Writing Across the Disciplines
John Sheehy
REVIEW PROCESS
Read both papers (friendly audience, then hostile audience). Then each partner should do the following things. Remember – you’re still neither evaluating nor judging. You’re simply acting out what a reader does with the writing.
1. SUMMARIZE. Say back to the writer what each piece is saying, what it’s point is (what its points are?), what it bases the argument for those points on, what the intention seems to be. Don’t ask the writer to tell you – just tell them based on what you’ve read.
2. POINT. Point to some moments in the writing that caught your attention. Don’t worry about why – some of them may be positive, some negative. Just say, “I started to think when you said____________.” Or “I really got it when you used this detail about _____________.” Don’t try to make it add up. Just point at what made your ears perk up.
3. GIVE A MOVIE OF YOUR MIND. Go through each piece of writing with the writer and just tell him or her what’s going on in your head as you go through the paper. “I was going great here when you were talking about cheese, but then I started to drift off in this piece here about toe jam. Then you got me wondering again when you jumped into this paragraph about kumquat jelly.”
4. FIND QUESTIONS. What did you want more of? What did you want less of? What made you curious? What made you wish there was more? Where did you feel like the piece could have opened up? Where might it narrow down a little? Did you want more general information about anything? Did you want to go more deeply into anything? Did you need something else shown to you?