I've never really been a big fan of peer editing. I think a big part of is has to do with the fact that it was over-played in high school; kind of like the song "Hey There Delilah" is on the radio right now. The first time you hear it, it's pretty catchy, a pretty good song even, but after hearing four or five times a day on the radio, it gets kind of old. What was once a cool song is now just over-played.
Okay, that may not necessarily be it. But in my AP class senior year, we were doing edits at least once a week. As far as AP kids go, there's two types: The Maniacally Difficult Graders and The Weak Sauce Graders.
The Maniacally Difficult Graders, or the MDGs are the the students who get into the nitty-gritty of your paper. Every comma out of place, every misspelled word is duly noted with their heavy read pens. They have no reservations about ripping your paper to shreds in order to make their own look good.
The Weak Sauce Graders, the WSGs, are those who are too timid to give anything but Good Job and Excellent Point on your papers. They don't want to hurt your feelings and thus avoid any form of critique. It's nearly impossible to get any form of constructive criticism out of a WSG.
In my own editing, I find it so hard to find a balance between being a MDG or a WSG. I definitely tend to lean towards being a WSG, only because I don't want to hurt any one's feelings or be too harsh. I want to be objective while still being gracious.
Whenever I need to edit something, I tend to get the same expression as the pencil above; the wide-eyed, blank expression. I kind of freeze up. I think that's why it's taken me so long to get my edits out to Lane and Deven. I've been sitting with that expression for the last few days.
Okay, that may not necessarily be it. But in my AP class senior year, we were doing edits at least once a week. As far as AP kids go, there's two types: The Maniacally Difficult Graders and The Weak Sauce Graders.
The Maniacally Difficult Graders, or the MDGs are the the students who get into the nitty-gritty of your paper. Every comma out of place, every misspelled word is duly noted with their heavy read pens. They have no reservations about ripping your paper to shreds in order to make their own look good.
The Weak Sauce Graders, the WSGs, are those who are too timid to give anything but Good Job and Excellent Point on your papers. They don't want to hurt your feelings and thus avoid any form of critique. It's nearly impossible to get any form of constructive criticism out of a WSG.
In my own editing, I find it so hard to find a balance between being a MDG or a WSG. I definitely tend to lean towards being a WSG, only because I don't want to hurt any one's feelings or be too harsh. I want to be objective while still being gracious.
Whenever I need to edit something, I tend to get the same expression as the pencil above; the wide-eyed, blank expression. I kind of freeze up. I think that's why it's taken me so long to get my edits out to Lane and Deven. I've been sitting with that expression for the last few days.
1 comment:
I appreciate your sensitivity with regard to this part of our course. But I think the letters you sent to both your peers were wonderfully balanced and very insightful.
And to complicate your taxonomy a bit, I would propose at least a third category, TEIR, or "Thoroughly Engaged Idea Responders." By this, I really want you all to forgo the grammarian route and avoid the endless compliments, and instead ask lots of insightful, critical question--to help your peers think more critically about their purpose, argument, organization, and the big picture. Editing is important, but it is in many ways secondary to the content of any given paper.
Keep up the good work!
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