Suggestions and Guidelines
for Peer-Group Editing
of Position Paper #5

1. Distribute your papers among the group members.

2. Spend 10-15 minutes on each paper. (If we start at about 9:45, you'll have about 65 minutes. If there are 2 papers in your group, you can spend about 30 minutes on each; if there are 3, spend about 20 minutes on each; if there are 4, spend about 15 minutes on each.)
   • It's better if there are at least 3 papers per group, so, if there aren't, please let me know.

3. Suggestion: There are really 2 arguments in this dialogue: Pro's and Con's. So, the first task is to present each argument. Once you have identified the premises (including hidden premises) and conclusion of each argument, you can then analyze it for factuality and validity.

4. For each paper in your peer-editing group, ask as many of the following questions as you have time for:
   1. Did the author present both Pro's and Con's arguments?
   2. For each argument, did the author state whether and why s/he believes the argument to be valid?
      • Note: It's possible to formulate both arguments so that they are valid! (In which case, ascertaining their factuality becomes your central task.)

   3. For each argument, did the author state whether and why s/he agrees with the premises?
   4. For each argument, if the author believed either that the argument was invalid (even with missing premises added--i.e., that there was no way to make the argument valid) or that one or more of the premises was false, then did the author state whether and why s/he agrees with the conclusion?

5. Keep a written record of the questions and replies. This will be useful to the author, for revision.

6. At home, over the next week, please revise your paper to take into consideration the comments made by your fellow students (i.e., your "peers"): Perhaps defend your claims better, or clarify statements that were misunderstood, etc. For help, see Dima or me.