MARCH 7

Peer review guidelines

Literature Review feedback
Grades are up-to date
Synthesis matrix
 Completion grade only
 Lowered grades were the
result of
 Not having 8 sources
 Not identifying main ideas
 Not identifying sources
 Minimally completing
matrix
Annotated Bibliography Peer
Review
 Quality of feedback and
complete draft
 Lowered grades were the
result of
 Not having 8 sources
 Not having complete draft
 Not responding to
questions
 Not providing feedback on
paper
Changes to schedule
 Friday, March 9
 Project2 Mini-portfolio workshop
 Mini-portfolio will be due by 11:59 p.m.

 Monday, March 19
 Project 3 Proposal workshop
 Thesis statement activity – bring a draft of your thesis
statement typed and printed to class.
 Friday, March 23
 Classwill not meet due to Frankenstein symposium.
 There will be an online assignment announced.
Peer Feedback
❖ Analyzing the writing of others can help you to improve
your own writing.
❖ It helps you to identify and address similar problems in
your own writing.
❖ Peer review helps you to learn to read a paper not with
the goal of learning about the subject matter but with the
goal of evaluating how well the text is composed.
❖ These skills can then be transferred to your own paper.
❖ Peer reviewers give us insight into how others interpret our
meaning.
Focus on What’s Needed at the Time
❖ Global revisions are more important
than errors.
❖ Focus on areas provided by peers or
instructor.
❖ Does the writer address the
assignment?
❖ Are the writer’s meaning and purpose
clear?
❖ Writers need to work on improving
the content of their paper before
correcting sentence-level errors.
❖ You are uniquely qualified to give
feedback because you are all
members of the same class working
on the same assignments.
Consider the Evidence
❖ Development is often the most
important aspect of effective writing.
❖ This particular assignment is about
summary and synthesis, so you want
to be sure that the paper is offering
clear summaries and connections
between sources.
❖ Is there sufficient support for the
writer’s discussion of the topic?
❖ Do you find the writer’s discussion
easy to understand?
❖ What can the writer add or explain
to make the paper stronger?
Notice Organization & Flow of Ideas Annotate as You Read

❖ The next most important element is ❖ Annotating is making notes in the

organization and structure. margins that do one or more of the
❖ Is the organization of ideas logical? following:
❖ Do transitions connect the parts and ❖ Ask questions
lead you through the discussions. ❖ Suggest examples
❖ Talk back to the writer
Give Specific Feedback

❖ Do more than repeat what the document says.

❖ It does the writer no good if you don’t point out places where you had a hard
time understanding the meaning.
❖ Where were you confused and why?
❖ Where were you most interested?
❖ Where was the reading difficult and where was it easy?
❖ What did you like about the paper and what do you think would make it even better?
Vague vs. Specific Peer Feedback

Vague (Unhelpful) Comments Specific (Directive) Comments

❖ How many people were surveyed?
❖ Your description of the study is vague. What were they asked? Can you
provide more details?
❖ I don’t see how this example (about
❖ This section seems irrelevant. ___) relates to your main point (about
___). Can you explain?
❖ I’m not sure what “it” refers to in this
❖ This sentence is unclear. sentence.
❖ You discuss several topics in this paper
❖ I couldn’t find your core observation. (including _____, but I can’t find a
central core observation early in the
essay that prepares readers for these
topics.
Guided Peer Review
❖ Rather than respond to a list of questions, you are
going to have a set of timed tasks to guide you as
you feedback your peer’s paper.

❖ Please focus on writing directive comments that help

your peer as they revise their work.
❖ Ask questions
❖ Suggest examples

❖ Talk back to the reader

Understanding the topic
Take 10 minutes to complete the following tasks:
✓ Read your peer’s paper completely. Do not mark on
the paper as you read; instead, focus on
understanding the topic and focus of the paper.
✓ Write one sentence that states what you take to be
the focus or main point of this draft.
✓ Identify and underline their core observation about
their topic. If they do not have a clear statement of
their core observation, make a suggestion of
where/how they might include one.
Identifying strengths
Take 10 minutes to complete the following tasks:
✓ Skim through the paper looking for sentences or passages that
are working well in the paper. For example, you might focus on
examples of effective summary or synthesis, smooth transitions
between ideas, the use of subheadings as a guide, or a strong
introduction or conclusion.
✓ Identify at least two places that you think are the strongest
parts of the paper.
✓ Provide feedback that explains why you think each one is
working well and how it helped you to better understand their
topic.
Giving Constructive Criticism
Take 10 minutes to complete the following tasks:
✓ Skim through the paper looking for sentences or passages that
need revision. For example, you might focus on passages where
the writing is confusing, a lack of synthesis, ineffective
transitions or connections between ideas, or a need to
strengthen the introduction or conclusion.
✓ Identify two issues where the writer should focus their attention
for revision. Mark one specific passage for each issue. In other
words, if you identify that the writer needs to work on creating
better transitions, don’t mark two transitions.
✓ Provide feedback that asks questions or offers examples of
how to revise the specific passage.
Finishing up
Take 10 minutes to complete the following tasks:
✓ At the end of the paper, provide 1-2 sentences that address
the formatting and proofreading needs of the paper based on
the following:
✓ Does the paper contain errors in font, spacing, page numbers, citations, etc.? Does the
appearance of the paper affect the writer’s credibility?
✓ Does the paper contain errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, or sentence structure? If so,
do those errors interfere with your ability to understand the writer’s paper?
✓ Return the paper to the author. Review the feedback and ask
any questions you might have.
✓ Take a picture of each page of your paper so that you can
review the peer feedback.
✓ Turn in the hard copy of your draft.