Peer review like a grad student: opportunities and rules

One of the basic survival tactics of grad student life is peer review: writing seminar papers I would always talk over a draft of my ideas with a friend a day or two before the essay was due, just so I could be sure I wasn't being stupid or boring. Now that I'm writing my dissertation I use my peers as an early line of defense before turning in chapters to my advisor. In addition to all this, reading my peers' work gives me a sense of what this writing should sound like: sitting alone in front of my computer I'm often confused about what I'm doing, so being able to say "Well, at least I know what Kevin's doing" makes it a lot easier for me to feel like I'm on track.

I doubt many of you are headed out to grad school after this class, but frankly this tactic is relevant for any profession that requires much by way of writing -- that is to say, for any profession that requires a college degree.

I would love for you to peer review your second essays, and strenuously. Peer reviewing is an option, but it's not a fluffy option. Here are the rules:

1. Going through peer review counts as writing two hebdomadals, and your work here will be scored out of 4 points -- 2 points for your draft and 2 points for your comments on your peer's draft. As with hebdomadals, more points will be awarded (up to 3 out of 2) for especially kickass work.
   
2. Pick a classmate to work with. If you know (or can at least describe) the classmate you'd like to ask to be your peer reviewer, feel free to ask me for his/her email address; if you would like a peer reviewer but don't have anyone specific in mind, post a comment here with enough identifying clues (first name + initial of last name, say) that another student can ask me how to contact you.
3. Exchange full, final drafts. These must be drafts that you wouldn't have been embarrassed to hand in to me -- indeed, you will be handing them in to me. I will skim through your drafts and give you a grade between 0 and 2 (or potentially up to 3) for your work, a rough estimate of what I would have given your essay if you had turned it directly in to me. Remember that I give a lot of F's.
4. When you send your draft to your peer, include a list of specific things you would like him/her to look at. I highly recommend looking back at my comments on your first essay -- those are the sorts of issues you want to be especially sure to avoid making this second time around.
   
5. Comment on your peer's draft. I will require a copy of your comments, so if you work from a physical copy remember to photocopy your comments so I can look them over. As you know, I'm a huge fan of commenting in Word so you can always go that direction.
   
6. After you have written extensive marginal comments on your peer's draft, fill out this worksheet (RTF version). The goal here is to encourage you to critique these essays the way I do, and if that means you need to drink three espressos and get all cantankerous because you've read hundreds of literary analysis essays and they all sound the same damnit dammit then by all means do that. Don't be afraid to write things like "I think this bit of textual analysis is awesome, but Mike will probably complain that the narrator's intervention into the novel has already been analyzed to death."
   
7. Return your comments. Make sure I have (1) a full copy of the draft you gave to your peer, and (2) a full copy of all your marginal notes on your peer's draft, and (3) your responses to the worksheet questions. Presumably I will get a fully copy of the draft you gave to your peer when your peer sends me his/her comments on it, but it's probably better to play it safe and give me a clean copy as well. If you wrote out your comments and responses on a hard copy of your peer's essay that's absolutely fine -- just make sure I get a photocopy of everything.
8. One final, optional step: if you choose to meet and talk over your responses for twenty minutes or so -- the length of time it takes to drink a latte, say -- I'll give you both an extra point. Send me a picture of the two of you together as proof, or else write up a brief description of the scene, movie script style. ("It's early evening at the Open Book Cafe, and the fluorescent-lit cup of the room is filled to the brim with nervous underclassmen wearing iPod earbuds and staring intently at fully-highlighted pages from their zoology textbooks. A bolt of lightning flashes outside. As the lights dim, I see in the distance my peer reviewer, wearing an evil smirk and a hipster t-shirt.")