In Class Writing: Practice With Peer Editing for Meaning

Your job: print this and write commentary as if this were from a group member

From "The Black Death," a paper on Medieval Life for a Western Civ. Class

The Plague had many causes. The common, misinformed man did not realize that fleas infected black rats, which in turn bit humans. The fleas traveled in caravans that people used to go from east to west.The European did not take much notice of a rat bite because he or she was not cleanly. Another bite meant very little. They attempted to stop the disease by praying to God. In order to do so, the people packed into the church and outside on the streets. The rats thrived in churches and streets and they infected large numbers of people. Thus, the disease spread quickly and Europeans puzzled over their outbreak of the plague. Approximately one-third to two-third of the population mostly common people died from the Black Death. Instead of dealing with the sanitary problems that led to higher populations of rats, people did not react in rational ways or did irrational things. The families would not care for the victim and ran away from the infected family member so as not to catch it.