The activity I’ve come up with is meant to be supplementary to any paper writing process/assignment that includes a first draft, peer review, and final draft.

1) After students have completed a first draft, ask them to select a small section of their paper (3-4 sentences max) where they’re struggling.

2) Pair or small group discussion: what is it that you think isn’t working? [may be a full group conversation before or after small group discussion where the class comes up with categories of issues: for example, you’re not sure what you really want to say, you’re not being clear or precise, you don’t know what the text you’re talking about is saying, what you’re saying contradicts/doesn’t fit with other parts of your paper, there’s not enough context for what you’re saying, you’re not sure the way you’ve written it makes sense for a particular audience, you’re summarizing instead of analyzing, etc.]

3) Full group discussion, sharing issues.

4) Additional step during peer review: Is there a moment in your partner’s paper that can help you with your problem? Can you see a place where they do what you are trying to do more successfully? How do they do it? How can you apply what they’ve done to your own writing?

5) Additional question for final draft writer’s letter: How did you try to address this small section of the paper you were having trouble with? Were you successful? Maybe you weren’t. That’s OK. What have you learned about your writing by working on/through this problem?