“Read Around” Instructions

Today, you will perform a “read-around.”  This will allow you to hear or see your writing with a critical distance – you might hear/see grammar confusion or places where you need to clarify the focus or include more details.  This process also allows your peer responders to make margin comments on the draft.

 

 

WRITER

PEER RESPONDERS

STEP ONE

Writer reads the paper out loud all the way through, without stopping

 

Readers listen to writer reading, follow along on their copy and underline where they have questions or where they are confused.

 

STEP TWO

Writer silently looks through the paper, and makes notes on things that he/she noticed while reading out loud.

Readers take time to make comments in the margins (see below)…If you don’t have time to make all your comments in class, you’ll need to do them tonight.

 

 

 

MARGIN COMMENTS

1)      Underline places where you are confused and write in the margin what confuses you – grammar?  Need more explanation?

 2)      Find two places where you like something– a detail or analogy or an interesting point, and write that you like it in the margin.

 3)      Ask at least three good questions in the margin that will prompt the writer to clarify the main point of a paragraph OR to provide support for the main claim of the paragraph.

 

Peer Response Ground Rules

·         Do NOT fix someone else’s paper.  The writer must fix his/her own paper!

·         You can underline errors or underline confusing places, but you shouldn’t fix anything.

Reasons for this:

1)      You might “fix” something that is not an error.

2)      Everyone needs to learn to edit his/her own paper. 

3)      You should put your energy into fixing your own spelling errors, not someone else’s errors.

4)      Your goal is to be a good reader of their papers, not a good fixer.

 

Native Speakers:  How can you help ESL writers without doing it for them?

If you are very fluent in standard English, you can really be a good resource for ESL students, many of whom are still actively learning the nuances of English and appreciate advice from native speakers.

·         You can help ESL writers with idioms –  we “get married” or “get divorced”

·         You can help ESL writers if they are searching for a specific word for something.

·         You can let them know where you are confused by their paper and talk with them about different ways to say things clearly.

             Your goal should be to help ESL students with tricky issues/questions about the language, not to fix their papers for them!