview of the peer review.
NO: “Learning to Drive is an interesting draft that appeals to the reader because it has many strengths. It also has some areas for development.”
YES: “Learning to Drive” makes a near-universal experience quirky & unique. The draft might benefit from more concrete verbs & more sentence-length variety, to engage the reader even more.
5. Discuss what you consider the specific strengths of this Tiny Love Story (TLS) Drafts:
• diction (word choice–use of concrete nouns & verbs)
• syntax (word order)
• variety of sentence length
• what surprised you as a reader in a good way (if anything)
• relationship of TLS title to draft
• originality
• specificity
• directness
• insight
• sensory imagery
• choice of photo
• impact of writerly choices.
You can, if you have room & if you want, discuss the topic, theme, &/or how the TLS reflects your own personal experience. Pro Tip: all the topics are good, so you might not want to spend a lot of the peer review saying how good the topic is.
6. Share with the writer what you consider opportunities for revision & why:
• diction (word choice–use of concrete nouns & verbs)
• syntax (word order)
• variety of sentence length
• what surprised you as a reader, in a not-so-good way (if anything)
• relationship of TLS title to draft
• originality
• specificity
• precision
• directness
• sensory imagery
• choice of photo (not “wow, bad photo” but maybe “I didn’t get the connection of the photo to the draft.”
• impact of writerly choices.
You can if you have room & if you want, discuss the topic, without suggesting that the writer change topic. This section of the peer review might include open-ended questions about what you didn’t understand.
7. Close the peer review with 2 sentences that return to the draft’s accomplishments, encourage the writer, & thank them.
8. Spend the same amount of space on #6 above as you do on #5 above.
Pro Tip: Your value to the writer is as a reader & peer. Please don’t suggest word choices or give them phrases or sentences to put in their draft. Because if you do that, they’ll take your suggestions, even if they might, on their own, in time, come up with an even better idea.