Now that we've gotten a little practice working with the Writers'
Exchange or WEx, let's talk about why it's such a useful learning tool.
(If you need a refresher on what WEx is, check out the WEx Guide pt. 1
and pt. 2 and the WEx infographic in the Week Four module).
"Peer Review." When I say those two simple words in my in-person
courses, I watch a collective shudder run through the classroom, as if
I'd just asked them all to watch The Ring video. Believe me, I
get it. I've been in truly terrible peer review groups before. Sometimes
people are too polite and just tell you that your paper is great, and
you'll definitely get an A (and then don't, and you want to tear your
hair out). Or you'll have that one person who tears your work apart like
they want nothing more than to see you weep, but they don't offer
anything beyond insults. And it can be hard to be the person giving
feedback You have this whole essay in front of you, and you might not
know where to begin in terms of giving the writer helpful suggestions
for making their paper better.
WEx is an elevated form of peer review. In other words, it's designed to provide you with enough structure and direction that everyone gets something out of it. There is a misconception about peer review. A lot of people think it's about getting feedback which takes the place of instructor comments. But that's not what peer review or WEx is all about. Yes, you should get a healthy amount of feedback if the students reviewing your draft do a good job.
BUT, what WEx/peer review is really about is learning how to break down a text and figure out how to make it better. When you evaluate another student's work using the WEx criteria, you are training yourself to revise your own work more effectively.
As you move on after English 1110.01, you will have to write a lot of
papers for other classes. You probably won't have the advantage of peer
review, and being able to work on the same project throughout the whole
semester, getting instructor feedback along the way. If you have the
experience pinpointing an essay's weakness and looking for ways to
improve it, you'll be able to revise your work using those skills you
developed in WEx.
Post either one original comment relating to one or more of the questions below OR respond to two other students below.
What worries you about WEX? What have your past experiences with peer review been, good or bad? What does your revision process look like now (how many drafts do you write, do you have anyone look over your essays, etc.)?
 |
| Peer Review Time! |
WEx is an elevated form of peer review. In other words, it's designed to provide you with enough structure and direction that everyone gets something out of it. There is a misconception about peer review. A lot of people think it's about getting feedback which takes the place of instructor comments. But that's not what peer review or WEx is all about. Yes, you should get a healthy amount of feedback if the students reviewing your draft do a good job.
BUT, what WEx/peer review is really about is learning how to break down a text and figure out how to make it better. When you evaluate another student's work using the WEx criteria, you are training yourself to revise your own work more effectively.
 |
| This could be you! |
Post either one original comment relating to one or more of the questions below OR respond to two other students below.
What worries you about WEX? What have your past experiences with peer review been, good or bad? What does your revision process look like now (how many drafts do you write, do you have anyone look over your essays, etc.)?
Qiumeng He
ReplyDeletehe.1506
Actually, I am worried that I do not have the qualification to make comments on other people's works. When I first did peer review, there was no specific process and we did not need to write is in a particular format. It turned out that the reviews I took before were not so valuable because I can only get some changes in words and grammars but no improvement in the content. Now, I have to modify my essay several times and ask my friends to give me some advices because they can objectively find out the merits and demerits of my article.
I agree with you. I don't think my review was good enough at first. Then I took some time reading the guide for several times and tried to write some drafts. I hope things will get better for the next time WEx
DeleteI'm also worried that my comments won't be in depth enough for the writer to feel like its good feedback. In high school when we peer edited for each other I mostly corrected their grammar and small things within the essay as well. However, I usually received constructive reviews that helped me with my essays.
DeleteI believe that we are all capable of giving our own opinions when it comes to reviewing others work. It is merely just a suggestion and our preference so the writer does not need to take our advice. Therefore, any advice/review that we give is beneficial no matter what.
DeleteThis is actually very relatable! What definitely worries me is if I am receiving advice on my own papers, that definitely means that my writing skills are not perfect, and it makes me question if I have the right knowledge to fix other peoples writings.
DeleteWorrying about how good of a job you'll do reviewing your peers is definitely a common concern. Everyone is in the same boat, figuring things out as they go, so just do your best. And yeah, we focus on content reviews rather than grammar/wording edits for a more "big picture" approach.
DeleteMy experience with peer review has mostly been in my work setting since I'm returning to school after an extended period of being in the workforce (still working full-time whist going to school actually), which has been good, I would say. Usually when I write, I do a quick outline with the intro, points I want to make and a conclusion and then I write an initial draft. I usually read through it then and make any corrections of glaring mistakes that I see and then leave it for a day and come back to it with fresh eyes. I usually have a couple of trusted friends that I might have look over my writing to see what they think and give suggestions and feedback. Then I'll do any re-writes I deem needed after that.
ReplyDeleteHaving more than just your eyes on your writing is so important.
DeleteJordan Helphrey
ReplyDeletehelphrey.4
I have not had too many experiences with peer review, only using it in high school for projects. We only used it to do a quick look over for minor mistakes, ones that jump out at you. When I write, I usually try to fix the spelling and grammar mistakes as I write, and when I'm done I read through and really make my corrections. Then I will have my wife read through and repeat that process. I will then repeat that process again in a day or two. After I have made the corrections I will go through it all and make sure it follows my outline I made for it, answers all the questions made, and follows all of the essay guidelines I was given. Finally after that, I will turn it in. My experience with peer reviews is just what this article explained. Some people aren't going to give it to you straight, and tell you that it is an "A'. Some will say that is just needs redone and makes no sense. You need someone in the middle, someone that tells you what’s wrong (not afraid to say what’s wrong), and more importantly, someone who will help you and give suggestions on what corrections need to be made and what needs for improvement.
WEx definitely doesn't ask you to focus on grammar/wording concerns, so this might be a new experience (which you hopefully get a lot out of).
DeleteQingwen Cui
ReplyDeletecui.468
Personally, I only had a few peer review experiences except for WEX. To be honest, it was quite embarrassing for me to receive reviews from my friends or classmates face to face and I does not felt confident to show my personal works to companions. However, for WEX, I like its mode of operation that it allows us to give our reviews online and not in person. WEX let us avoid the awkwardness when evaluating another student’s work.
That's definitely what I have experienced. I feel like the anonymous makes us feel relaxed when we submit our reviews. It's a new experience for me too and don't be shy to give reviews.
DeleteThe anonymity of WEx definitely helps the whole situation be a little less awkward.
DeleteThe thing that worries me about WEx is missing the deadlines. Potentially having the assignment slip my mind and forgetting to submit an assignment. It also worries me that you can't edit something once you have submitted it, so if you submitted the wrong assignment or realized you did something wrong there's not much you can do. I worry that I'm not sure what the grader is looking for and what qualifies for a good paper verses an okay one. I hope not to steer anyone in the wrong direction. Currently when I write a paper I write an outline first, and slowly add to my outline until it becomes a draft. I then make the draft a cohesive paper. Once the draft is done I read it over twice edit mistakes and then submit.
ReplyDeleteI am also worried about missing the deadline because the window to submit our assignments is pretty short. I think that it is going to be very important to stay on top of these deadlines because you can't submit any of the assignments late. I also usually write a draft and try to correct the grammar aspects of it as I go but mainly focus on the content and then go back over the whole thing and try to correct it.
DeleteThe deadlines are definitely difficult but I think it makes us become more responsible students. It is very easy to forget about these deadlines, but I think it just helps us not procrastinate and get stuff done on time.
DeleteI definitely see where you are getting at here. WEx definitely seems like something that can be forgotten about pretty easily. However, one good way of remembering to do it very easily is by simply checking the course schedule every day. This way, you can know exactly what is on your plate every day!
DeleteJust be sure to check your Carmen inbox for reminder messages, and I second Max's suggestion. Doesn't hurt to check what's happening every day.
DeleteThe thing that worries me about Wax is that I struggle reviewing my own papers and I feel that I may not give others very good feedback to work with. I know that it is structured well to make it easy to give good constructive feed back but I worry that I won't pick up on things that the other person may need to look over again. I don't want to give false good feedback and have them thinking that its good when theres still points they could work at to get a better grade.
ReplyDeleteThe good news is that whoever's paper you review will receive another 1-2 reviews, so the pressure isn't solely on you as the reviewer.
DeleteHonestly, I enjoyed this peer review section very much. Even though I had lots of trouble figuring out how this works, I emailed professor RS and asked some stupid questions. She patiently told me what to do step by step. I read the guide and didn't know how to write peer reviews at first. This is my first time to write reviews for other students' submission. I read every review twice and found that there were so many perspective of one submission and I was inspired by them though this submission was not written by me. The more I engaged, the more I improve. The describe- assess- suggest process led me to read and write. In addition, I gave some good reviews to other, which gave me new views about my own writing. I wrote 3 times before I submitted because I could always found new suggestions for the submission.
ReplyDeletezhu.2166
No stupid question, Qing, you ask as many as you need to! I'd so much rather you be emailing me for clarification than miss out on understanding the assignment. I love helping!
DeleteJacob Perch
ReplyDeleteperch.8
My concern with WEx is my ability to provide suggestions to others. It can sometimes be easy for me to tell that a writing needs improvement overall, but I often don't know specially what should be changed in the paper. Additionally, when critiquing a paper that is already well written, I tend to struggle to make suggestions that can further improve the writing. My past experiences with peer review were never very helpful for my writing because other student generally put in a minimal amount of effort while reviewing others work. The structure of WEx, however, makes me believe WEx will be more successful than my past experiences with peer review.
Hopefully breaking the review down into the specific criteria will help. You're right that you can sometimes sense that something is off, but it can be challenging to figure out exactly what that is and how to fix it. Classic writing/revision dilemma.
DeleteNicole Hoeflinger
ReplyDeletehoeflinger.8
In the past I have normally had too polite of reviewers or those that did not take it seriously - offering little to no advice on how to improve my paper. With this WEx process I am not concerned about people not taking it seriously because there are many reviews but I am concerned that I will not be able to provide that helpful of reviews. I am excited for this WEx process because I think it will be incredibly helpful in creating a better analysis and symposium. It will be better than my normal reviewing process which normally encompasses me writing a rough draft, editing it myself, sending it to my sister for critiques, and then submitting after making small changes based off of her critiques.
The anonymity of WEx can help with the overly polite reviews that aren't really helpful. Also, my sister and I swap writing still!
DeleteTianyu Wang.9748
ReplyDeleteI don't worry about the WEX. But I really worry about the review I write for other. I am worried about whether I could give some useful suggestion to them. The past experience for me is not to good. I will try to find someone to have a look on my essay and get some advice.
You can always utilize the Writing Center for extra help.
DeleteKathy Cordova
ReplyDeleteCordova.33
I worry about the WEX because I do not want to miss the deadline and not be able to submit anything because it locks. I'm also worried on writing reviews for other because I do not feel confident in reviewing someone's paper and providing insightful information. I am not a good writer, therefore I am hesitant about my ability. In the past, many of my peer reviews were very insightful because my peers would provide feedback that gave me a clear vision on what to improve. Also, my peers always helped me think what I could do differently.
Hm, from what I've seen from you so far, you seem like a strong writer. Just be sure to check your Carmen inbox regularly for reminder emails (and of course you can keep track of all assignments via Course Schedule SP18 in the "Start Here" module).
DeleteXinhai Ni (ni.249)
ReplyDeleteWEX seems like an efficient and effective way to deal with peer reviews for online courses. Through one-weak practice with the system, it's undeniable that the suggestion part could be the most helpful part of the partners' reviews. The only thing I worry about this system is the deadline, since you can do nothing once you accidentally miss one session.
Just be sure to check your Carmen inbox regularly for reminder emails (and of course you can keep track of all assignments via Course Schedule SP18 in the "Start Here" module).
DeleteSam McGhee (mcghee.118)
ReplyDeleteI really like the fact that WEx is anonymous. One of the biggest challenges with peer review is hurting your friends feelings when you are reviewing their paper. This takes a lot of those issues out of play because you do not know who is reviewing your paper. I am excited to use a format that is anonymous. To be honest a lot of the papers I have written in college have been one draft and one revision for misspellings and grammar issues. This is because most of these papers have been lab reports and do not require a lot of technical speech or verb tense agreement. I am excited to improve my writing ability in this class.
Yeah, the anonymity really seems to help break down the social barrier that creates overly polite, unhelpful reviews.
DeleteMy greatest concern about WEX is whether I can offer good suggestions to my peers. Because the good advice will help us to revise our work efficiently. And I had the experience of getting feedback from my peers, which was very helpful. Usually, we cannot review our paper from many aspects. However, our classmates can give some new ideas to us. And by doing this, we will know the advantage and defect of our work more directly. As a result, we will make the paper much better than before.
ReplyDeleteHopefully following the criteria and using the "describe, assess, suggest" method will help with the effectiveness of your reviews.
DeleteMy revision process is fairly rigorous. First, I look over my paper to address any potential logical fallacies or ineffective arguments. When I have addressed these issues, I go through my writing line by line and see if there is a better way to convey every individual idea. While doing this I ensure that my writing is syntactically correct. By this point I am so sick of reading my own writing that I need to get someone else to look over my paper. I usually find someone whose intelligence and work ethic I trust that would be willing to lend me a hand. When this person has critiqued my work, I will address any issues they bring up and take or leave the criticism based on whether or not I think the criticism is well founded. Then I will go over the paper one more time to make sure there are no glaring issues. Finally, i will turn in the paper. It is important to note that I only go through this process for large assignments. For a paper of three pages or less I will very much abbreviate this process.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you're a very disciplined reviser, which is excellent. I completely relate to being sick of your own writing. Been there way too many times.
DeleteI'm worried about missing the deadline. Because each assignment seems to be very short, and once we missed a section will not be able to do the next. Also, I think my comments are not very useful compared to my peers. Often, it's easy for me to follow the author's ideas and not be able to think in more aspects when writing reviews. WEx may help me learn how to write a better review of peers' articles and help improve my articles. At the same time, peer reviews can provide us with more perspectives.
ReplyDeleteJust be sure to check your Carmen inbox regularly for reminder emails (and of course you can keep track of all assignments via Course Schedule SP18 in the "Start Here" module).
DeleteThe inability to continue on in the WEx process if a deadline is missed worries me, I feel like that is a bit harsh. It shouldn't be too hard to stay on top of deadlines though. I also worry that I will critique something that is already written well/correctly, but I will say it needs to be changed. My peer review experience have been mixed in the past. They were often done with multiple people, and I would get a mix of very critical (possibly over critical) reviews, and the reviews where the reviewer barely read it and just gave me a thumbs up.
ReplyDeleteYeah, unfortunately WEx will implode if we don't keep to the strict deadlines. It's the nature of the program (with windows closing and opening) and the fact that all sections of English 1110 are all using WEx simultaneously.
DeleteAs far as I'm concerned, different people are more likely to have their own unique view about the same question or topic. Thus, sometimes I air my opinion in an opposite perspective and give them a very negative score even though their paper is extremely excellent. So the bias cannot avoid completely. Also. My concern is that the paper which I need is of high quality or maybe beyond my ability, leading to the result that I'm not confident enough to give my suggestions. But I believe this is also a good opportunity to improve my paper by learn form other's papers.
ReplyDeleteYou're right in that some feedback can be colored by bias and opinion, so hopefully sticking to the criteria and the "describe, assess, suggest" method will help keep things objective.
DeleteMichael Ross
ReplyDeleteRoss.1455
My revision process starts with writing a quick and word limited outline. I structure the outline into three parts. The three parts are my introductory, body, and concluding paragraphs. Each paragraph on the outline will have three or so points or details that I want to make while writing that paragraph. Then, I move towards following this outline as I write my first rough draft. In the first rough draft, I generally just try to get the words and ideas down on paper. I spend little time revising what I write as I am crafting the piece. Once finished with the first draft, I print it out, and I begin to make revisions. I mark the first draft up with pen with areas that are missing words, places that need grammar or subject/verb agreement, and areas where I would like to rephrase my writing. Then, I correspondingly make those changes, and thus, I create my second draft. This draft I read out loud to myself in order to determine if my writing passes the "ear" test so to say. I correct the second draft as I read it aloud. After doing this, I send the draft to one of a few trusted confidants to help provide suggestions for revisions. After receiving their suggestions, I make the third draft of the paper. Finally, I read the paper over a couple more times before submitting. Each time I read the final draft over, I check for a different item on the rubric to make sure that each specific objective is in order. The last point I want to make is that I conduct my revision process for a major paper over a week or so in order to help keep my eyes fresh.
Wow, you've got a whole, complex process going, don't you? This is great!
DeleteFor WEx, what worries me the most is whether I can review my peer's essay well. Since sometimes I may think about others 'articles from my point of view, which may be completely opposite to others' point of view. What this may result is that I mistakenly criticized a good article. On the other hand, it is also possible that this article fits perfectly with my aesthetic so that I overlook the shortcomings of many of these details. All of this will lead to an inefficiency of my review to my peers.
ReplyDeleteXianqin Qiu
qiu.367
I also have the same trouble, but I think we can finally do it after this course. Practicing is the best way to master skills.
DeleteIt is true that reviewing peer's essay could be a difficult thing to us. However, we can continuously practicing ourselves during each time giving comments to our peers. So that our reviewing ability can be better and better.
Deletezhang.8873
Luckily students will receive more than just your review, so that should help take some of the pressure off.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI think WEx is extremely good for us to practice response to other's work. I had no idea about how to make peer review before I touch WEx. Now I know we need to describe-assess-suggest. I think it's a good way to let us read more carefully and point their problems. Also, we can learn the good part in their papers. I just worry that I can't give the constructive suggestions. Sometimes, peer's suggestions are more objective and useful. It's the best way to improve our work. I hope I can grasp the skills on giving suggestions. In addition, I hope my writing skills can be improved by reading peer's review.
ReplyDeleteJinming Hu--hu.1548
Yes, WEx should definitely help you see issues in your own paper by training your eye to look for improvement areas.
DeleteWhat worries me about WEx is the many recurrent deadlines during a given week. While I thoroughly enjoy receiving criticism on my written work, as it often points me in the direction of something I may have overlooked, I am not a fan of giving criticism, especially on a deadline. I tend to work ahead when it comes to writing assignments so that I can give myself a few days before I return to reread the finished product, which often leads to the most meaningful revision during my entire writing process. I primarily only write one draft, with the revisions being done upon the single draft, and am usually the only one who looks over and revises my writing, I've had other classmates peer review my writing in high school, though found that the majority of suggestions were shallow or insignificant in terms of the meat and bones of the paper.
ReplyDeleteHopefully with the criteria and the "describe, assess, suggest" method, you won't be getting that kind of shallow review content.
DeleteZhiming Zhu
ReplyDeletezhu.2142
Before I get familiar with WEX I think peer review is a useless process because in my previous experience I often get irrelevant and useless comments from my peers and I didn’t pay a lot of attention on providing constructive evaluation and suggestions to others, either. However, this time I realize that review process can help me to write a better essay by learning from what others have done well and what haven’t. I appreciate those constructive comments from others to improve my writing. I don’t take any class with writing assignment except this semester English 1110, but I will definitely turn to writing center and my friends to look over my essays in my future classes. I think at least two drafts is good to turn in a good essay.
Yuqi Cai
ReplyDeletecai.694
What worries me about WEX is that I might miss the deadline, which will also result in the participation of later homework. Besides that, I am worried that I am unable to give useful feedback and suggestion on other students’ paper. When I was taking the EDUTL 1902 English writing course, I was asked to give peer review. I think peer review is very helpful, because it provides us a platform to know others’ ideas about our own paper. Sometimes we could not figure out the problem since the paper is written by ourselves.
I am worried about the deadline which same as you, because I found that I need more time to read my peers' paper during the last practice. I hope we can get over this problem together.
DeleteJust be sure to check your Carmen inbox regularly for reminder emails (and of course you can keep track of all assignments via Course Schedule SP18 in the "Start Here" module).
DeleteFor now, we have done a practice with the learning cycle on WEx, which help me a lot to figure out what is the process of doing the posting, peer review and reflection. The biggest concern for me is how can we provide an efficient peer review for our classmates. Based on the “describe-access-suggest” method, it is hard for me to find out the issue that my peer’s paper has since I am not confident enough to point out the problem of the paper. But, I think everyone can think about one thing from different angles, thus, the problem I find could probably provide a new view for the writer.
ReplyDeleteHopefully utilizing WEx for the whole semester will build your peer review confidence.
DeleteWhat I am worry about the WEx is the deadline of peer review or the reflection, as if we do that after the deadline we will be lock out of WEx. Because the things like computer crashing do happens sometimes.
ReplyDeleteSo, I think we should try to finish the reviews or reflections ASAF once the system is opened.
My experiences of peer review are alright, it just that I sometimes cannot indicate one's mistake or the parts that are not good, because I always think he has the reason to write like that and that's make sense.
And now while I am reviewing, I will try to give the writer some advises which I think would be better if any parts are not good enough.
zhang.8902
I really agreed with you that the deadline of peer review is also a aspect the need to worry about. For the reason that there do not exist the second chance to submit the assignment. If missing the assignment, we will be locked out. So it is truly important to notice the deadline of WEx, then the problem like missing assignments could be avoided.
DeleteJust be sure to check your Carmen inbox regularly for reminder emails (and of course you can keep track of all assignments via Course Schedule SP18 in the "Start Here" module).
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI think the goal of using WEx is to post our essay and let others comment on it so that we can get a variety of useful information or suggestions to revise the article. However, this is also the point that I am really worried about. For the reason that I do not have lots of experience of doing peer review, which means there exist the possibility that I cannot provide some constructive comments. Meanwhile, because I am a international student, so there will also exist some grammatical mistakes in my comments , which, sometimes make the review a little bit hard to understand. And I have written about 4 drafts, and each time the draft would have someone to review. So, in conclusion, my revision processing ability is much better than giving reviews to somebody else.
ReplyDeletezhang.8873
Hi Hanxia,
DeleteI meet the same problems as you, I do not have enough experience to provide peer reviewd and I worry about my reviews will affect my peers' correct idea. Therefore we need more time to think about our reviews are correct or not.
By the time we get to the end of the semester, you'll be a peer review pro!
DeleteI'm worry about that i may give sone useless advice for peers' essay. Because, even i try my best to do that, I may miss understand the peer's points. I have did some peer review in my 1902 course. It is good experience. We did the review in class time, and we could communicated with each other and then gave out some valuable suggestion. I have wrote several revisions but not much. But i have never used some fixed form to wrote the review. It looked like some directly suggestions not a official review. I will try my best to do the future work well.
ReplyDeleteYuan Zhao.2284
I've done in-class peer review as well, but I love the outside of class-time peer review option because students work at different paces.
DeleteOne of my biggest worries is missing a WEx deadline. So far I've tried to plan ahead and complete my assignments on time but I know later on, as the semester gets harder, this might be harder to do. In addition, I'm worried that my reviews are not gonna be satisfactory for the person I'm reviewing and for my professor.
ReplyDeleteMy current review process is very short. I don't tend to write any drafts before the final paper, when I create a new document for my paper this will be the only document I use. As for reviewing, I've previously asked my teachers or my friends to read my work. My first language is not English so I'm always concerned about spelling mistakes.
garciaserrano.1
Oof, first draft as final draft breaks my English teacher heart.
DeleteActually, I have little experience about peer review before and I am worried about this section. Always, I am very confused that how to express my suggestions politely. How to point out their strong points and where should I start analyzing their weak points. However, I still like reading reviews from my peers and I think they are very useful for me. So when I make a review for my peers, I also try my best to think about more in order to give them more helpful and interesting suggestions. Last week, I first tried to use WEX for peer review and revision. It still takes me a long time but it also provides me some thoughts about how to review an essay. Peers review is an important part and I hope that I can also make progress during this period.
ReplyDeleteI love getting feedback on my writing, too.
DeleteJingan Zhang.8776
ReplyDeleteLast week we finished our first training about learning how to use WEx, after this practice I found out some problem I might face to in the future assignment.
At first, I worry about my comments will provide some incorrect suggestion for my peer's paper, which will mislead my peer's writing idea and thoughts, Since I need to have some strict criteria
Secondly, I worry about I cannot estimate and judge my peer's reviews exactly for my paper, because there are some reviews different from my original ideas and I cannot make sure which idea will be correct and keep writing. Therefore, I do not know if I should rewrite my paper or not when I receive some different pinpoints.
Finally, I still worry about I do not have enough time to finish my reviews for my peers, because I need too much time to read my peers' paper carefully.
It can be tricky to discern what advice you want to use and what you want to set aside, but that's part of the learning process.
DeleteI am not worried about much about the WEx process. The time limit on reviews is quite frustrating, but besides that I think peer reviews is a great way to receive feedback on work before turning it in. My past experience with peer review has mostly been good, but I have not had any experience with platforms like WEx. Mostly, I had always just printed essays out and given them to my friends. My revision process stays mostly the same, writing whatever comes to mind at first, then narrowing down ideas, then checking grammar. I do not really do drafts, I just make a note of where I was before and edit my work whenever I have time.
ReplyDeleteYeah, unfortunately the time limits are necessary, or WEx will collapse in on itself.
DeleteMy biggest concern with WEX is whether or not my feedback is understood properly, and utilized to its full capacity and if it's good advice. I want to communicate my ideas properly so the writer can in turn think about if he/she can take into account my feedback. I want this to happen all while being non-offensive and thorough with the feedback.
ReplyDeleteKovvuri.1
That's great that you're so concerned with doing a good job on reviewing.
DeleteI have not had good experiences with the peer review system. Everyone that I have peer reviewed with has not been fully honest in their reviews so I did not get the most out of the process. I think people hold back when criticizing a friends paper because they don't want to hurt their friends feelings. Some people do not realize that they are helping their friends by telling them there is something wrong with their paper.
ReplyDeleteHopefully the anonymity of WEx will help with this.
DeleteI don't think I have any great experience of peer review before. And I just forgot to finish my three reviews before the deadline of the WX window. Actually, I think maybe the reviews from other classmates are not quite useful. However, in the future, I will just pay more attention to the WXs web and I don't want to miss deadline anymore.
ReplyDeleteJust be sure to check your Carmen inbox regularly for reminder emails (and of course you can keep track of all assignments via Course Schedule SP18 in the "Start Here" module).
DeleteChen.6971
ReplyDeleteI haven’t used WEX before, so it’s a brand new tech to me and I’m really unfamiliar with it. So there may be some mistakes happened due to the unfamiliarity. Also, there’s no reminder of the due date or due time send directly to me so it’s easily to miss the deadline. The more serious issue is you can not go back to this cycle. So I should take everything seriously without any mistakes. My past experience with peer review is pretty good. In my high school, our teacher would gave us a sheet with bunch of questions and we can write down your opinions about the writer’s work as a reviewer. It’s pretty similar to the college . The only difference is using hand writing and using computer to type. For now, I think the peer review updates again and has lots of new requirements which is harder than before. I’d like to write only one draft actually and I think it’s more efficient and always comes with the better result since you put all your energy in it. However, I really like the process of this class since I did not have many ideas at the beginning of the semester. But the process comes to step by step which creates a solid base to me and to this semester’s writing.
WEx is unique to our English Department, so it'll be new tech for everyone. Just be sure to check your Carmen inbox regularly for reminder emails (and of course you can keep track of all assignments via Course Schedule SP18 in the "Start Here" module).
DeleteMy biggest concern with WEX and the peer review system is about myself. I'm worried I may fail to give good peer reviews, considering peer reviews in high school generally consisted of correcting minor spelling and grammatical errors. I'm hoping to provide a good outsider perspective on papers during the peer reviews.
ReplyDeleteYeah, WEx reviews are more content-based, so it'll be different than your high school experience.
DeleteMy greatest concern is the fact the Ill receive contradicting advice or concerns which will only leave me baffled. I saw this in our practice WEx version where I was told to both provide more detailed specificity and yet another reviewer told me that I went over board. These remarks will only confuse me at the end. also fear that I wont be able to provide the best review for my peers as I am in the same standing as everyone in this class.
ReplyDeleteYou can always reach out to me with questions if you receive contradictory feedback.
DeleteWhat concerns me most about WEX is the crunched deadlines within the span of 4-6 days. Also, I feel as if the feedback structure is very rigid. Instead, we could give a paragraph in response to others' work with all the constructive criticisms we find. For revision process, I only have one draft and I make changes in that single draft instead of wasting time in creating multiple, different, and often confusing drafts. I am usually pretty good at criticizing my own work but I also like input from teachers/professors to get a fresh perspective. I do not like other students' advice because from past experience I have found that usually peers are not interested or enthused by writing or criticizing writing assignments.
ReplyDeleteDenish Patel.2778
Yeah, WEx can be a lot, which is why we clear the week of other assignments (for the most part) during the cycles. You'll get instructor feedback on your graded drafts and then also for the ARP rough draft.
DeleteWhat worries me the most about peer review and the WEX system is the short time frame in which we have to do it in. I want to be able to write a critical review that is going to be beneficial for someone while also teaching me how to analyze a paper. In hopes that break down someone else will benefit me too. I think in the past peer review was a very one sided think where maybe the writer would get some useful tidbits. Being that I am several semesters into my college career I like to think that I have developed some useful tactics while writing but none of which has involved my peers. I am looking forward to seeing how this benefits us all.
ReplyDeleteYeah, WEx can be a lot to accomplish in a short time frame, which is why we clear the week of other assignments (for the most part) during the cycles.
Deletelim.1215
ReplyDeleteWEX is very new for me since I have never used it before. I have some experiences on giving peer feedback. But after I read the WEX peer review guide, I was surprised that a good peer review is build by the different structure but not only few sentences. Besides, sometimes we afraid of giving strict comments to the paper so instead of writing the important comment, we marked it as an good essay, but it doesn't show any help to your peer. You could provide useful feedback in polite, just like when the moment you receive some good feedback and it does help you in improving your essay.
Yeah, definitely better to be honest about the essay instead of being afraid of offering (polite) critique.
DeleteHolly Zhao (zhao.2576)
ReplyDeleteI've never use WEx before taking English 1110.01 class, so it is brand new for me, and interesting. First, I notice that student have to upload writing on time, otherwise, we cannot upload any more, that makes me worry about what if there is any trouble which make me cannot submit assignment on time. And for peer review in WEx, it is a great way to make every one know their problems by reading others writing and posting comment, and my past experience, review for WEx part, was good. And I believe that I can use WEx to complete later work in English 1100.01 well, and be a better me in the aspect of writing.
Just be sure to check your Carmen inbox regularly for reminder emails (and of course you can keep track of all assignments via Course Schedule SP18 in the "Start Here" module).
ReplyDelete