PRWS is over, and your draft is returned to you. You skip lunch with your friends so you can go home and read your feedback. You start scanning the reviewer's notes, and you're appalled--so appalled that you figure the Guinness Book of World Records guy has just hopped in is car and is booking it down to Athens. You have just gotten the worst peer review feedback THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN. What does it say?
Thursday, April 7, 2011
PRWS Nightmare
Imagine that you're in a peer review session, and you've handed your personal narrative draft over to someone else in class. There are a couple things you really like about this draft: you've managed to portray the characteristics of your mother perfectly, and your use of detail is impeccable. But you're a little worried that you're not showing personal growth, and that your relationship to your place is not totally clear. You express these concerns to your peer reviewer and are truly hoping for helpful feedback...
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The worst peer review to me would have no comments. I would get my paper back to review and all that it would say would be"good job." This would be of no help to me because I already think my paper is good and I need another opinion about what I can improve. If there are no comments I would think my paper is already perfect and I would change nothing, when in reality there are areas of the paper that could use some improvement. WHen reviewing a paper one should point out what was good in the paper and what needs to be improved.
ReplyDeleteThere is not a single sentence of constructive criticism. The peer reviewers have only spell checked the draft. Comments like "I like the great detail" and "I liked the way you described your mother" is mentioned. There is not any comments on how growth is shown and not a single suggestion on how the relationship to the place could be shown. One peer reviewer just drew smiley faces and wrote keep up the hard work. The PRWS did not help at all and I am completely lost on what direction I should take my paper.
ReplyDeleteIf there was a peer review on my rough draft, it would probably say that my ideas might be in the wrong places. I tend to do this if I have to write a rough draft because I might not take it as serious. It also would say that I might have some really stupid grammar errors. Usually I have the right ideas in my paper but I have a hard time deciding where to put certain paragraphs and ideas. Honestly, it would probably say that I didn't seem to take it serious and that it was put together at the last minute.
ReplyDeleteWorst peer review feedback? Been there, done that and the response that really made me laugh was something along the lines of: "O hay, u had lots of bad grammer & stuff so u should fix tat ok?"
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, I expect that the worst thing to hear would be that my story is boring, the writing is elementary, or the person overall hated it. All three would just be a low blow. If someone wrote on my draft: "Everything about this just inspired pure, unadulterated rage inside of me due to the flat characters and the banal storyline. It was so bad that cutting out my own eyes with a rusty fork would have been more enjoyable" then yeah, I would be pretty upset. Give me criticism on how to fix it! The worst peer reviews are when the people don't explain what they want or why they disliked it! How am I supposed to make it better if you don't tell me what should do? That's the worst!
Your paper sucks. I can't believe you think that this is actually an acceptable piece of writing. What are you even talking about the whole time? I didn't understand half of your essay and the parts I could somewhat comprehend were boring and stupid. I would say you should start over but I don't know if you're even capable of writing a decent piece. Have a terrible day.
ReplyDeleteThis would be a bad peer review for multiple reasons. One because all the person does is bash the peer's paper. Another reason is because the review doesn't tell the writer how to improve their paper. A good review can be critical but it should also give ideas for how to improve the paper.
This peer review will probably have a few gramatical errors fixed, as i am sure that i have left many on my draft. Rather than leaving any constructive criticism my peer editor has simply said that it looks great. There are no suggestions as to how i could make something sound better or make more sense. The outsiders point of view is not in any way communicated to me.
ReplyDeleteI'n not trying to seem harsh but I have to get to get my point across. Your paper is terrible and I am surprised that you even would let someone read this without hating yourself. It's off the wall, hard to follow, and has no correlation to the prompt that you were given. This paper should be re-written and you should let the professor read it so that I don't wasted my time again. If your next paper is anything like this one then you should drop out of college and tell your parents your a failure. Hope your family doesn't disown you because of this shitty paper, bye.
ReplyDeleteThat would be the word feedback I think I could get on a paper.
A bad peer review would consist of the reader telling me how awful of a writer I am and how I should never attempt to write a paper again in my life, which may not upset me too much, but nonetheless would be disappointing. In this specific case, however, the Guinness Book of World Records guy would be wasting his time because I know for a fact that I am capable of writing an even worse paper than the one I am submitting today.
ReplyDeleteThe peer review could contain suggestions on showing more growth throughout my story, which I initially struggled with. After fiddling with the paper for several more minutes I believe I managed to do a decent job in this. It might also suggest that I need to share more personal details about the story.
I think the worst feedback is no feedback at all. I am not very good at grammar so I always feel bad that I am not a great help with that when I am peer editing someones paper but I always try to at least tell them some things I enjoyed about the paper and think they did well and some things that I think they could work on or change to make it better or more understandable. That may be about their topic, the way they have set up their paper, their details or way their portray their characters. Also it is not very cool when someone is rude and just says they don't like it or you really messed something up other than being helpful with their criticisms.
ReplyDelete"You don't seem to change at all! If anything you are just a static observer of the events that took place. I'm not even sure where the events took place and your mother seems as flat as the paper you shoddily attempted to depict her on. I'm offended that people like you exist in the world.
ReplyDeleteThe essay as a whole is as vapid and empty as I imagine you are. If I were you I would just rewrite the whole thing. You might want to pick a new topic but if you are really this boring, I would try to make something up or bribe someone else to write it for you.
I am trying to understand what you mean here but your sentences are either run on forever or are just fragments. It lacks flow and any sense of originality. The fact that you attempted to include your mother at all in this insipid tale shows how weak of an individual you are. Going back to my earlier point, you are a pathetic excuse for a human being through the whole narrative. Nothing changes but it seems to drag on forever. "
In my eyes the world's worst peer review feedback would appear to be the same paper that you had handed over to be reviewed with no changes. There would be no marks or suggestions for development or growth. The only mark-ups, if there were any, would most likely be simple grammatical errors that need fixing or perhaps a a run-on sentence or two that the peer noticed.
ReplyDeleteI have gotten many peer review papers like this in which my peer hasn't reviewed anything and thus leaves me in the dark in terms of a second opinion. In my eyes a peer review that doesn't give me any opinions or suggestions pertaining to my narrative isn't a helpful peer review at all.
The post I receive begins by commenting that I had not shown enough personal growth in the essay, which is was I had expected. However, the further I read the worse it got. My peers told me I hadn't shown any character development at all. I worked especially hard on the details about the characters in my essay, so that the reader could hopefully relate to them. I don't see how they could overlook how much work I put into it. Then the comments go on to say that I missed the entire point of the essay, and that I should probably start over, or just drop the class because clearly I don't understand anything about writing. How can I be expected to start all over after putting so much work into my first draft? And so maybe my essay was bad, but to say I don't know anything? Now that's just rude.
ReplyDeleteThe feedback says you did not answer any of the questions. Your narrative did not fit the paper or the materials that went with it. Your grammar and spelling was terrible. You need to give more description and details about your characters and the place that means something to you. It sounded like you were writing about situations that were not important to the story. It was dragged out and boring! The narrative is a good story but not what the teacher is looking for. Your story skipped around a lot and was very hard to follow. Your conflict did not really seem like a conflict. If I were you I would rewrite my narrative!
ReplyDeleteI would imagine that the feedback would discuss improper grammar, spelling errors, and a lack of persona and appeal to audience. In terms of grammar and spelling, the reviewer might offer alternative sentences and correct the author's misspellings. The reviewer might also discuss a lack of character development and and add that as a reader, he/she was unable to identify with the characters. The reviewer might explain that he/she was unable to conjure an image of the characters in his/her head. The reviewer might explain that the story simply doesn't make sense and that he/she felt lost while reading it. To solve this, the reviewer might refer to specific points in the story that need clarification.
ReplyDeleteThe feedback would criticize the things he or she did not like, but not explain what I could have done better. Feedback is nearly useless if it does not specify what I could be doing to better convey my message to the audience. The paper would also include offensive comments like "I think the part about your uncle was stupid and totally not interesting to anyone but you!" No one wants to hear that someone does not like their writing so its always a good idea to express only as much constructive criticism as it takes to get the writer to think outside of their own mind.
ReplyDeleteNothing. The worst thing a peer reviewer can subject their fellow classmate to is absolutely nothing. There have been multiple times throughout my academic career where other students have returned my papers completely devoid of any criticism, constructive or otherwise. My freshman year at OU, someone actually told me that my writing was "too above them" to critique. In reality, I think this particular student was just afraid of hurting someone else's feelings. My instructor, for example, found *plenty* of things to critique about that paper. Despite my professors thorough corrections and suggestions, my "feelings" remained intact.
ReplyDeleteA lack of criticism toward any piece, whether it be music, prose, or flim, is infinitely more offensive than some possibly degrading helpful tips. I would much rather end up with a good final product than a mediocre one that no one comments on or cares about.
well i may be appalled and frankly a bit embarrassed that i got that bad of a review, but negative criticism in my opinion is good, and it makes you a stronger writer.
ReplyDeleteI would imagine it would go a little something like this,
Dear Steve,
Your writing sucks, i hate your papers stinking guts, it makes me wanna vomit, it actually is the scum between my toe ( i just envision my critic to be a huge supporter of the little rascals). Anyways you are not nearly as in detail with your characters as your story. it's as if your characters are 2d and everything else is 3d. I mean really how about you just draw stick figures, they are as bland as oatmeal. And whats with the jumping around you have no idea where it starts and where it ends the story follows zeros guidelines. Jeeze you just suck and you should just drop now because your going to get an f on this atrocity of a paper.I suggest that you lock yourself in a room with a match and your paper. Light it on fire and then light whatever self respect and dignity you had (if you had any) as a writer and light that on fire as well.
Sincerely,
Your most hateful critic ever
ps
you suck