Completing the peer and self-assessment objective for English 101 was easily my least favorite part of the whole class. After finishing our second project, we had to assess both our own parts 1 and 2 as well as a partners. I don’t mind evaluating my own work at all but doing it for a partner is always, always, ALWAYS terrible. The balance between giving helpful criticism and being a jerk is a very fine line …especially if your partner didn’t put any effort in to their project… and let’s just say it was hard to find enough things to praise to balance out all of the changes I suggested. I didn’t (and still don’t) know my partner at all when we were assigned each other. I actually had to ask a friend to even confirm who she was. That made it even worse. This person doesn’t know me at but the one thing they do know about me is that I gave them a brutally honest peer review. On the other hand, reviewing myself was much easier. I could be as picky as I wanted towards my own writing without offending anyone and it was helpful. If we had done this before turning in our parts 1 and 2 I think I could have gotten a better grade. I was able to pick out some of the mistakes (both silly and understandable) that I hadn’t noticed before.
English 101: Learning Outcomes 