1. Using Peer Review to Improve Student Writing
Adam Clark, Ph.D.
The University of Arizona
Family Studies and Human Development

2. Outline Student Writing Practices and Perceptions Types of Feedback
Peer Review Assignment Example
Issues with Peer Review Assignments

3. Student Perceptions of Writing
“I understand that [the peer-reviews] are there to help us revise our work, but I think at this point as a college student, being in a 400 upper-level class would expect [sic] me to be able to write essays with great content.”
Don’t view writing as a process
Overconfidence in their ability to write effectively

4. Student Writing Practices
Most energy is spent on “bookends” of writing process (Kolb, Longest, & Jensen, 2011)
Intermediate steps are neglected
Revisions, if any, are to “clean up” (Sommers, 1980)
Work linearly from beginning to end

5. Student Writing Practices
From Kolb et al. (2011)

6. The Value of Peer Review
Provides opportunity to get formative feedback
Limitation: Quality of feedback received depends on reviewer skill level
Encourages students to think critically about the assignment
Giving feedback helps improve reviewers’ writing quality

7. Writing Feedback Exercise
Take a few minutes to read over the essay prompt and writing sample provided.
Write feedback to this student.

8. Types of Feedback Summative Formative
Surface Level
Grammar, spelling, sentence structure, etc.
Polishing of technical aspects
Meaning Level
Organizational and conceptual clarity
Consideration of audience and author’s intentions
Students who give more meaning-level comments showed the most improvement on their own final drafts (Li, Liu, & Steckelberg, 2010; Lundstrom, & Baker, 2009)

9. Meaning-level Comments
There is some good information here, but I have trouble following your argument. I think that you need to work on developing a stronger organizational structure that will give you paper more flow.
There were numerous editing problems. In particular, I notices a problem with comma usage and excessively long sentences. The author needs to work on basic grammar and style.
The author makes claims about _______, but does not provide any evidence. The author needs to work to demonstrate that claims are true with evidence from research.
From Baker (2016)

10. Peer Review Assignment Example
Counseling Theory Paper
Summative assessment for FSHD 405: Introduction to Counseling Theories
Students must:
Describe details of a therapy model of their choice
Apply chosen therapy model to a case example provided
Discuss strengths and limitations of their chosen approach
Peer Review Timeline
Must submit a rough draft about a month before the final draft deadline.
Must submit peer review about two weeks before final draft deadline.

11. Peer Review Assignment Example
Peer Review Components
Content
Spelling and grammar
APA Style
Document formatting

12. Issues with Peer Review Assignments
Non-submissions
Assigning reviewers
Short terms (e.g., Summer, Winter)

13. References
Baker, K.M. (2016). Peer review as a strategy for improving students’ writing process. Active Learning in Higher Education, 17(3), 1-14 Kolb, K.H., Longest, K.C., & Jensen, M.J. (2011). Assessing the writing process: Do writing-intensive first-year seminars change how students write? Teaching Sociology, 41(1), Li, L., Liu, X, & Steckelberg, A.L., (2010), Assessor or assessee: How student learning improves giving and receiving feedback. British Journal of Educational Technology, 41(3), Lundstrom, K. & Baker, W. (2009). To give is better than to receive: The benefits of peer review to the reviewer’s own writing. Journal of Second Language Writing, 18(1),

14. Questions?