Graduate-Level Peer Review Design to Support Native and Non-Native Speakers of English

1. Graduate-Level Peer Review Design toSupport Native and Non-Native Speakers of English Anne Zanzucchi, Ph.D. University of California, Merced

2. Overview • Peer review allows students to explore the nature of authority, standards of effective argumentation, and disciplinary conventions • Scientific reporting benefits from a humanities perspective, particularly attention to rhetorical analysis and metaphor

3. Graduate Student Writing Needs Graduate students often exhibit needs in such areas as: • Developing writing process strategies (Torrance et al., 1994) • Employing persuasive arguments (Alter & Adkins, 2006) • Enacting effective revision techniques (DeLyser, 2003) * Only 10% of UCM graduate students had experience with peer review, prior to the course.

4. Defining text improvement “We cannot succeed in making even a single sentence mean one thing; we can only increase the odds that a large majority of readers will tend to interpret our discourse according to our intentions.” George Gopen, Associate Director of the Duke University’s Writing Program

5. Fluid Mentoring Roles • “The most important thing that I learned was how to go about editing work for others and how to work as a group. The group dynamic was very important.” • Sample Wiki Page

6. Course Learning Outcomes We anticipated students would learn how to: • Identify a desired academic style and structure based on the existing literature, • Provide substantial feedback to peers, attending to both local and global consideration, and • Judge and incorporate relevant feedback to improve drafts.

7. Variation in Methods Sections Condensed • Assumes background knowledge • Avoids named subsections • Uses acronyms and citations as shorthand • Few definitions and examples • Few justifications • Few linking phrasings Extended • Sees need to provide background • Several names subsections • Uses descriptions • A number of “how” statements • Several justifications • Wide range of linking phrases Adapted from page 227 of Swales and Feak’sAcademic Writing for Graduate Students (2004)

8. Telling a Story • “One of the main problems I’ve had in writing is the feeling that anything beyond cookbook explanations of what I’m doing is extraneous. I was exposed to some writing that went so far above and beyond such gross simplicity in conveying ideas that it blew away my expectations from both scientific and non-scientific writing. The main effect was that the workshops proved that one can build upon the story and thereby prove the point s/he was intending to make in a convincing and interesting manner – all while delivering information efficiently.”

9. Works Cited • Alter, C. & Adkins, C. (2006). Assessing student writing proficiency in graduate schools of social work. Journal of Social Work Education. 42(2), 337-354. • DeLyser, D. (2003). Teaching graduate students to write a seminar for thesis or dissertation writers. Journal of Geography in Higher Education. 34(4), 377-388. • Gopen, G. & Swan, J. (Nov-Dec. 1990). The Science of Scientific Writing. American Scientist. 78, 550-558. • Torrance, M.S. & Thomas, G.V. (1994). The development of writing skills in doctoral research students. In R.G. Burgess (Ed.) Postgraduate education and training in the social sciences. (pp. 105-123). London: Kingsley Publishers.