Peer Review Form

Authors first and last name: ________________________________

Topic of their essay: ___________________________________

1) Overall strength of argument: The objective of this essay is to convince us that the author’s chosen place offers them the best chance of achieving the life they want. Keep in mind that it doesn’t matter how you feel about that place. They have to convince us by showing alignment between their stated priorities and the features of the place. How well is your peer review partner doing? How would you rate their argument so far on a scale of 1 to 10 with “10” being totally convincing? Explain your rating. Do you see any fatal flaws in their approach such as mis-alignment between their priorities and the place?

2) Supporting evidence: The author must provide supporting evidence for their claims about the town or city that is the topic of their essay. There should be at least four sources in the rough draft. Has the author selected strong supporting evidence? Does it speak directly to the claims they make, or only indirectly? Where do you see gaps? Are you doubtful of some claims? Why?

3) Structure and organization: One of the challenges of an essay like this is figuring out how best to organize it. It has lots of elements to manage: the topic, the person’s priorities, their reasons for choosing one place over another, supporting evidence, etc. Evaluate the overall structure and organization of the essay. Does it make sense? Does the author group related information together by paragraph or do they meander and sprinkle bits and pieces of information here and there? Does the essay include basic features like an introduction, preview, transitioning sentences, and main points? Or did you find yourself totally lost in the middle of it? If the latter, propose some changes.

4) Readability: Let the author know how they’re doing overall. In general, is the essay readable?

5) Finish with positivity: Pick one sentence from the essay that you really like. Copy and past it into this review. Why makes it a great or compelling or memorable sentence?

Grading

This assignment is graded on completeness. To earn full credit, you must complete steps 1-7.