Writing Assignment Instructions:

For each writing assignment, you will first submit a draft that will be read by your peers; if you want to remain anonymous, be sure not to put your name anywhere in the file that you submit as your first draft.  It is also recommended that you double-space your assignment so that there is room for your peers to write comments directly on your paper if they think that would be helpful during the peer review process.

To see the deadline for the first draft of each writing assignment, see the Assignments page.  If you miss this deadline, you will not get any peer feedback on the assignment, and you will permanently lose points from your final grade. 

Once the initial deadline for your first draft of the writing assignment has passed, you will be assigned three other student papers to read.  You will also be asked to review your own paper using the criteria that I will use when grading your work.  As you read each paper, you will have to answer several questions about the paper and to assign points for each category - this will be the same way that I will assign grades when I grade your final draft.  If another student has not submitted their paper, you may see an error message which reads something like: "the user submitted no evaluation for this question and zero points will automatically be awarded;" in this case you need not do anything - there is no paper for you to review, so you will not lose any points - simply review the papers that were submitted.  Your comments on your fellow students' papers will be due exactly one week after the deadline for the initial draft.  You cannot submit comments late. 

After the deadline for the peer review has passed, you will be able to view the comments that other students made on your paper.  Read these carefully and then revise your paper.  The revised final version will be due exactly one week after the deadline for the peer review (i.e. two weeks after the deadline for the first draft).  If you have missed the peer review deadline, you may still submit a final draft, but you will lose significant points, and you will not have peer comments to use to improve your writing before submitting your assignment.