Oh joy, peer review! This is what I thought as entering the huge, hallow hall on Thursday evening. In the past, I have despised the arduous peer review process. Not because I found it a waste of time, but because my fellow students expected me to edit their mediocre papers until they were perfect, while they spent all of five minutes on mine and saying it was perfect and adorning it with a big...red A+. While it was supposed to be a time to find flaws in your writing, and read the ideas of other people...most people spent it catching up on each others social lives, and twiddling their thumbs. So, when the time came along to start editing Bryan's paper I was not expecting anything different. However, I was completely wrong! Bryan actually took this seriously! I could not believe it, I finally got paired with a student who actually took the time to edit my papers and make helpful suggestions. After spending time reading our papers aloud and exchanging a few memories about the times we wrote about....we started re-reading and editing. All was going well, until Mr. Bob told us it was time to wrap it up. Bryan and I looked at each other in disbelief...how could anyone in room 2208 possibly be done correcting each others papers if Bryan and I were only on page two? So we continued on. A few more flips of Bryan's paper and I was on the last page! But, my time was cut short....Mr. Bob announced that class was almost over and we needed to go back to our seats. Really?! My first positive experience in peer review was now being ended when we have 35 minutes left in class. Am I supposed to accept mediocrity and make do with a job definitely not well done?! I like the feeling that comes with knowing you helped someone out and that another person will benefit from what you did for them. But in the case of Bryan, I am not so sure.
(I actually really enjoyed Thursdays class, and had a lot of fun. And Mr. Bob I really didn't mind that we were told that we had to finish, I thought it was very funny....and I knew we took forever. Everyone knows that dramatizing events makes them much more entertaining though! See you on Tuesday!)
ouch -- you guys are killing me! :) I am sorry though -- I appreciate the work you guys put in and completely acknowledge that my ugly display of planning and math skills was a problem.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, we'll likely go through this at least one more time, with another person added to the group, so you will need to work at being as thorough as possible AND working within some time limitations. Unless you want to make arrangements to continue outside of class, which I'm all for. :)