• Can you summarize the main point of your partner's essay in a short paragraph?
• Does your partner's message support the purpose of the writing (college admission)?
• Do all the evidence and explanations your partner uses in the essay relate to the intended message message?
• Does the audience understand the message?
• Is the message meaningful?
• Is the message self-evident?
• What happens when you apply the “So what?” question to your partner's writing?
Here is some important information to remember about message:
• Remember to ask the age-old question about your partner's writing: So what?
• Message is often not discovered until after there is quite a bit of writing.
• Another way to think of message is as the largest claim of the writing.
• Remember that we pass along a lot of messages in our writing, but in academic writing, one message seems to prevail as the most important.
• What impression did your partner to make on you, the reader?
• What tone of voice did your partner use?
• How did your partner let you experience your competence?