Author                                                        Respondent

The thing which all of you need to work on most is showing the reader exactly where your ideas come from, or how they connect to the text you're discussing.  This means that you need to discuss passages of the novel/story very slowly and very carefully.  (No quotes, no passing it's that simple.)

Today, it's your responsibility, Respondent, to help the author discuss things better.  So, read slowly and carefully, and take your job seriously.  (Doing it well for someone else means you're likely to do it well for yourself.)  Remember, the next person to read this essay will be me, and I'll take it very seriously indeed.

First, mark three places (well, at least three places) in the essay where you were confused.  Just make a note in the margin to let the author know that you don't get something. 

Second -- and this ought to take you the majority of the twenty minutes you spend on this essay -- choose one of those places and revise the whole paragraph so that the idea which confuses you is clarified.  You'll need to draft an intro to the quotation, put in the quote and then break it down and discuss its parts so that the idea which you're focusing on is perfectly clear.  Take your time and get it right.