A Best-Reader Peer-Editing Workshop for Papers Nearing the End of the Composing Process

        Exchange papers and come up with at least three questions, and the principles that would make them important to the best readers.  Concentrate on improving how the paper first introduces itself to the readers, how it completes paragraphs or transitions between paragraphs, and how it deals with readers' perceptions of the consequences of the thesis.

I.  Work with the author for five minutes to describe more thoroughly the paper's best readers in greater detail.  What kind of people are they?  What basic beliefs do they care most about and why do those things matter to them?  What kinds of evidence will move them most successfully?  (Are they "number" people or are they "value" people or are they "pathos" people or etc.?)

II.  Best Readers Encounter the Thesis.

        What do the best readers for this paper currently (before reading the paper) think about the main points the author is making in the entire paper?  When they have finished the introductory paragraphs, what question or questions might they think the author is leaving unasked, and why do those questions matter to them?  This can be a big question, or a small one--anything you can add will improve the paper's success with these readers by showing them the author cared enough to discover it.

Question:

Reason why it matters:

III.  Best Readers Encounter the Body of the Argument.

        Find a paragraph in the body of the paper that the best readers will find incomplete because it does not refer to something they would care about at a time when they would think it natural to refer to it.  What question would they ask and why would it matter to them?  Or, find two adjacent paragraphs without the right kind of transition to take the best readers from one to the other.  What question would the best readers be asking about the relationship of these two topics, and why would it matter to them?  Either change the paragraph order or leave them the same, but work out the missing piece of the "bridge" between their main ideas.

Question:

Reason why it matters:

IV.  Best Readers Encounter the Conclusion of the Argument.

        What would be the best readers' impression of the consequences of this thesis?  Remember to think about "unintended consequences," those things the author does not plan on happening, but which a reasonable person might expect to happen anyway.  Why would they worry about that?

Possible consequence:

Reason why it matters: