peer review
Peer Review How-To:
1. How to find the peer review essays that have been assigned to you (Links to an external site.)
2. Feedback Overview (how to leave comments; how to see comments) (Links to an external site.)
What Am I Supposed to Do for Peer Review?
1. First thing’s first, it’s important you know that this should be a fairly in-depth review, particularly given that we are doing them at home, that we have no class, and that we are working on pretty much nothing else for the time being.
2. Now, what’s most important for this review?
Remember that this is going to be a super rough draft, and that the priority here should be on argument/support, structure/organization, and focus/clarity.
As a reader, the most helpful thing you can do is provide the writer with a good sense of:
clarity of argument (is the argument clear? if not, can you suggest ways it could be clearer? are there particular parts or sections where you think an argument seems possible, but where it isn’t currently emphasized?)
clarity of organization (is it clear that there is a beginning, middle, and end of the draft? are transitions between sections (Intro, body, conclusion) clear and purposeful, or do things seem a bit vague or hard to follow?
clarity of research use (is research being used clearly and accurately? is research serving the author’s argumentative goals, or does the draft lean too heavily on research as a source of information only?)
focus and development (are all paragraphs focused, moving clearly and logically from one sentence to the next? do any paragraphs seem to include more than one main idea? if so, could the writer break that/those paragraph(s) part to create new paragraphs that could help expand/complicate the argument? are the arguments in each paragraph fully developed, or do they require more research or more analysis/commentary?
In-text annotations. I expect you to include 3-4 in-text annotations per page using the the ‘comment’ function on the canvas assignment page. As usual, you need to remember that these comments should be constructive and they should be specific. Vague commentary like “Good job!” is nice and all, but it will not help the writer perform needed revisions on their draft. If you want, you can focus your comments on the different sections and requirements listed above.
Here is a sample 5-page draft with comments included that can serve as a model, both for how you comment, but also for how much you comment. Remember that your comments will be made using the canvas commenting tool, not in a word document like this one.
Assessment:
I will grade your performance on this peer review according to the following criteria:
25 points per paper: the peer reviews are complete, with 3-4 full, clear, and specific comments on each page. These comments address the concerns listed above, are not too broad/vague, and are aimed at helping the writer build on the draft’s potential
