For this week's blog, I decided to talk about a peer editing experience I had in my Latin American History class. I wrote a paper about Cuba's transition to power from Fidel Castro to his brother, Raul. Last week, we were to hand our paper to the person on the right of us and that person was supposed to type a one-page response with suggestions or issues they had with our writing. First of all, I like to work independtly on my paper and once it's done-- it's done. But okay, I guess I can take some constructive criticism.
So the next week, we get the response back from the other person. I read through it and take it home to make the proper corrections to my paper so I can then hand in the final product. The person reviewing my paper went on this rant for 2 paragraphs about the fact that my paper is about Fidel AND Raul Castro and so I should not refer to either of them by their last name only. Yes, this is a very valid point. However, I went through my paper 3 times and I never, NOT ONCE, made this mistake. I always used their first names to address them.
So this leads me to believe this person never actually read my paper further than the introductory paragraph. All this does is firm up my belief that peer edits are a waste of time, especially in a gen ed class like History 106. I was so angry about this that it made me not even want to read the rest of what she had to say. But I did, and it was all positive encouragement and "oh the rest is perfect". So now, I'm turning in the same paper I handed in a week ago. Peer edits are useless.
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I usually don't think that peer edits are useless, but I think it depends what class it is for. The situation you had in your history class is definitely annoying! I think I have found that I like peer editing in my journalism classes but not gen eds or classes like that. A lot of times when we peer edit in journalism classes, people DO catch mistakes for me and have good suggestions that make my paper much better. However, some people aren't that good at writing and when you get paired up with them in other classes, their comments are usually wrong and completely pointless. So I feel your pain and for the most part, like doing my own independent editing as well.
ReplyDeleteI think that peer edits are only beneficial when you choose to have someone peer edit your paper and they gladly want to help. For instance, I used to always have my older sister read through my articles before I turned them in because she was also a journalism major and a very good writer; I definitely respected whatever she had to say about my work. Likewise, I proof every paper my boyfriend writes before he turns it in because he feels more comfortable having a second set of eyes read his work and he knows that writing is my thing. I would never half-ass it while proofing his paper because I know that he is asking for my help because he respects my judgment. If I didn't try my best I would be doing him a disservice.
ReplyDeleteWhat I'm trying to get at is that the girl who just happened to be sitting to your right did not care one bit about your paper or what grade you were to receive on it. She just went through the motions because she was assigned to by your teacher. She wasted her time, your time, and the time your teacher could have been using to grade the papers herself.
So, yes, I agree that peer edits are useless in cases like the one you experienced; but they can be extremely beneficial when the person who is peer editing genuinely cares about the task at hand.
I agree that peer edits can be extremely useful if your editor takes it seriously. If they just skim your paper, you may as well not have bothered with them at all. However, when we did our peer edits in J420 for our research papers, I really thought that helped a lot. Maybe it's just because I'm a journalism major, but I enjoy reading and editing other people's work. I guess that's why this is a good major for people like us, who don't find editing to be a chore (ok, it can be, depending on the situation).
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