When I sat down to write this Taking Stock I realized that I haven't had a formal peer review session since last semester in Technical Writing. That class had the most beneficial peer response that I've gotten as far as critiquing a paper. I used to dislike peer review days because I would print out a bunch of copies of my papers to get a few commas inserted and "good" written on it. In that class we had sheets with guidelines to follow so we could assess how well the person's project met the grading criteria. It worked well when people "yes, you met that goal" or "no, you didn't" and then said why. In those peer groups we tended to suggest rather than tell, so we didn't sound rude. For example, I would have been more likely to write, "It might be clearer if you said this at the very beginning so that I'd know that definition," rather than "Move this to the beginning to make it clearer."
Though I haven't been in a group setting like that for awhile, I think what we do on the blogs is good peer response as well. While the goal isn't so much to produce great writing on the blogs, we can say something like "Can you expand more on what you did, I'd like to know more about that," or make suggestions to put something in the portfolio. Ultimately are peer responses can help us improve at our internships as we learn from each other and help up make strong portfolios and posters. Before I could write on this I decided I better start posting on other people's blogs to get a better understanding of what we're doing. After posting, I think there is a lot of freedom rather than specific rules in this type of response. However, with mine and some of the other students' responses I noticed we tend to give support, share an experience, or offer a suggestion. I didn't look so closely to see if everyone participated evenly, but I think the 12 post minimum will allow everyone to get responses from everyone else. Everything is pretty positive and it's nice to hear back from people to know that you're not the only one worrying or thinking about something. The only downside is that I don't think I have everyone linked to my blog correctly, so it's hard to find and comment on everyone. Once I get that figured out, I think this will be great peer response.
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I'm working on a project for Dr. Wible's 301 class in which I'm suppose to observe, study, and analyze a professional writer or editor in the Morgantown area. I've been planning to observe editors at the WVU Press and analyze documents they've worked on to see how they communicate with authors through written materials, how they edit the materials, etc.
It just occurred to me that if I am able to do this project at the WVU Press that it may be helpful for my research if I used your blog reflections to help analyze the material. If you're okay with this, let me know! Of course, I still have to hear back from the Press before I know anything for sure.
I'll let you know more as soon as I can. The idea just popped into my head and I figured I'd mention it before I forgot!
Good work with your reflections, by the way! They're always interesting, helpful, and well thought out!
I know exactly how you feel about peer review days. In all of my English classes I would get a few punctuation corrections and that's it. Now, as we get into the classes that really matter, like editing and professional and technical writing, our peers are more willing to destroy our papers if necessary. I really wish we had to take more writing and editing classes instead of all of the literature classes because I don't feel like I've had enough experience to be out in the real world, but I guess that's what these internships are for. Anyways, it sounds like you're getting a lot of experience at the Press so I'm sure you'll have a great portfolio!
I took Tech. Writing online and I think it would have been more beneficial if I would have taken it in a classroom setting. The peer review was really generic (people would say the same things over and over just to satisfy the review-requirement), and most of the time the reviews came after I had already turned the paper in.
I did luck out and get a good teacher that was really helpful, but I do think that I would have benefited from having more constructive peer review.
Very thoughtful reflection here, Brittney. I hope that you do find the blogging and responding to be a useful practice, and I like your idea about using it to strategize your portfolio and poster presentations.
I appreciate your pointing out the usefulness of the peer review worksheets we used in English 305. The other writing we did to guide peer review--the postwrites, which you wrote about a draft before sharing it with others--can actually be a useful tool for you to use in your internship position and future jobs. Before sharing a document with a colleague or supervisor, spend time writing (reflecting) on the process you went through to produce it, noting key decisions you made along the way, things you think work well and those things you're not sure about, and specific questions you have for your colleague. Then, share this postwrite with your colleague to guide his or her reading and revision suggestions on your text.
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