An effective peer revision method for engineering students in first-year English courses

Peer revision workshops are a common feature in most composition classes; however, too often students complain that they gain little from having their peers read their writing. They feel that their peers know as little as they do, and although practice shows that peer reviewers are able to identify problematic areas in a paper, student-writers are often unwilling to listen to the advice of their peers. Similarly, some teachers have unrealistic expectations for peer review sessions, some give extensive peer review sheets that take vast amounts of time to complete, and some offer their students little in the way of advice as to how to comment on another student's paper. The result can be frustrating for all involved. However, by carefully constructing peer review sheets that match the assignment sheet, grading criteria for the assignment, and the goals for the course, instructors can create effective peer review sessions from which student writers benefit. In this paper, the authors present a guided peer revision tool that can be adapted for any assignment which enables student writers to act as effective peer reviewers.