Office of Digital Humanities

Computers & the Humanities 210

Peer Review Assignment

As a part of your final project, you will be required to peer review a draft of someone else's stack, and to respond to the review of your project. This review will therefore be in two phases.

1. You will review a classmate's project. You will be assigned a project to review at random. This review should be completed during the class period on the review day. At the end of class you will turn in a copy of your review to the Assignment drop folder, and give a copy to your classmate.
2. You will write responses to the review of your project. Your responses will be made in the stack given to you by the person who reviewed your project, and should be turned in with your final project.

The purpose of this review is not to assign a grade, but to evaluate; find the stack's strengths and weaknesses, much like we did in the Golden Age Critique assignment. It is hoped that doing so with another's stack will help to improve your own, and that the stack's author can benefit from your assessment.

The second part of the assignment is to write brief responses to the review of your project. By reading someone else's comments you should gain valuable ideas on how to improve your project—not to mention get the praise for things you have done well! (Don't worry if you don't have time to implement the recommendations in the review in your final project. It will be enough to read them and comment on them.)

Procedure

Download the PeerReview.rev stack from the Templates folder and rename it YourName-Review of NameOfPersonYouAreReviewing.rev. In this stack you will find specific questions to guide you in your review, along with text entry fields for typing your comments. While you are doing the review, keep these guidelines in mind:

• Make your comments clear, concise and easy to understand. Focus on communicating ideas rather than on the mechanics of writing and composition.
• Work quickly; you will have about 50 minutes, after the seeing your classmate's demonstration and demonstrating your own project, to complete the review stack.
• Offer both sincere praise and courteous, constructive criticism. When you make a statement of praise or criticism, back it up with an example or observable fact.

The peer review assignment is worth 40 total points. The review you do of your classmate's project will be worth 25 points. Your responses to the review of your project will be worth 15 points. You will be graded on the thoroughness of your review and the quality of your observations and responses.

Don't forget: You should give the person whose project you reviewed a copy of your review stack before you leave class. Make sure you also receive a copy of the review of your project from the person assigned to review it.

What to turn in to the Assignment Drop folder:

1. A copy of your review peer review stack, renamedYourName-Review of NameOfPersonYouAreReviewing.rev. This is in addition to the copy you give to the author of the project. Turn this in at the end of class today.
2. A copy of the review of your project with your comments added to the reviewer's. Rename this stack YourName-ReviewResponse.rev. This should be turned in at the same time as your final project.