In order to become empowered and autonomous writers, students need to learn self-evaluation techniques to help them revise their writing instead of simply editing it. Basic writers and English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) writers especially need concrete aids that can guide them, at least in the initial stages of learning, to write in a mode in which they have had little or no experience. One answer to this problem is to teach such students that revising is a process of reading to formulate questions about the text. A series of checklists can be very useful in introducing students to the skill of reading critically, a habit which can serve them well throughout their entire academic careers. These checklists could be answered by their peers after each student writer reads aloud a rough draft to the class. The questions on the checklists vary depending on the mode of rhetorical discourses being assigned: narrative, expository, or descriptive. Questions can be positive or negative. After the student has written and revised, other questions that target errors in grammar should be asked. The goal is to teach the students to look at their own drafts from the objective viewpoint of a reader, keeping in mind that the instructor is the final audience. (RS)