Daily Message Sept 2

Good Day,

By this afternoon, everyone will have been assigned to a peer review group. I'll give people until noon today to sign for a group if they wish; after that I'll assign anyone who isn't already in a group to a group. Remember, you don't have to completely fill a group. If you have a partner you'd like to work with, and only the two of you sign up for a group, I'll add a third person to your team before the day is over.


I suspect there are probably some questions out there about how "peer review" works in a class like this.

Here's the skinny:

Substantive editing vs. copy editing vs. proofreading

If you hate peer review and have previously found it to be a waste of time, you might want to rethink "peer review" as "developmental" or "substantive" editing. (If you hate giving and getting feedback on work in progress, professional writing is NOT the career for you.) This video provides a pretty good explanation of the different types of editing profesional writers routinely do. In this class, your role in peer review is to act as a substantive editor, focusing primarily on making sure the document is doing what it is supposed to be doing as effectively and efficiently as possible.



Review process

Here's how it works:

You respond only to those memos in your peer review group. You'll only be able to see/access the discussion space for the group you belong to.

We're aiming for groups of three, so most people won't have to review more than two drafts; a couple of groups will have four members, in which case you should review drafts from all three of your partners.

Once people have posted their drafts to your discussion space, you can download them and comment on them. Read drafts once without making any comments; review the assignment description; then reread the draft and make comments. Use the questions in the Peer Review section of the Module 1 assignment overview, as well as the peer review worksheet in the module, as a guide to responding to the text.

Use the Track Changes and Comments features in MS-Word to make comments directly on the draft.




Here's one business group's approach to substantive editing, which you might find interesting, or helpful....or not.



Once you've received peer review, revise your text and begin working on your reflection. Both are due on September 15. You'll have a chance before then to submit your analytic memo to the instructor for review (this is optional).