Of Mice and Men Essay

The Assignment: By considering the characters, relationships social and economic circumstances in the novel, write a 5 paragraph personal essay in which you show what reading Of Mice and Men teaches about human existence.

For peer editing:

-Switch with 2 other people
-Have each of your peer evaluators use a different colour pen or pencil
-Have each of your peer evaluators write: "Marked By" and their name
-Everyone will be assigned marks for peer editing so take your time and do a thorough job :)
-In addition to corrections peer evaluators should add written comments at the end of the essay. The comments should explain the essay's strength(s) and one or two areas the writer could improve.
-Peer Markers should read each paper twice:

-On the first read, look at some of the "micro" (or specific) issues such as:
spelling, capitalization, punctuation, word choice, formatting (eg. separation of paragraphs), introduction of quotations

-On the Second look, peer markers should try to consider some of the "macro" (or general) issues such as:

-Does the introduction provide a clear topic (or thesis) statement, one that squarely answers the essay question?

-Does the introduction outline several main points that support the topic or thesis statement?

-Does each body paragraph focus on a main point? Does the writer observe the point-proof-comment approach to essay writing? Are quotations or specific references to the text used to prove main points?

-Does the writer conclude logically? (A note about conclusions-sometimes writers tend to throw in all remaining afterthoughts, however, a conclusion should only restate what has been stated already. If you have a flash of inspiration at the end, give your point room in the introduction and its own body paragraph

Above all, don't be afraid to ask your teacher(s) and classmates for help. Essay writing is tricky business but the more you work at it, the more comfortable it will get.