AT THIS STAGE of your proposal-writing career, each of you should have a full draft in hand, one which considers each of the elements the comprises a good proposal itself:  establishing the problem; taking a position; proposing a solution; giving good reasons why your proposal is a superior one; considering and answering both your audience's objections and alternative solutions.

As readers now, your job is to be that specific audience which the essay is addressing.  Imagine yourself a school board member, or a member of the college administration, or the teacher who needs to change, or whomever.  Now answer these questions.

Remember:  the more detail you provide for your authors, the more help you're going to be.  Since you all need lots of help, I want you to take your time and be very very thorough here.

• First, read through the essay and mark any small grammatical errors you might see on a first read.  Don't spend a lot of time on this, but if they're obvious, note them.  Included in this quick-marking can be moments when the connections between ideas aren't at all clear.  Again, the point is NOT to line-edit at this point.
   
• Second, pinpoint the POSITION and the PROPOSAL moments in this essay.  Write them out below, word for word.  If you can't find those moments, let the author know.
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
• Third, remember that proposals must be supported thoroughly to be effective.  In a bulleted list, write out all the evidence you see the author using in this essay. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Now write out two elements which the author hasn't addressed that you, as the intended audience, need to know (about) before you could act on the proposal.  (That is, what is the audience's investment in the topic which the author has yet to acknowledge and account for?)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
• Fourth, find the most unconvincing moment of the essay -- and every essay has at least one -- and explain in great detail why it's not convincing and what the author would need, and need to do, to make it convincing.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
• Fifth, given what you know about the author's topic, is her solution really the best one?  Even if it's pretty good, generate another one that would be something the intended audience might come up with.  (The idea here is to give the author more things to think about as he heads into the final revisions.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
• Finally, give your honest evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the piece.  Be direct without being mean, right?  Right.  The best feedback is the one that helps folks get better, not just replicate the problems they already have.