36 Module 4: Revising
Step 1 – Discussions and Peer Feedback
Before you begin revising, complete these discussion posts. The first discussion activity is to provide feedback to two classmates on their drafts. The second activity is to help you evaluate the feedback you receive.
Discussion 4A – Peer Feedback
After you submit the initial draft of your essay through the Assignments tool, post a copy of it in the Discussion 4A thread.
You will then provide feedback to two classmates. Ideally you will respond to the person who posted before you and after you (although if you are the first or last to post you will have to pick others).
At this point, do not address spelling, punctuation, or grammar. Remember these are initial drafts that may not have been proofread yet.
Use the Peer Review Form to provide your feedback. The questions on this form will guide you to consider the paper’s strengths, as well as ways it might be made stronger. You will learn about what makes an essay effective through considering these points, and you may even decide that you want to complete the form on your own essay, in addition to the two essays of your classmates.
Discussion 4B – Considering Feedback
Sometimes the feedback we receive from others provides us with suggestions that help us take our paper in the direction we want it to go in. Other times, the feedback is useful because it points us in a direction we don’t want to go in.
Both types of feedback help us to clarify our direction for our essays.
Think about the feedback you received, from the class members and your instructor.
- What specific points of feedback do you want to follow as you revise your paper?
- What specific points did you think about and then decide not to follow? Why?
- What additional ideas and insights did you come up with while thinking about what your reviewers had to say about the draft of your essay?
Respond to at least one other student’s discussion post.
Step 3 – Reading about Revising and Editing
Read these short lessons about revising and editing.
Step 4 – Revision
Revise your essay, considering the feedback you received from your instructor and classmates and your own ideas on how to make your draft even stronger.