Q and R 3

Why do we as students give vague responses?


I think that there are a few main reasons why students give simple criticisms or praises.

One of the problems could be that students don’t really understand the piece we are reading, or we are not reading as critically as we should. Sometimes we have a bad habit of reading a paper topically and not using the rhetorical strategies we have talked about in class, and therefore we miss the point of the text. Since we did not pay attention to the details and ask ourselves about what is going on, we only have shallow opinions about it. Often as a student I personally pretend that I understand what someone is trying to say when I don’t because I feel the topic is too complicated or it doesn’t relate to me.

Students may be lenient with their criticism of their peer’s work because they do not want to hurt their feelings, or maybe even want others to be lenient when their work is under criticism. Students might feel that the level their peers are writing at is exactly the level they are writing at, and recognize flaws in one person’s paper as universal. A lot of students are not confident in their work. And when students must “take a turn reading their drafts aloud as the other students follow along”(p52) they get embarrassed with their work. How can one be confident in the criticism they are giving if they are not sure of their own work? Sometimes the bigger problem is that students fear the criticism of their peers, when in fact strong and detailed criticism from peers helps a student better their paper. The constructive criticism helps students “revise with the suggestions in mind” (p52)

I feel that if as students, we can learn to be more comfortable with our work being criticized, and being more attentive when reading or listening to other’s work, we can be comfortable with giving well founded, detailed criticisms of our peers’ texts.