In “What’s the Point” by Daniel Hengel, he makes a good point that a thesis can be thought of as the claim made in the writing or paper. He also gives us tips and advice on how to write a paper or an analysis. He breaks it down into three questions: What do you see? What do you make of it? Why does it matter? For step one, we need to identify something that we are interested in whether it be a word, a character, etc. Then our next step would be to write and analyze about what we noticed about the “something” we identified. Our last step is to talk about why this analysis is important and why it holds value. Hengel refers to this as the “so what” of the essay; an interpretation that gives the reader a new perspective. This is important because when we write our analysis we might get stuck on what the focus of our paper is, so these three questions can really help us to stay focused on one point.
Peer review is something everyone has heard of or have done before in their lives. But, where is the line between being too nice and being too critical? “Responding—Really Responding—To Other Students’ Writing,” by Richard Straub gives us insight on how to give effective feedback. Some of the questions he tells the reader to think about while peer reviewing are: what are your goals? How do you get started? How to sound? How much to comment? Etc. Straub emphasizes the importance of specifying all comments and also giving suggestions without sounds like your rewriting the paper for the writer. He also emphasizes that we need to sound as if we are talking with a friend. This is important because although peer reviewing is something everyone does, most people don’t know how to do it in an efficient way. I also had a problem with peer editing because I wouldn’t know what to comment on peoples’ writing. This reading allowed me to know exactly where to start and how to develop suggestions without sounding like I am trying to change or rewrite the writing.