Well…this Peer Editing activity was a bit of a flop.

I tried teaching my students how to ask specific questions of their peer editors.  Instead of yes/no questions such as “Is this good?” I wanted questions like, “How could I improve my second point so that it more clearly relates to my thesis?”

I asked them to prepare specific, open-ended questions to which the peer editor should respond as fully as possible.  The peer editor had time to read the essay and the questions, and think about their answers prior to recording a five minute audio conference with the writer.

I asked the students to email me their audio recordings, which I listened to.

In general, the questions were weak and the responses were of limited help.

Back to the drawing board!