Research Paper Draft Peer Review Instructions

This goes for both the Friday conferences and the Monday conferences. It's important that you all do this... it will help your partner, obviously, but it will also benefit you in terms of getting a sense of the nuts and bolts of how this type of paper works.

(Monday conference people... you will hear from me soon about the times; I'm still waiting to hear back from three of you.)

You need at least SIX different pen/marker colors to complete this assignment. Either that, or you need to use the color highlight feature on Microsoft Word. Or you need to devise some kind of coding system to differentiate waves, squiggles, slashes, dashes, etc.

This will take you at least 90-150 minutes, so schedule your time accordingly.

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1. Print your partner's paper, and print the sample paper I email you. (See next email.)

2. Read through both papers without marking anything.

3a. What are two things that the sample paper does more effectively than your partner's paper?

3b. What are two things that your partner's paper does more effectively than the sample paper?

4. Read through your partner's paper a second time... this time you are marking on it.

5a. These are very long papers, and they're about subjects their reader knows very little about. On a scale of 1-10, how effectively has your partner used the introduction paragraph(s) to create a bridge to the topic, by using comparisons and broader concepts, from HumCore or elsewhere? Make one suggestion for how this could be done more effectively.

5b. On a scale of 1-10, how effectively has your partner indicated what the paper is _not_ about, i.e. what falls outside its scope, what has already been done to death by previous researchers, what cannot be known, etc..

5c. Underline the sentence(s) that you take to be your partner's thesis using COLOR A. On a scale of 1-10, how effectively does your partner communicate a clear, specific, and arguable thesis? As a test, reverse the argument of the thesis and write down the resulting sentence(s). Lack of a reversible thesis indicates that this paper is (currently) a "book report" rather than an academic argument.

5d. On a scale of 1-10, how effectively has your partner used the introductory paragraph(s) to map out or preview the sections, stages, etc. of the pages that follow? Make one suggestion for how this could be done more effectively.

5e. On a scale of 1-10, how effectively has your partner defined key terms that the paper will use or contest?

5f. On a scale of 1-10, how effectively has your partner given a justification for why her research/paper is relevant/important?

6a. Underline the sentence(s) that you take to be your partner's paragraph topic sentences using COLOR A.

6b. Draw a happy face by the two most effective paragraph topic sentences.

6c. Draw a frowny face by the two least effective paragraph topic sentences.

7a. Using COLOR B, underline when your partner refers to her most important primary source. On a scale of 1-10, how effectively does your partner incorporate this source, _conceptually_? Ask one question or make one suggestion about using the source.

7b. Using COLOR C, underline when your partner refers to her most important primary source. On a scale of 1-10, how effectively does your partner incorporate this source, _conceptually_? Ask one question or make one suggestion about using the source.

7c. Using COLOR D, underline when your partner refers to other primary sources. Designate two primary sources that the partner should analyze more (you can even suggest one that isn't referred to in the paper), and two primary sources she should analyze less.

7d. Draw a happy face by the two sentences in which your partner has most effectively incorporated a primary source quotation or paraphrase _grammatically_.

7e. Draw a frowny face by the two sentences in which your partner has least effectively incorporated a primary source quotation or paraphrase _grammatically_.

8a. Using COLOR E, underline when your partner refers to her most important secondary source. On a scale of 1-10, how effectively does your partner incorporate this source, _conceptually_? Complete the following sentence: "My partner is using this source in order to _________."

8b. Using COLOR F, underline when your partner refers to her most important secondary source. On a scale of 1-10, how effectively does your partner incorporate this source, _conceptually_? Complete the following sentence: "My partner is using this source in order to _________."

8c. Using COLOR G, underline when your partner refers to other secondary sources. Designate two secondary sources that the partner should utilize more (you can even suggest one that isn't referred to in the paper), and two secondary sources she should utilize less.

8d. Draw a happy face by the two sentences in which your partner has most effectively incorporated a secondary source quotation or paraphrase _grammatically_.

8e. Draw a frowny face by the two sentences in which your partner has least effectively incorporated a secondary source quotation or paraphrase _grammatically_.

9. Cross out the conclusion. These are almost never any good in first drafts. Write the following in giant capital letters: "SO WHAT?" Give three possible answers to the question, on your partner's behalf.

10. Are citations usable, consistent, and reasonably close to one of the standard citation formats? Rate on a scale of 1-10.