English 1102 final draft 1500 to 2000 words

Peer Feedback Instructions

Rationale:

Peer review and feedback is an integral aspect of college writing. Our work grows in dialogue but flounders in a vacuum. When we seek and provide feedback on our work, we learn to see our writing from others’ eyes, ultimately helping us to create a more effective piece.

About:

In this assignment, you will read two peer essays whose authors will remain anonymous. Read through each essay as an interested colleague might, looking for strengths and areas of improvement. Remember always that you are a peer. Your feedback should be constructive and helpful, not condescending or overly directive. In other words, don’t phrase your feedback in language like “you must change X” or “you have to do Y.” Instead, phrase your feedback in terms of your reading experience. For instance, “As your reader, I was hoping to hear more discussion about X or Y” or “I got lost in paragraph three.” Operate by the golden rule: offer the kind of constructive feedback you would appreciate receiving if it were your essay.

How to provide feedback:

For each essay, offer one paragraph of general impressions and one paragraph of specific advice. Write in complete sentences and in paragraph form. This is a writing class, after all. In your general impressions paragraph, summarize what you think the writer’s main point is. Sometimes even this goes a long way to showing the writer whether or not their main idea is coming across successfully. Then offer any other impressions or responses you have. In the specific advice paragraph, offer advice for higher level concerns first. Higher level concerns include things such as critical thinking, thesis, focus, unity and coherence, development of ideas, and evidence/support. Higher level concerns can make or break an essay. Then, if you notice any issues with lower order concerns, such as MLA citations, MLA formatting, grammar, punctuation, and word choice, make a note of that. However, you don’t need to list each error.

How to turn in your feedback:

Save your feedback in a single Word .doc. Label each review with the name of the file the essay is saved as (e.g. Lit Narr 1, Lit Narr 2). This helps me to know which feedback goes to which writer especially when the original writer may not have used a title. Upload your feedback to D2L as a Word doc, under Assignments. I will not accept any work submitted via email or as a link to Google doc.

Because this is a time-sensitive assignment, failure to turn in peer feedback by the deadline does a serious disservice to your peers. Be considerate of others and submit your feedback on time. Failure to do so will result in a significant late penalty. If you do not submit a rough draft on time, you may be ineligible to participate in peer review.