January 31

Peer Review: What, Why, How
Peer revision is a process in which you provide feedback and comments on each other's papers. In fact, after this first paper, it's the only feedback you'll consistently get on your papers, which makes it pretty vital. I'm always happy to look at a paper in office hours, but from now on you'll come to rely on peer revision.

I know, for a fact, that 101 students hate that. Generally speaking, they don't know why we do peer revision or how it can be helpful to get comments from people who presumably don't know any more about writing a 101 paper than they do. So, let me take a moment to discuss why we do peer revision in 101:

1. Fosters independence. If I were to comment on every one of your drafts, you would come to rely on my feedback. Part of what we're developing here in 101 is a set of independent critical thinking skills. Relying on me for feedback would undercut that goal.
2. Recognizes Student Knowledge. One reason we do peer review is because your peers do know something about writing, and arguing, and thinking. Recognizing that your input is valid on someone's paper, and their input is valid on yours, is one way of also recognizing that you're already intelligent, reasonable individuals.
3. Reinforces Learning. We'll be discussing a lot of things like project and textual responsibility. One way you learn these concepts is by writing your own paper, but another way you learn them is by applying them to someone else's writing in peer revision.
4. Helps You, Helps Them. Not only does peer revision provide useful feedback for your peers, but it also gives you an opportunity to rethink your own paper. You get to see how other people have approached the assignment, and in seeing what they do in the paper, you can learn more about what a paper needs to do.

I hope that gives you at least some sense of why we value peer revision. Like writing papers, it's a skill we don't expect you to have before you get here; rather, it's a skill you will come to acquire (indeed, every semester I have at least one student who almost seems to channel me in peer revision, writing just what I would write on a draft). To help you along, I'll be providing a peer revision sheet. You can use this to guide your input and feedback.

So here's what to do:

1. Download the peer review sheet for the first paper here (you may want to right-click and select "Save target as" or "Save link as").
2. Then, go to the "Thu, Jan 31 class: drafts go here" thread in the "Put All Papers Here" forum (technically a sub-forum of the Virtual Classroom forum) and download the paper of your assigned peer. For paper one, the pairings are (forum user names appear in parentheses):
   
   
   1. Carolina and Tim (Carolina and Tim)
   2. Stephen and Jennie (RSXEsche and sazzu)
   3. Tatyana and Aiyan (Talichka and alstar)
   4. Kristi and Joseph (kristi2 and JerseyJoe313)
   5. Jenni and Chris (jmon5 and riverranch)
   6. Helen and Jennifer (azhelen and JLBD1250)
   7. Cinthia and Lorraine (LOVABLE984 and Lori)
      
      
3. Put comments in the paper in brackets ([]) and type responses to the peer review sheet in that file.
4. Upload the completed peer review sheet/commented paper file to your pair's thread in the "Put All Papers Here" thread as soon as possible (hopefully by some time on Sat at the latest).

In the future, I may let people choose their partners, but for now I've just randomly paired you. Be sure to save the peer review sheet as RTF so that you know your partner will be able to open it.

An Introduction to Grading
There are any number of myths about garding in 101 (see the Expos Myths section of the 101 Course Homepage), so let me say something about grading now. It's not true that the first papers "don't count" in expos. EVERY paper counts. At the same time, since we're asking you to be able to do now what we expect you to do at the end of the semester, it wouldn't be fair to simply average your grades. But that doesn't mean we ignore yoru first few grades. Rather, we look to see what level of writing you've achieved by the end of the semester. Because of this, if you blow off the first papers, it might not hurt you. But since you won't be practicing the skills you need in this class, it could mean a much lower grade for the semester. The best advice I have is to take every paper seriously.

Expos is a pain in the ass and is a hard class. Let me give you some sense of the average path through the class: Paper 1, NP | Paper 2, NP | Paper 3, C | Paper 4, C+ | Paper 5, B | Paper 6, B | Final Grade, B. Now, this may not be your path--you may do better, you may not do as well. Generally speaking, up to 75% of my classes have not passed the first paper. At the same time, I have never failed a student.

If you get a chance, raed through the grading criteria in the Gradatorium of the 101 Course Homepage. Next class, I'll discuss how papers are graded.

To Do for Tueday, February 05
Here's what's due for next class:

1. Get draft to me by the weekend at the latest.
2. Get your peer revision partner's draft from the forum by Friday night or so.
3. Do the peer revision sheet by Saturday some time.
4. Read Peter Drucker's "The Age of Social Transformation" in the reader.
5. Post any questions about things you don't understand in the "Huh?" forum.
6. Go to the Virtual Classroom forum and start a thread for discussion of Drucker. Ask a question that could generate discussion, perhaps something about knowledge in Drucker. Title the thread "Drucker: [insert your topic]" so that we can easily find the Drucker threads.
7. Respond to at least one other student's Drucker thread.

So, by Tuesday some time I should see 14 Drucker threads with at least one reply each. Many of you in your info email to me talked about taking e101 because you were hoping for more discussion--well, here's your chance. I'll have your drafts back to you as soon as I can, by Tuesday at the latest.