English I—To Kill a Mockingbird

Peer Review

Quality Control – RED PEN—Mark any errors in quotations or mechanics

  • Quotation marks in correct place – Example: “Text from quotation” (27).
  • Periods after citations
  • Question marks and exclamation points in correct place (inside quotation marks) with a period still following in-text citation. Example: Scout exclaims, “I’m cool!” (3).
  • Quotations are introduced with speaker name and signal phrase (Example: Scout says,) or are correctly embedded into the speaker’s own sentence.
  • Spelling and grammar errors (circle anything you think might be wrong, but don’t fix it)

Conventions – BLUE PEN—Mark any errors in formal conventions

Mark any words or phrases (AUTHOR’S – NOT LEE’s) that go against the following conventions:

  1. Present tense verbs
  2. No colloquial language or slang – this includes clichés!
  3. No contractions
  4. No use of you, your, yours, me, my, I, we, our, us, etc.

Diction – GREEN PEN

I.Circle any of the following word choices so that the writer can find synonyms:

  1. Good
  2. Bad
  3. Big
  4. Nice
  5. Things
  6. Very
  7. Really
  8. Great
  9. So

II.Circle or underline any words that are repeated too frequently or in close proximity of each other.

III.Underline any of the following phrases. The writer will need to eliminate many if not all of these.

  1. This quote shows . . .
  2. This shows that . . .
  3. This is . . .
  4. There are . . .
  5. These are . . .
  6. It is . . .
  7. It shows that . . .
  8. Any overused sentences beginning

Content – Color Pencils

  1. Highlight what you think the thesis is in yellow.
  2. Highlight what you think the topic sentence and clincher is for each of the two body paragraphs in yellow.
  3. If the topic sentence does not match up with the idea of the thesis, write what is wrong to the side.
  4. If the topic sentence does not have something to prove, write what is wrong to the side.
  5. If the topic sentence and clincher sentence do not match, write what is wrong to the side.
  6. Highlight any context or transitions (words, phrases, or sentences) in green.
  7. Highlight any quotations in orange.
  8. Highlight inferences in pink. Compared to orange and green, you should have more pink on your paper. If the inference does not show how or why the quotation proves the topic sentence, write down why.
  9. Make sure that each example matches up with what the topic sentence says it will prove. If the example does not fit the topic, write down why it.
  10. If a transition is needed but is absent, write “trans?” before the first word of the sentence.
  11. Write notes in the margins for anything else that needs work (hook, background, conclusion paragraph, etc.)