Guidelines for Peer Review
Literary Analysis, Essay #3 or 4

Essay written by:

Peer review completed by:

and:

Attach this sheet with your peer reviewer's comments to your rough draft when you hand in your essay.

For the Peer Reviewer: Following the questions on this sheet (use the back, if needed), write your advice for revisions of your classmate's paper. These questions are guidelines only--you need not be limited to them. Respond also to what works well in the essay (Question #10, below)!

1. Does the essay have an engaging title, one that makes the reader want to continue?

2. Does the beginning of the essay grab the reader's attention?

3. Are the novel’s title and author and some background about the work given early in the essay (usually the first paragraph, certainly no later than the second)?

4. Is the writer's main idea clear? Can you identify and restate the author's thesis? What is the main point the essay will make about the novel?

5. What evidence from the novel does the author offer to support the thesis? Is that evidence adequate?

6. Is the essay organized effectively? Could the organization be improved?

7. Does each paragraph have a topic sentence you can identify? Does every other sentence in the paragraph develop, expand on, explain, enhance, or relate to the topic sentence?

8. Does every paragraph in the essay develop and/or relate to the thesis? Has extraneous material that does not speak to the issue been omitted?

9. Is the end/conclusion of the essay effective? (NOTE: The conclusion might restate the thesis, why the essay writer’s interpretation and/or analysis of the element is important/significant, and/or why it is important/significant for the novel reader’s overall understanding of the text.)

10. List the strengths of the essay.