Use these three sets of questions to guide your reading and response to your partner's newsletter draft. Type your responses to these questions using the "Comment" function on the Newsletter draft page of your partner's blog.
TEXTUAL CONCERNS
- Purpose: What is the purpose of your partner’s newsletter? How do you know? What cues do you gain from the text? Does this purpose seem reasonable?
- Audience: Who is the audience for the newsletter? What expectations does the writer have concerning the audience’s knowledge, interest, and motivations for reading about this subject? What audience values, beliefs, or emotions does your partner try to connect with as he or she composes the newsletter?
- Arrangement: How is the newsletter organized? Comment on the effectiveness of this organization strategy. In what ways does it and in what ways does it not support your partner’s purpose?
- Sections: What is the purpose of each section in the newsletter? How does each section connect to the overarching purpose of the newsletter? Identify entire sections or parts within sections that seem extraneous to the larger purpose of the newsletter. Also, provide suggestions for additional topics that you believe your partner should discuss.
- Ethos: What kind of ethos does your partner establish for him or herself? That is, what strategies does your partner use to portray him or herself as a person of goodwill, good sense, and good character? Identify evidence in the text to support your claim, and provide revision suggestions for strengthening your partner’s ethos appeals where possible.
DOCUMENT DESIGN
- Review the newsletter for overall readability. How easy or difficult is it to navigate the text? Are you able to identify headings? Which sections seemed cramped? Where did you feel disoriented given the document design? Provide revisions if necessary.
- Review the newsletter for choice of color. What colors has your partner chosen? Why does this color work given the purpose, topic, and audience? Provide revision suggestions if necessary.
- Review the newsletter for choice of font. How does the font fit the purpose, topic, and audience? What suggestions do you have? Discussion text should be in 10 font. Provide revisions suggestions if needed.
- Review newsletter for visuals. The visuals in the text should supplement the argument and add visual interest in a relevant way. What visuals did your partner choose? Which visuals work given the purpose, topic, and audience? What might your partner revise? Remember visuals should be discernible to readers as well. We need to know what they are.
- Review the newsletter for graphs, figures, charts, and tables. Remember that these elements should be referred to in the text. These elements should also be located near the section in which they are discussed. Remember visuals should be discernible to readers as well. We need to know what they are. Provide revision suggestions where needed to improve your partner's use of visuals.
- Review newsletter for similarity. Remember that “like” sections should be in the same font and font size; headings should be in the same font and font size. Provide revision suggestions if necessary to help readers see the connections between similar design aspects of the newsletter.
- Review the newsletter for contrast. Remember that discussion text should be different than headings and the title of the newsletter in terms of size and possibly font. Provide revision suggestions where necessary to help readers see the distinction between different design aspects of the newsletter.
- Review the newsletter for proximity. Remember that there should be the same distance between headings and text and between sections. Provide revision suggestions that would help readers to see what elements of the text are working closely together.
OVERALL ASSESSMENT
- Praising the Writer: What are at least three strengths of the newsletter?
- Suggesting Revisions: What should your partner work on between now and Tuesday?
