peer revising?

Sure · Post by **Sure** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 1:33 am

do you know this term?
i made up it and i want to know whether it is right or wrong.
the meaning i want to convey is that i want to ask students to revise essays for each other before the teacher marks them.
Could you help me?
thanks

Cranky Reinke · Post by **Cranky Reinke** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 3:39 am

I've heard of peer revisions (the objects), so peer revising would be the activity. It works for me if you truly mean revising and not just proofreading. (Of course, who is another student to tell me how my story or essay should flow, how it should be revised. I suspect you mean peer proofreading.)

metal56 · Post by **metal56** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 6:50 am

Of course, who is another student to tell me how my story or essay should flow, how it should be revised.

Does revising always involve being told what to do? Can't it also involve advising, commenting on, giving one's take?

Cranky Reinke · Post by **Cranky Reinke** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 3:37 am

I didn't say anything about being "told what to do".

It depends on how these peer revising groups are organized and run. Will a class of 15 be broken up into five groups of three each and then proceed to tear apart and rewrite each essay from classmates not in their group? Will the author even recognize his work when he gets it back? Will each student in that class of 15 be given an essay that's not his, be allowed 20 minutes to read and analyze it, and then return it to the owner along with a separate sheet of comments, suggested corrections? There could be many other scenarios. How brutally or how gently and how honestly or how superficially will the revising be done? Will it be a matter of the jock revisor saying to the nerd, "An essay about trees is stupid" or the revisor, eager to hook up, saying to the prettiest girl in the class, "This essay is so fantastic that it doesn't need any more work"?

Undoubtedly, the teacher would have to prepare the class on how to revise essays and would also have to set ground rules.

metal56 · Post by **metal56** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 6:38 am

I didn't say anything about being "told what to do".

???

Of course, who is another student to tell me how my story or essay should flow, how it should be revised.

--

(Of course, who is another student to tell me how my story or essay should flow, how it should be revised. I suspect you mean peer proofreading.)

So are you saying that when a student tells you how your essay should flow, should be revised, he/she is proofreading and not revising?

Cranky Reinke · Post by **Cranky Reinke** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 4:00 pm

Revising is changing the content, the flow, i.e., editing. Proofreading is looking for and marking grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes. What is the intent of "peer revising," to edit or to proofread? Which does Sure have in mind?

metal56 · Post by **metal56** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 4:44 pm

Which does Sure have in mind?

Did you ask?

Maybe he/she/we should read this:

http://webhost.ua.ac.be/sigwriting2006/ ... d=114&cf=1

Cranky Reinke · Post by **Cranky Reinke** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 10:17 pm

If Sure has been reading this thread, he will have read the implicit question (which I have stated more than once).

Thank you for posting the article url, metal. My experience with peer revising and proofreading has been that, to be successful for both readers and writers, it's the responsibility of the teacher to make definitive ground rules and to stay on top of the situation at all times.

Sure · Post by **Sure** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 7:34 am

i really appreciate your help, thanks a lot.
After i posted this question, i found the term "peer revision".
It contains the procedure of finding grammatical mistakes for the peers, and also the advice on structure.
Maybe in my sense, i would prefer to use "peer revision" to find the misusing of words or sturctures.
Thanks.