English 4610

Krantz

Draft work

Draft Evaluation Sheet

Author _________________________

Editor 1 _________________________

Editor 2 _________________________

Author: make sure you submit this paper with one draft marked by your group and your final draft. I will not accept the final paper without both this sheet and the marked draft, so if you forget it on the day the paper is due, the paper will be marked late.

Editors: Read the paper all the way through before you answer the following questions.

1. Find the sentences in the introduction that seem to create the thesis statement. Does the thesis give the reader a clear view of what is to be argued in the paper? Is the thesis arguable? Write the parts of the thesis in the space below.

2. Determine which of the assignment prompts this paper responds to and how well it fulfills the terms of the assignment. Comment below on any part of the prompt that the paper seems to be weak in addressing. Also check that the bibliography is present and contains at least five texts (not including your book or reference works like Bibles or encyclopedias).

3. Underline the topic sentence in the second, third, and fourth paragraphs. Which part of the thesis does each address?

4. Each paragraph should contain a claim, evidence from the work for that claim, and an explanation of how the evidence helps "prove" the claim, or it should continue the explanation of the paragraph above it. For one body paragraph (not the intro or conclusion) label these three parts. Also note any direct quote or what seems to be a summary or paraphrase of researched material. Are these cited correctly?

5. Is the paper a balance of the writer's own analysis, interpretations, and conclusion and the use of quoted or paraphrased evidence (ideally at least 2/3 interpretation and analysis to 1/3 research evidence)? If not, where is more weight needed?

Answering the following depends on how much time remains for your group. Go on to the next paper before you try to do these. If you are the author, answer these questions as part of your revision process.

6. Take one body paragraph not yet considered and check to see that each sentence connects to the topic sentence. Is the paragraph unified? If not, indicate on the paper where it seems to go out of focus.

7. Read the paper aloud. Any sentence that causes any trouble when read aloud should be examined to see why it is difficult to read. List one in the space below. Are the parts of the sentence related in ways that are clear and correct? Correct the sentence as best you can.

8. Are most sentences in the paragraph short (less that 20 words) making the reading immature and/or choppy? Can they be combined? Indicate where. Be careful, however. It is better to lose a few points for unsophisticated writing than many points because the reader cannot understand improperly structured, complex sentences.

9. Run a spellcheck, check the meaning of words like their and there, were and where, its and it's, put an apostrophe (') in any possessive noun.