SQR #2

Andrew Schlieper
Eng 1320/1301.161
9/9/10
Trang Phan

SQR #2
S: When revising an essay, students tend to give general statements to their peers in group revision. Student’s comments fall into 3 different categories; vague, general but helpful, and specific. Vague comments are “the essay needs more revision on page 2”. General but helpful comments are “the second paragraph needs more elaboration”. And a specific statement is “The second paragraph needs more elaboration on why the election was close”. Because children tend to look for general or easy to spot mistakes, the students tended to be vaguer with criticism than adults. Although vague statements were common, students tended to still be helpful with their statements. 53% of comments were general but useful, 19% were vague, and 28% were vague. When the students were put into a study, and taught how to comment properly the statistics changed, 42% specific, 46% general but useful, and 14% vague. The study showed that teaching the students the proper way to critique a peer’s essay will help all parties. The study was done again a month later and it showed further increase in Specific comments and a drop in general but useful and vague.
Q: How has this information help you?
R: I have learned that knowing how to critique an essay will help me and the peers I critique in the end. This essay is a short but simple way to say “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. I would hope that my peers give me great critiques.