Critiquing a paper (Cross-Cultural Essay)

Critiquing a paper
To leave feedback, you need to activate the “Track changes” feature under “Review” at Word. Any text that you type will
now appear in red. If you are unable to activate “track changes,” leave comments in a different color throughout the
paper.
Start by reading the whole paper to get a general impression. Continue by reading one paragraph at a time. Leave a
minimum of three (3) quality comments per paragraph, a minimum of six (6) per page, totaling no less than twelve
(12) quality comments throughout the whole paper. With peer critiques, more commentary/ suggestions/ feedback is

better. The commentary should be college-level feedback. See the “Peer critique rubric” for insight into how you will be
graded. Do not skip this step.

Types of comments that do not qualify as feedback
1) Liking a sentence or idea
2) Agreeing with a statement
3) Correcting grammar errors
4) Correcting punctuation errors
5) Re wording a sentence

Areas to consider when critiquing paper
Only focus on the types of comments found below. Any other types of comments do not count.

Types of comments that count
 The order of sentences in a paragraph: are some sentences mis placed within the paragraph? Which ones?
Where would you place them, instead? You must explain why you believe they are misplaced.
 Would you move certain statements to another paragraph? Which ones and why?
 Do some statements not make sense? How so? How would you correct this?
 Which ideas would you develop further? Why?
 Are some statements confusing? In what way? How can this be corrected?
 Would you omit certain statements? Why? What would you prefer to see, instead?
 Do you disagree with certain statements? Explain.
 Did the student plagiarize by not citing a source? Where?
 Is there an error in logic or a fallacy present? Where? How would you correct this?
 Does a certain statement trigger an emotional response in you? How so and why do you think this is? Should the
author reword the statement? To what?
 Does the paper conform to MLA guidelines? How does this need to be corrected?
 Did the student not include a minimum of two citations and sources? Let them know that they must!

Once you finish critiquing one paper, email the paper back to its author using the “email classmates” button at
eCampus. Also, upload that same document (document containing your critique) as a Word file under Peer critique
document at eCampus.