Teaching Tone: Utilizing Writing Center Coaching in First-Year Composition Peer Review
Location
Room 212
Proposal Track
Practice Report
Session Format
Presentation
Abstract
Many first-year writing students represent writing assignments as distinct moments or “discreet units,” as described by composition scholar N. Sommers (2013, p. 10). In these cases, the comments provided on the papers by teachers, classmates, or tutors are applicable only to that one instance of fixing the paper as opposed to being applied to the student writer’s past, present, and future writing occasions. Because of this tendency to isolate writing occasions, teachers must work to make instruction stick for the long run and be a “bridge” to other writing assignments, as opposed to only applying the material to the one instance of the paper (p. 10). This IRB-approved study examines qualitative survey data about peer review from one semester of a first-year writing class and the partnering writing center. Results indicate that students connected peer review to error hunting, which implies that feedback is about a single paper, rather than about developing general writing skills. Recommendations based on this study include shifting peer review to include “encouraging tone” and commentary outside of the paper itself, which can result in developing confidence for student writers (p. 6).
Keywords
Peer review, Writing center, First-year composition
Recommended Citation
Conner, Stephanie and Gray, Jennifer P., "Teaching Tone: Utilizing Writing Center Coaching in First-Year Composition Peer Review" (2014). Georgia Educational Research Association Conference. 6.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gera/2014/2014/6
Teaching Tone: Utilizing Writing Center Coaching in First-Year Composition Peer Review
Room 212
Many first-year writing students represent writing assignments as distinct moments or “discreet units,” as described by composition scholar N. Sommers (2013, p. 10). In these cases, the comments provided on the papers by teachers, classmates, or tutors are applicable only to that one instance of fixing the paper as opposed to being applied to the student writer’s past, present, and future writing occasions. Because of this tendency to isolate writing occasions, teachers must work to make instruction stick for the long run and be a “bridge” to other writing assignments, as opposed to only applying the material to the one instance of the paper (p. 10). This IRB-approved study examines qualitative survey data about peer review from one semester of a first-year writing class and the partnering writing center. Results indicate that students connected peer review to error hunting, which implies that feedback is about a single paper, rather than about developing general writing skills. Recommendations based on this study include shifting peer review to include “encouraging tone” and commentary outside of the paper itself, which can result in developing confidence for student writers (p. 6).
