Peer Review – The Final Font-ier
Ha ha ha!! Get it? FONT-ier?
Sorry about that. I’m sugared up from my daughter’s birthday party. Red velvet cake, oh how I adore thee.
Anyway, there are some questions what need answering. So here we go:
- What was the most useful aspect(s) of peer review? What parts of the process did you find least useful?
At first, I didn’t think that peer review was going to do anything for me except piss me off that people were reading and CRITICIZING MY WORK. Reading and enjoying, I can get behind, but peers actually reviewing? I’ve never really liked it. I attribute it to a horrible 8th grade classmate who went out of his way to trash my writing at every turn. But, as we moved on and I started to really understand that my classmates were just as apprehensive about it as I was, gave me the confidence to start suggesting things that I wanted to see. I had to put on my teacher hat and ask myself what I would say if this was a final draft, beyond typos and misspellings which I figured would be caught later on. So, after four rounds of this what I found to be the most useful aspect was knowing what the paper was missing, being able to express that, and getting feedback on content. I think getting feedback on that sort of thing from people who are also writing the same paper as you was awesome. We could give advice based on what we found helped our paper and get advice from others on the same. Also, I loved reading other’s papers to see how they utilized the readings and discussions differently from the way I did.
If I had to choose something that was least useful, I’d have to say it was (what I thought to be) my favorite way of reviewing – the star system. At first, I loved it, but then it occurred to me that those stars are very subjective and didn’t really help contribute to getting constructive criticism. I know I hid behind, “They’ll know what is wrong if I give them 3 stars. I don’t need to elaborate.
- What do you think you have learned this term about responding to others’ writing?
I think that I have learned that when responding, it’s best to compliment, then offer a piece of criticism. The negative part always seems to go over better if you give an honest compliment first. Just jumping in with fix this and fix that puts the writer on the defensive from the get go, even those that get a lot out of and enjoy peer review.
- What do you think you have learned this term about making use of your classmates’ advice?
I learned that it wasn’t personal – it was required. As peer reviewers, we knew that our comments were going to be read not just by the writer of the piece we are reviewing, but by the instructor as well, we can’t just call it in. We have to at least make some effort to actually review. By figuring out that my classmates were not out to get me and that they seem to feel the same way about it as I do helped me to really read the reviews closely and listen to the advice. It’s not like JK Rowling wrote a book and never had any reviews and edits done for her. And Lord knows, I’m no Rowling. If I were, I had a bigger house and a maid to clean it.
- Anything else about peer review?
I really liked the process toward the end, after I knew some of my classmates. I had a read on what approach would work with those that I knew (i.e., humor or seriousness) and if I could tell a blue joke without offending
