Peer review is at the heart of science, even social science, these days. It is also highly contested. However, the basic sentiment is noble and ingenious. By letting other knowledgeable people read and critique a text, the author gets a genuine chance at making it better. And any text can get better. Beyond that, by reading other texts with a critical perspective on the argument, the writing, the structure and the language, many people actually learn something about their own writing as well. Sometimes, the mistakes are either to pinpoint, when others make them.
I would like you all to use the opportunity of having texts available during the semester to engage in this activity. Therefore, all texts are available and I ask you to read them all. Please be prepared to give oral comments on at least three of them on Friday. If you have not written an essay, please register here. If you have written one of the papers, please feel free to pick three essays. Your oral comments should be about 2-3 minutes per paper and answer the following questions:
- Does the text address the hypothesis?
- Does the author make a convincing argument?
- Does the text give adequate support/sources/evidence?
You may also, of course, add any other things, that you believe would help improve the text. Keep in mind, that this is a professional courtesy – and I ask you to be both generous and critical.
We will work for about 30-35 Minutes in small groups to get the feedback to the authors. We will then spend the rest of the class discussing the two essay questions in more detail. This will serve as a preliminary conclusion to the first phase of the course.
Tags: writing
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