Week 7

This week’s assignment was to complete peer reviews of my fellow classmates literature reviews. I completed two peer reviews that focused on: TrainingVolunteer Mentors Working With Youth and  

Teacher Self Efficacy and Student Self Efficacy: Should they be used in determining the achievement of Common Core State Standards? This task took longer than I anticipated.   I was constantly re-reading and rewording. I would often have to remind myself that we all have different styles of writing.

This task was extremely difficult I kept reading over the literature and questioning APA citations.  However, after the opportunity to read my fellow students literature reviews I was able to reflect upon 

my own literature reviews.  I realized I changed my APA citations by deleting a comma. This was an error I realized before to receiving feedback from my peers.  I’m sure this won’t be the first or the last unnecessary error. Peer reviews have many benefits, perhaps the most important of is the ability for a write to strengthen their own writing by contemplating the responses of an actual reader and receiving that feedback. Peer reviewing allows a diversity of opinions to be brought to the table. I have completed peer reviews but only in my doctoral studies.  I think it is a skill that develops with practice.

Having a rubric to refer to throughout the review process was a great tool that helped to keep my focus.  I would like to have a rubric provided for every assignment. Dr. Weaver provided the class with a rubric that allowed me to focus on reviewing the paper. The rubric provided set guidelines for peer-reviewers which asked us to complete specific tasks: examples include indicating the strongest part of a paper; areas that need focus; and indicating sentences or paragraphs that seem out of order, incompletely explained, or otherwise in need of revision.  This allowed me to comment on another's writing in a specific and constructive way. It’s easier said than done to take constructive criticism, but peer reviews are essential part of the writing process that all successful writers engage in at some point.

  

Even though I was somewhat hesitant to provide constructive feedback to my peers, for fear of offending them, I am actually looking forward to hearing what they have to say.   Hopefully, they share this opinion!  I’d rather get the feedback now rather than later. Thus, this assignment provided me with the opportunity to work on the constructive feedback I could provide and  receive based on my second draft and have a broader audience’s perspectives on my writing.   

I also found that using word track changes is much more user-friendly than  Googledocs. I can’t imagine editing papers on a hardcopy!

This specific assignment allowed me to better comprehend the criteria used to determine whether a paper is well written. I am prepared to begin the editing process once again. My first focus will by my APA citations! I think the million-dollar idea is an APA online checker!  I wonder if anyone has created a program for that yet?  

As I reflect on this process and my next step I think its always important to have a second set of eyes look over your work. However, I need to plan more in advanced. Often times I have a week deadline, life happens and before I know it a paper is due. In the future I going to make a cognitive effort to have a second set of eye look over my work.  I often know what I mean to say but sometimes it doesn’t always come out that way.