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peer reviews are the most depressing part of college (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by to c/chat@hexbear.net
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I am in a senior level undergrad seminar course focusing on the environmental history of imperialism in Africa. We are reviewing each other's introductions. They can't write folks. They just can't write. These people are graduating with me. Sometimes they are even getting the same degree as me and I feel like I am reading a highschooler's essay they wrote in an hour! I genuinely do not believe they even proof read this once. I can forgive the sentences that say nothing and the paragraph that don't say much more than the sentences. But I cannot forgive the abominable grammar and spelling.

God it just fills me with dread. Maybe I just got the worst peer reviews. Maybe the other people in this course have better writing but there are only 14 people and I reviewed 3 of them.

I'm trying so hard to be productively critical but if I were to honestly offer every critique I had they would need a new essay. I would look like such an immense asshole if I put every correction I think NEEDS to be made. Not even including the changes that should be made. I have to keep reminding myself that I can't save them. Nothing I do here is going to teach them effective writing. I am consoling myself with the idea that they wrote this in an hour or two before the deadline with 0 research having been done.

I just, idk comrades. It's bleak. I think I'm gonna grab a beer for this next one.

Edit: the beer is helping

edit edit: decades of passive voice usage has had severe consequences. I am begging my fellows students to use an active voice, absolutely begging.

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[–] [S] 3 points 1 week ago (3 children)

thankfully not

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  • [–] 4 points 1 week ago* (2 children)

    thankfully not

    Excellent. If I was in your shoes, I would, constructively, eviscerate the essays you've been given. Rip it to shreds. Because if it's not you ripping it to shreds, it's a professor or someone more important in a context where it damages more than your colleagues' egos. At least, that's what I want when I ask people to review my work. I always want my work ruthlessly torn apart and made better.

    I am more forgiving of the inability to communicate because I see that as more of a systemic failure.

    I mean I would argue that being incompetent at proofreading, or not having been sufficiently motivated to proofread their work is also due to a systemic failure of the education system. Frankly, in my view, it is a corollary of the overall systemic discouragement of critical thinking in elementary school.

    I have been trying to focus on correcting their use of the passive voice as much as possible and encouraging them to be more specific in certain instances.

    Put a blanket comment, i.e. you don't have to individually list every single instance of it.

    I am not trying to injure their ego too much.

    Do you owe them an uninjured ego? If they can't take critique, that's on them, not you.

    I know these students and the review is not anonymous.

    So don't be mean, be critical. If they're worth keeping around, they'll appreciate your effort. And again, if they get upsetti spaghetti at you for doing the thing you were explicitly asked to do... that's on them.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago* (1 child)

    So don't be mean, be critical. If they're worth keeping around, they'll appreciate your effort. And again, if they get upsetti spaghetti at you for doing the thing you were explicitly asked to do... that's on them.

    There's a point at which pointing out more mistakes starts feeling mean regardless of accuracy, and if we're trusting the op these essays are probably past it. Suggesting they brush that aside as "that's on them, not you" is overly dismissive of their concern because this thread would just be venting rather than sincerely asking for advice if that solution were as easy for them as it is for you.

    I'd be uncomfortable spending time around someone I think I may have upset regardless of whether they'd be justified in that, so that's a situation I would be trying to avoid too. I used to see this kind of thing as a weakness in myself, but as I've aged I think that kind of sensitivity is the reason I've been able to make strong connections. Sometimes you'll stumble on a person who reads that kind of caution as a compassion, and those have very much been the people I've needed in my life. Those connections are very rare and you're not running into them every day, but if you kill that part of yourself they'll never find you.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 week ago*

    Suggesting they brush that aside as "that's on them, not you" is overly dismissive of their concern because this thread would just be venting rather than sincerely asking for advice if that solution were as easy for them as it is for you.

    Yeah I probably overstated my perspective. Like I did not mean to completely dismiss the need to not be excessively critical, but my thinking is that... they're in an academic context where they're being explicitly asked to be critical. There's always a balance to be struck, but in this context I thought it would be appropriate to err on the side of more critical.

    But also I... don't think the solution is easy for me? Like I am constantly finding myself navigating the fine line between criticalness and contentiousness. And I'm really really bad at reading social cues so I occasionally end up on the wrong side of the line.

    And really, I did not mean the part you quoted as general life advice. I really meant it for this specific situation, where they're being explicitly asked to leave critical feedback in an academic context.

    I'd be uncomfortable spending time around someone I think I may have upset regardless of whether they'd be justified in that, so that's a situation I would be trying to avoid too.

    Me too tbh. Like there was someone I really pissed off a few weeks back because I was being critical in the wrong context and they thought I was trying to be disrespectful. I apologized profusely and we hashed it out, but I still feel fucking terrible over it 😖. Thank you for the critique.

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