Tell me everything you can about how this writing came to be.
1) How did you come up with the idea for this piece?
2) What did you do differently (to revise or edit this piece of writing) as you went from each draft to the final draft, and why did you make, or not make changes?
3) What kind of problems did you encounter and how did you solve them?
4) What helped you the most to make the piece as strong as it could be?
5) What do you want me to know about the writing of this that I might not know just from reading it?
6) What parts of this writing are done especially well? (What qualities or characteristics make it an effective piece of writing?
7) What have you learned to do as a writer from doing this piece?
8) What did you learn/notice/pay attention to with regard to editing comments given to you (or done on your own) about spelling, punctuation, paragraphing, and the construction of sentences in order to write this piece carefully?
From: Rief, Linda. Adolescent Literacy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1991, p. 269 found in Seeking Diversity. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
