Peer Review Expectations

Practice With Sentence Types

Getting Ready for Peer Review

• What you get out of peer review depends on what you put into it.

• Your job as a writer is to listen and ask questions.

• Your job as a peer reviewer is to give good feedback and give each essay your full attention.

• You are job as a reviewer is NOT to fix grammar and spelling only.

Tips for Giving Criticism• 1.Make it constructive. – “Construct” means “to build.” Even when you are pointing

out an area for improvement, your criticism should help to build the writer’s ability to write a successful essay.

– Positive comments are also appropriate. Tell a writer what he or she did well and encourage him or her to do more of that.

• 2. Be kind, yet honest. Never tear down another writer, but don’t hesitate to point out passages that don’t make sense and other mistakes. Telling an author “It’s fine” when it is not fine does not help him or her.

Tips for Giving Criticism

• 3. Give every essay in your peer group your focus and attention. Come to class prepared to read and think analytically about your group mates’ essays. Remember, your classmates are going to give their attention to your essay, so it’s only fair that you return the favor.

• 4. Everyone has something to offer. Don’t be intimidated if you feel that you’re being asked to comment on a ‘better’ writer. We comment on professional writers all the time!

Tips for Taking Criticism

1. Remember that your group is offering you criticism in order to help you. Try not to be defensive, and be open to suggestions.

2. Ask questions about your group members’ comments. If you don’t understand why a group member is saying something, ask him or her to explain.

3. If a group member is being too vague, ask him or her to point to specific places in your essay where they see problems.

4. Try to propose solutions to the problems your group members see in your essay. Ask if these solutions would solve the problems.

What to do during peer review:

• If you can, sign in to turnitin and read comments left by your peers. Ask your group for clarification about what they said.

• Then, comment on:– Strength of the introduction– Use of detail (Is there enough? Is it in appropriate places?)– Use of dialogue– Does the essay feel like a complete, connected story? Or is it a

bunch of short, unconnected stories/paragraphs? – Does the essay spend enough time on the most important

moments? – Is the significance of the events clear? – Does the author reflect thoughtfully on the events?

Different Sentence Types

• We are going to review some basic grammar terms.

• Then, we will learn about the four sentence types.

• Having a variety of sentence types will make your writing flow more smoothly and increase reader interest.

Brief Grammar Review

• Subject: who or what a clause/sentence is about (might be more than one)

• Verb: what a subject is or does (might be more than one)• Clause: a group of words containing both a subject and a

verb• Phrase: a group of words lacking a subject, a verb, or both• Independent Clause: a clause that is able to stand on its

own as a sentence because it is a complete thought• Subordinate/Dependent clause: a clause that cannot

stand on its own as a sentence, usually because it begins with a word that makes the thought incomplete.

Two Types of Clauses• A CLAUSE is a group of words a subject and a verb. • INDEPENDENT clauses stand alone as a sentence.

– Example: The light turned yellow.• DEPENDENT (or SUBORDINATE) clauses cannot stand alone as

a sentence. They leave the thought unfinished. – Example: As the light turned yellow

– Notice that we can combine the two types of clauses: – As the light turned yellow, the car crossed the

(s) (v) (s) (v)intersection.

• Notice that each clause has its own subject-verb pair.

Identifying Phrases• A PHRASE is a group of related words that lacks a

subject, verb, or both. • -ing phrases (also called “gerunds”) – “ing” word is not a verb of the sentence.– Example: Humming under her breath, she washed the

dishes. • “to” phrases (also called “infinitives”)– “to” followed by a verb (NOT the verb of the sentence)– Example: Her dream is to climb the mountain.

Prepositional Phrases• PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES: Show relationships of time, place,

direction, and manner. This means they show where things are in relationship to each other.

• See page 606 for a list of common prepositions. (The preposition is the word at the beginning of the prepositional phrase.)

• We looked (under the bed,) (in the closet,) and (behind the couch) before we found my textbook (on the table.) – Under, in, behind, and on are prepositions.

• “To” can also be a preposition. – We gave five dollars to the charity.

Sentence Types• Sentences are made up of clauses and phrases

that are connected together using various patterns.

• It is a good idea to use a variety of patterns because using the same one over and over again can make your writing flat and dull.

• Depending on how many independent and subordinate (dependent) clauses a sentence has, it is one of these types:

Sentence Types

• Simple sentences (p. 553): – Contain only one independent clause– Express one main idea– Aren’t always short and “easy.” Just look at that

last example on p. 553! The subjects are “growth” and “capacity,” and the verbs are “have done.” Everything else is part of a phrase.

– Remember, when deciding which type of sentence you have written, you are only counting clauses that have a subject-verb pair.

Sentence Types:

• Compound Sentences: – Made up of two independent clauses, joined correctly

in one of the ways described on p. 554-555. – Two equally important ideas– Provides logical connection between both ideas– Ex: I wanted to go outside, but it was raining. – Ex: It was raining; therefore, I could not go outside. – Ex: I like comedies; she likes horror films.

Sentence Types:

• Complex Sentences (p. 556): – Made up of one independent clause (the “main clause”), and

at least one subordinate clause. The “main clause” is where the most important information goes.

– One clause is more important than the other. – Example: Which makes more sense? 1. When I arrived at the house, I realized we had been robbed. 2. When I realized we’d been robbed, I arrived at the house. – Since the realization of the robbery is more important than

the arrival, option 1 has the correct emphasis.

Sentence Types

• Compound-Complex Sentences (p. 557): – Made up of at least two independent (main)

clauses and one subordinate clause. (So, a compound-complex sentence will have a minimum of three clauses. They may have more.)

– While we were outside, it started raining, so we went in.

Practice With Sentence Types

• Try to find an example of each of the four sentence types in your draft. Are the most important ideas in main clauses?

• Choose one paragraph in your draft and label the type of sentence for EVERY sentence in that paragraph. (S = Simple, Cd = Compound Cx = Complex, CdCx = Compound-Complex)

• Do you use one sentence type more than others? Are there other places in your draft that sound repetitive that would benefit from using a different type of sentence?