An analysis of peer review of writing in a Bilkent University freshman English course

This research study had two main goals. The first one was to find out how Bilkent University Freshman English students participated in peer review sessions. The second one was to find out the perceptions of Bilkent University Freshman English students of the effectiveness of the peer review sessions. The subjects of the study were three Bilkent University Freshman English students fi"om the Economics Department. It was a case study, where, firstly, the researcher videotaped four peer review sessions of one peer review group. Next, the researcher conducted a group interview with the students in the peer review group. The interview had two parts. In the first part, the researcher asked the students ten questions that were determined according to the data obtained from the video recordings of the peer review sessions. In the second part of the interview the researcher asked the subjects’ comments about some scenes in the second and the third peer review sessions. The interview was audiotaped and later both the videotapes and the audiotapes were transcribed for discourse analysis by the researcher. In this case study, the researcher analyzed the transcriptions of the peer review sessions in terms of Issues of Control, The Language That the Students Used, The Peer Review Sheets, and Revising After Peer Review Sessions. The researcher analyzed the transcriptions of the group interview under the following headings: Peer Review: Beneficial or Not, Incorporation of Peer Feedback, Howto Make Peer Review More Effective, Training Before Peer Review Sessions, Peer Review Group Members, Using Native Language in Peer Review Sessions. According to the results, two of the three students were more expressive and they controlled the peer review sessions. Also, the student who was most expressive almost always went to his peers’ papers for specific examples while the most quiet one generally used vague language and did not support his feedback with specific examples . The other student sometimes used vague language and sometimes supported his feedback with specific examples from his peers’ papers. In this study, the researcher argues that the questions on the peer review sheets have an impact on students’ language and suggests that the peer review sheets should have questions that promote discussion and urge the students to go to their peers’ papers for specific examples to support their feedback. Moreover, all three students said that they benefited from the peer review sessions. However, two of the students never revised their writings after peer feedback while one revised only one. The students said that they did not revise because the mistakes that their peers pointed out were not important ones and they wanted to change their writings after they received feedback from their instructor. Finally, the limitations and pedagogical implications of the study are provided.