Today I had the students in my class to do peer reviews of each other’s collaborative writing projects, and, at first, I was a bit stumped on how to organize the workshop. Typically before peer-review sessions I provide a handout with a list of questions for individual student reviewers to respond to when they read each other’s papers, but since I was working with collaborative groups I didn’t think this method would work. First, I didn’t think that individual peer review would be appropriate for collaborative groups, and, second, I felt that at this point in the semester the students knew more about their papers than me, and it wouldn’t be best for me to dictate what issues the peer reviewers should look for.

Since my students have already had some experience working with a number of different revising strategies, what I ended up doing was having each group generate a list of questions for their peer reviewers to respond to, questions that could address what the group perceived to be the current limitations of their paper. The activity seemed to work well, generating some good discussion over both the questions and the responses to those questions. I’m not sure if it seemed successful because the students identified their own problems with their papers, or if more conversation was generated because the students read each other’s papers in groups. In either case, I think I’m going to try it again.

Click on “read more” to see assignment description.

Here’s the assignment:

1. As a group, generate at least four questions that you want your peer reviewers to address as they read your paper. Although it is fine to include questions about local problems (”do I need a comma here?”), at least two of your questions should address global problems with your paper (such as the paper’s organization or argument). Take 5–10 minutes to generate these questions, then provide a print copy of the questions to give to your peer reviewers.

2. Read through the paper of your partner group (either individually, or as a group), and then, as a group, respond to your partner group’s questions about their paper. Then, when they are finished reviewing your paper, share your group’s comments with them.