Directions:
Provide thorough and thoughtful responses to the following questions. Yes,and No answers areinsufficient, so comment, explain, or offer suggestions for all responses. You may also write on the draftand mark grammar and punctuation mistakes. Type your responses below in a different color text.
1. Does the title grab your interest? Does it suggest the essay's content?
2. Does the introduction have a hook (opening line) that is a surprising statement, interesting fact, relevant quotation, or thought-provoking question? After reading the introduction, predict what you expect to find in the body of the essay.
3. Underline the thesis. Does it narrow the subject? Claim something specific and significant? (Innarration, the thesis may be located somewhere other than the introduction).
4. What line appears most important to the meaning of the essay?
5. What (if anything) does the writer want to say but does not quite say?
6. What is most surprising about what the writer says or shows?
7. What part of the narrative seems most important? Are there any elements of the story that areeither left out or addressed too briefly?
8. Are there any unnecessary explanations that would be better told through showing rather than telling?
9. What does the theme, lesson, or insight seem to be?
10. Does the insight seem too obvious or too general?
11. Is the essay predominantly narrative?
12. Does the writer have appropriate transitional words, phrases, and sentences? Mark them on the draft. Note any place that needs a transition or has an inappropriate or ineffective transition.
13. Does the writer follow MLA format? Consider margins, spacing, headers, and font size.
14. Discuss the strongest and weakest aspects of this essay with the writer.