·       Does the student clearly identify the thesis/claim of their chosen essay in the introduction and identify what type of claim it reflects? If you disagree, state what you think thesis is and/or which type of claim it reflects. Does student also make sure to identify author, title, and genre of the text?

·       Does student identify the key reasons that support the chosen essay’s thesis in summary paragraph? Which reasons appear to be left out?

·       Is the summary objective? Do any words or phrases make the summary seem subjective? If so underline them. Are at least two attributive tags used?

·       Highlight any sentences in body of essay (not including summary paragraph) that reflect needless summary; in other words, highlight sentences in which the student just continues to tell reader about chosen text versus actually arguing about it. 

·       Did you have trouble locating topic sentences in body paragraphs (other than summary). Recall the topic sentence of a given body paragraph should make clear if student agrees or disagrees with a particular reason. If missing, draft a topic sentence for a particular body paragraph.

·       Assuming that you’re arguing about same text, what other evidence do you feel student needs to put into perspective? Identify the type of evidence and explain what you feel is good or bad about the evidence.