When asking students to review their partners’ rough drafts for a research paper, here are 3 sets of questions I’ve found useful for prompting helpful reviews:
1) Summarize in your own words what you see as the main thrust of the paper and the reasoning or evidence offered in support of the argument. Please limit this to no more than 2 paragraphs and do not use quotes from the paper.
2) How well is evidence used to support the argument(s)? Is the reasoning clear and coherent? Is it clear why this particular evidence was chosen to support the main points the author is trying to make? In terms of the reasoning and evidence, what is strong about this paper and where do you see areas that need improvement?
3) Does the author make a compelling case that her or his research question is important? How is the clarity of the writing? Are there any terms or phrases that are unclear or vague? Do you see areas in which the organization of the paper could be improved?
