Blog Post #3

How Can You Provide Meaningful Feedback to Your Peers?

The word edit by itself is not a very intimidating word, but how about if I put peer in front of it? How many of you are suddenly a little worried now? For most people, critiquing their peers is not an easy task because we often tend to worry about offending one another. We take criticism in such a different way when it is coming from someone our own age rather than an instructor. Why is that? It feels as if we are being judged or even sized up at times because these are people we know and even if we do not know them well it still does not make it any easier. We have recently learned that in Dr. Strange's EDM310 class we are given groups and must edit our peers' blog posts. This was not an easy task for me because I have always been a sugar coater as some would label it. However, after watching the required material for this blog post, it demonstrates some ways that make peer editing seem more appealing and constructive. Since peer editing has always been a weakness for me, I really believe that this is why I enjoyed the material that, Dr. Strange, required we watch and read for this blog post. The first required activity was a video that explained what peer editing was: . Then we were asked to view a peer edit tutorial slideshow: . The last piece of material was a humorous video about the top ten mistakes that occur when peer editing: .

The video about "What is Peer Editing?"

In this video, I learned that peer editing can be used very effectively if we follow the three basic steps which was compliments, suggestions, and corrections. The most important rule about comments and compliments was to always stay positive. You have to imagine how it would feel if somebody your own age was critiquing your work, you would not want to read negative comments. The video demonstrated some techniques that I like to use, for example it asks that you point out your peer's strong points first instead of just going straight into corrections. When you do not acknowledge the parts they did well on it ends up discouraging that person, so that is why compliments are so crucial when editing. The next step was suggestions and how to formally present ideas to your peer about how to better their writing in a positive way. You are suppose to look at word choice,sentence structures, organization, topic, and details. The last step was to correct your peer's writing and you are supposed to look at their grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

The slideshow demonstrating "Peer Edit with Perfection Tutorial."

The slideshow was basically a recap of the peer editing video that I talked about above. It just presented the viewer with more details about how to edit in a formal way. It explained that instead of just pointing out suggestions you could say instead of the word happy, why not use enthusiastic instead. These are formal ways of making suggestions instead of being disrespectful by saying who I did not like your word choice and the new word I offered sounds much better. This slideshow is a great reminder to look back at and make sure you are offering helpful reviews that follow closely to these steps and guidelines.

The humorous video, "Writing Peer Reviews Top Ten Mistakes."

The third piece of material was a video that I thoroughly enjoyed watching. This video was about a group of fourth and fifth grader who demonstrated ten different types of mistakes that peer editors make. In the video we were told to not be a "Picky Patty," or a "Mean Margaret." It showed many different scenarios and cases of what we could be doing wrong when we are the editor. Writing Peer Reviews Top Ten Mistakes was very interesting and I included the link above, so you can watch the video, as well, if you like. Looking at this video we have encountered a few of these mistakes when we have had a peer review assignment in the past. I know I certainly have. The video really was helpful tool and allows you to understand what mistakes to avoid making when editing.

Overall, the material that we were required to watch, view, and write about was very helpful for me. I know that I will use the material as future references to reflect back to if I ever encounter a problem while peer editing. I feel that even though these are a great set of steps to follow, peer editing will always make some people uncomfortable. The best information to take away from this blog is that you can edit in a positive way and you do not have to be disrespectful to your peer while doing so. Peer editing is beneficial and it is best that we learn how to overcome our fears about it, because the only way we can help ourselves is by helping others.