This chapter is probably most closely connected to Chapter Eight's discussion of researching with Newsgroups. The two chapters might be taught together or selections of one might be used to supplement the other.
The materials on peer review in this chapter can be helpful regardless of how much you emphasize lists, groups and forums in your class. We suggest, though, that you supplement the peer review section in this chapter with additional materials on accommodating multiple perspectives in writing. Sometimes it can be helpful, especially with papers early in the semester, to provide students with a peer review worksheet that asks them to answer a number of questions about how well their peer's paper performs various aspects of the assignment. These questions can address mechanical, organizational, rhetorical, and/or thematic concerns. The idea is simply to give students a "way in" as they start to critique written work.
Peer review is an exercise that can be extremely helpful for both the reviewer and the reviewee, but it is not a skill that comes naturally to most students. Work on peer editing skills throughout the semester, and find ways of evaluating the review work that give credit to students who make the effort to critically asses their peers' writing.
Exercise 13.1 Critically Evaluating a Newsgroup
Time: This exercise is best done as a homework assignment or a homework/in-class exercise. Try having students look through a newsgroup for homework and then go through the prompts in small groups during class.
Suggestions: Exercise 13.1 is quite similar to the exercises in Chapter Eight. If your students have already completed those assignments, this exercise may be repetitive.
It can be interesting to have several students write up analyses of the same group and then get together to see where they agree and disagree. This is an excellent way to facilitate discussions.
Exercise 13.2 Composing an Appropriate Post
Time: This exercise is probably best done as homework.
Suggestions: Make sure you have students save a copy of the message they post and send it to you via e-mail along with the name of the group to which they have posted. It can be extremely difficult to track down a message if a student can't remember exactly where he or she posted it.
This exercise is best done in conjunction with a paper assignment. See the additional exercises in Chapter Eight for ideas about how to include postings into a multi-staged research project.