Evaluating and Revising the First Draft

Name________________________________ Period____ Date________________

Cooperative Learning – Helping Your Partner Revise the First Draft

Directions
With a partner discuss and check one another's drafts. Use the questions below to guide your work. Write answers to the questions for your partner's draft. Use your partner's answers to improve your own paper as you continue the writing process and revise your first draft.

1. Read your partner’s introduction, and then stop. Write down your partner's topic and thesis statement.

2. Now ask if your partner agrees that you have written down the correct topic and thesis statement. Write “Okay” if you both agree. If not, your partner may need to make changes to his/her paper. Write any changes that need to be made.

3. After reading the introduction, do you want to read the rest of the paper? Why or why not? How could your partner make the introduction more interesting?

4. Read the rest of the paper. After you read the first paragraph, you had an idea about what information was going to be presented and how the paper would develop. When you finished reading the paper, did you feel as if the expectations that you had after reading the first paragraph were met? Why or why not?

5. What are the two most interesting parts of your partner’s first draft? Describe them.

6. Are there any sentences in the paper that do not support the thesis statement?

Write where the sentences are located and why they don’t support the thesis statement.

7. Describe at least one place in which your partner could improve the organization of the paper. Look for information that is out of order, missing or incorrect transitions, and incomplete sentences or paragraphs. Briefly describe the problem and tell how you would suggest fixing it.

8. Look for at least one point that needs more facts to support it. Write it down. Does your partner agree? Why or why not?

9. Evaluate how well your partner has used research sources. Has your partner used so many direct quotations that It seems as if that is all you're reading? Are your partner's own ideas smoothly put in with those of the sources that he or she used? Look for at least two places where direct quotations would be better written as paraphrases or summaries or where your partner’s ideas could be put more smoothly into the draft. Make suggestions for improvement.

10. Do you agree with the conclusions your partner has made about the topic. Why or why not?