What do we know about our audience?

* They are professors, academics—people who are very smart and educated, and experts in the field of literature & communication

* They are a very ARGUMENTATIVE and SKEPTICAL audience: they want to tear you argument apart! (Remember: Scientists find the truth by trying every available means of disproving their own ideas. That’s one thing scientists and writers have in common.)

* While the readers are very smart, they can’t read your mind.

* You can assume they’ve read the stories, but imagine they read the stories about a year ago. They don’t remember them PERFECTLY.

Look for places where the reader might not:

*UNDERSTAND (where they’d ask “What do you mean?” “Define that term!” “Can you give an example?”)

*BELIEVE (where they’d say: “Prove it!” “Who’s your source?” “Why do you think that?” “Why should I believe you?” “I disagree!”)

*CARE (where they’d say: “Who cares?” or “I already know that!” or “that’s obvious!” or “how does that connect to your argument?”)

Insert a note with your comment in the file. Look at every sentence, every idea, and even every word. Kat usually finds 30-40 objections per paragraph. Plan to spend 60-90 minutes doing this activity on your own draft, and try to insert at least 50 comments in your draft. Upload it here.