Commenting on papers for workshops
Purpose of comments:
Critically reading your own writing is a must for developing and improving your reasoning and writing, but it is a skill to be acquired through repeated practice. We will learn to do so in this course through commenting on other student writings. Accordingly, this exercise in identifying issues is meant to provide you with the opportunity to develop and practice your own reading and writing skills. Repeatedly identifying issues in other students’ writing will enable you to internalize the critical eye and turn it towards your own writing.
Preparing to comment:
Always reread the chapter of HMS cited by the student writer. At the very least, you should be able to identify misreading and lack of context or lack of adequate analysis on the part of your classmate. You should also look for ways in which your interpretation of the quotes used differs from the student writers’.
How to comment:
Submit comments on canvas by replying to the message with the workshop paper:
1) Cut and paste the paper into the reply box.
2) Using the HTML editor on top of the reply box, underline the areas that you need to comment on. Highlight vague, general, or repeated phrases or sentences.
3) Write your comment next to the underlined part. Use red font color for your comments. Be brief, specific, and precise in your comments.
4) Proofread your own comments.
What to comment on:
Here are the four main levels on which you will be commenting:
1. Is the thesis statement clearly stated as a debatable claim about the text? If so, what makes it debatable? Or does it seem to be a summary of the text?
2. Discuss the structure of each body paragraph:
a. Underline the main idea of the paragraph. Next to it, comment on the following questions, whichever is relevant: Is the main idea clearly stated as the topic sentence? Or does the paragraph begin with something else? Is the topic sentence/main idea effective (clear and specific)? Or does it seem simply to be a summary of the text. Are there other claims in the same paragraph? If so, highlight them.
b. Next to the quote, comment on the following questions, whichever is relevant: Does the chosen quote seem like appropriate evidence for the main claim? Is the quote too long or too short? Are there too many or too few quotes? If there are too many quotes, underline the quote which seems the most appropriate as evidence for the claim.
c. Is the quote being discussed adequately and accurately? Are all parts of the quote being discussed? Does the analysis clearly draw the connections between the main claim and evidence? Discuss how the quote is appropriate evidence for the main claim of the paragraph in question. Or discuss why the quote does not match with the claim of the body para.
d. Is everything in each paragraph needed? What else is needed? What is not needed? Highlight what is not needed.
3. Pay close attention to sentences and words. Highlight awkward, unclear, or vague, words, phrases, or sentences. Also identify repetitions. No need to mark all instances. Next to the highlighted part, simply tell us what kind of an issue it is, if there is a pattern of these issues, and point out 1-2 examples of each issue.
What not to do:
In your comments, you are to identify issues in paper, NOT correct them. In other words, you are NOT revising, editing, or proofreading the student papers. Instead, you are pointing out issues that are repeated (a pattern).
For workshops, you will add to the above, comments on the following:
4. Does the introductory paragraph provide readers with a clear summary of the writer’s argument?
r5. Has the thesis been developed and substantiated fully and clearly by the rest of the paper? Is the paper organized effectively to provide for clarity of overall argument? If not, identify the sentences, phrases, and paragraphs that require revising, and/or relocation to another part of the paper. Provide your reasoning for the revision or relocation of the para.