Title: How many peer reviewers does it take to revise a thesis?
Discipline(s) or Field(s): English
Authors: Terry Beck, Susan Crutchfield, Bryan Kopp, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
Submission Date: April 2, 2004
Our goals:
- Help students revise their essays—particularly their thesis statements—through critical thinking and rhetorical understanding
- Encourage critical conversations between students as writers/readers
- Foster an awareness that writing involves the discovery and development of ideas, involving learning for writers/readers
The “Lesson”
- “Workshop groups”—a small group of students meets with the instructor to discuss the work in progress
- Workshop focus is finding and discussing main idea of the draft.
- Given the recursiveness of writing and individual differences among students, it is challenging to design a lesson about a discrete writing issue.
- Qualitative research (no lab coats)
Preliminary Findings
- The students with the highest abilities seemed to benefit most from the process.
- “Average” students were not engaging in critical conversations and revising their papers to the extent we had hoped.
- Students were struggling with the subject matter itself as well as how to write about it.