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peer revising?
Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 1:33 am
by Sure
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

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 3:39 am
by Cranky Reinke
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.)
Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 6:50 am
by metal56
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?
Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 3:37 am
by Cranky Reinke
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.
Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 6:38 am
by metal56
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?
Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 4:00 pm
by Cranky Reinke
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?
Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 4:44 pm
by metal56
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
Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 10:17 pm
by Cranky Reinke
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.
thanks
Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 7:34 am
by Sure
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.