I love Seth Godin’s morning blog posts, and this one helped us start off our peer review day in Composition and Rhetoric.
1. What is it for?
If this piece of writing works, what will change? What action will be taken?
The more specific you are in your intent, the more frightening it is to do the writing (because you might fail). And, magically, the more specific you are in your intent, the more likely it is to succeed.
2. Who are you?
Writing comes from someone. Are you writing as scientist, reporting the facts? Are you an angry op-ed writer, seeking political action? Or are you perhaps the voice of an institution, putting up an official warning sign in an official place?
3. Who is it for?
It’s almost impossible for a piece of writing to change someone. It’s definitely impossible for it to change everyone. So… who is this designed to reach? What do they believe? Do they trust you? Are they inclined to take action?…
In the rhetorical situation I’ve created for them, my students are writing a report for the Dean of Students about a student civil rights forum. We worked through these questions as a general review of what the assignment asked of them.
The report has one purpose: advise that the Dean of Students hold or not hold the forum. The report is not a referendum on the civil rights issue. It merely shows that you’ve done your research on what the forum would entail and have made a judgment on call on whether or not having the forum is a good idea.
The second question is a good one: the student is writing from the point-of-view of the institution. The student should be able to articulate why someone would want this forum and what the opinions expressed at the forum would be, but the student is not an angry op-ed writer or even a completely detached cold scientist. The student should be able to show knowledge of the campus-specific context for such a forum.
The piece of writing is for one person: the Dean of Students. The student has to convince that single person that the report is trustworthy, its sources credible, and its final decision thought through.
Our peer review session revealed that students have a lot of work to do, but this list of questions made their goals significantly clearer.