| ENG 552 | Composition Studies |
Due: April 18, 2005 |
Goals: This assignment serves a dual purpose: 1) to provide you with an opportunity to practice conducting a peer review and writing a reader response—the kind of activity professionals are called to by journal and book editors, conference organizers, granting agencies, and so on—and 2) to practice working with a reviewer's response to help you revise a manuscript. Both goals contribute to professional development.
Description: As models, you have been given the evaluation criteria used by rhetoric and composition journals, book publishers and a conference to assess submissions. Notice that regardless of the professional organization the three main qualities of a scholarly project—significance, contribution and doability—are explicitly addressed in some fashion. Also typical is an assessment of “readability.” Notice also, however, that while some editors provide very detailed evaluation questions, other (such as Theresa Enos of Rhetoric Review ) merely ask for comments to be directed to the writer in an “anonymous evaluation.”
For your reader's report, use the criteria you and your p art ner agreed on from your in-class analysis of the review criteria sheets. Include these criteria on a separate sheet you hand in with your reader's report. (As a model, you might use on of the reader report guidelines from one of the publishing outlets.)
Write a one- to two-page reader's report on your partner's bibliographical essay or review of literature. Make two copies of your report: one for your partner and one for me.
Work with your partner to determine where and when you will exchange drafts and your reader's reports. Decide whether you prefer to meet in person or over email to discuss the responses. You will turn in a copy of your Reader's Report Evaluation Guidelines and your Reader's Report in class on April 18 but you may negotiate with your partner to return comments earlier.