Introduction
Figure 1. Example suggestions from peer review on an essay.
Peer response, also known as peer review or peer feedback, is an integral part of the writing process, especially in the American education system. Many students utilize peer review as part of their revisions from a very young age. One main reason why teachers implement peer review into the writing process is because the benefits are vast. An article published in the Journal of Second Language Writing, titled “To give is better than to receive: The benefits of peer review to the reviewer’s own writing”, states that peer review “is an important activity which allows writing teachers to help their students receive more feedback on their papers as well as give students practice with a range of skills important in the development of language and writing ability, such as meaningful interaction with peers, a greater exposure to ideas, and new perspectives on the writing process” (Lundstrom and Baker 2009). Benefits of peer review are further discussed in the article published in the International Journal of Assessment and Evaluation, titled “Peer Feedback in Writing: Opportunities for Collaboration and Potential Pitfalls” which states that “Peer feedback also increases learners’ motivation and self-confidence (Topping 2000; Ruegg 2015), and it enhances their social and cognitive skills (Keh 1990; Rollinson 2005)” (Azaza and Khemakhem 2020). However, since peer feedback is performed so often in schools, students have developed their own opinions, both negative and positive, of peer review. Many of the negative opinions hinder the effectiveness of peer review. My hope with this research paper is to disprove many of these common misconceptions about peer feedback so students will be able to utilize peer review to its full potential and gain maximum benefit from it.
Figure 2. Students working on writing in class.
A very common belief about peer review is that certain demographics give bad feedback, whether they are an English second language (ESL) student or just have a shaky English background. These groups of students are perceived to have bad English and therefore, people worry that the suggestions these students will provide may be invalid and unhelpful. This is explained in University of Hawaii professor, George Jacobs’s research paper, titled “Miscorrection in Peer Feedback in Writing Class” where the author points out that “students may tend to disregard some of their peers’ suggestions because they lack confidence in their peers’ ability to give them correct advice on their ’writing” (Jacobs 1989). However, these fears are unfounded as studies conducted and detailed later in the article show that most suggestions from peer feedback, including those given by ESL students, very rarely make an essay worse. A large majority of suggestions given by students in peer feedback have been found to either be beneficial to the overall writing or have no impact upon the writing (Jacobs 1989).
Another common belief about peer review is that it is only beneficial for the person whose writing is being reviewed. Only the writer of the paper gains tangible improvement, in the form of suggestions on their paper, making this view very easy to buy into. However, studies have found that peer reviewing improves the reviewer's writing skills (Lundstrom and Baker 2009). I will further elaborate upon this later using facts from research conducted in classrooms. I hope that this research along with my analysis and take on it will convince students that peer review is beneficial for the reviewer, resulting in them putting more effort into the peer feedback that they give other students.
Figure 3. Two students collaborating together on peer feedback.
To disprove these common misconceptions about peer review I am going to first examine the results of the primary research I conducted to show that these beliefs are common, especially among students in UWP1. I will then utilize secondary sources such as research articles and academic journals to provide key facts that go against these beliefs. Lastly, I will analyze secondary source information to further disprove common misconceptions about peer review. Hopefully, by the end of this research paper these misconceptions about peer review will be shown as incorrect causing a shift in attitude towards peer review for many of the readers.