LITERARY RESPONSE QUESTIONAIRE

1. Has the writer referred to the work and its author in the opening paragraph?

2. Has the title of the work been punctuated correctly?

3. Has the writer supported his/her critique with specific material from the work (short story, poem, song, work of art, film)?

4. Does the body have unity and continuity, i. e. does it flow logically from one point to another with effective transitions? List at least 5 quality transitions that have been used.

5. Has the writer used the present tense (HISTORICAL PRESENT) in reference to all events within the work?

6. Has the writer concluded with the general idea of his topic sentence?

7. Are all sentences complete? (No run-ons, fragments or comma splices)

8. Has the writer used a variety of sentence structures? (simple, compound, complex)

9. Explain any part of the text that caused you, or may cause a reader to have problems understanding the paper’s meaning. (Be specific—give exact words, sentences, etc.)

10. Has the writer avoided giving a mere summary of the song, poem or short story? If a piece of art, has the writer avoided merely describing what he/she sees? If not, what does the writer need to do to “fix” his/her critique?

11. What other suggestions do you have that will help the writer to improve the quality of his paper?