Graduate level students are often placed in a box. Many believe these students are self-assured and ready to tackle any problem. Afterall, they made it to this level. They have already successfully completed a bachelor’s or master’s degree, so taking more classes can’t be that hard. Yet, does this box fit all graduate level students? Of course not. Consider the students returning to school after several years. The last time they wrote an academic paper could have been in the early 90s before Google. 

I was one of those students. I returned to school after 25 years to work on my terminal degree. I knew how to use Google, but I hadn’t written any type of research paper in decades. During those first few courses,  I remember questioning my abilities and wondering if I made the right decision to return to school after so long. These doubts and lack of confidence lingered through many of the beginning courses within the program. However, I persisted, worked through my doubts and attained my Ed.D.

When I was given the opportunity to teach an online academic writing class to graduate students, I knew I would approach them with my experiences in mind.  I clearly remembered my feelings of insecurity during those first few courses, so I designed my class with an emphasis on building community and a sense of belonging through the process of peer revision. I used metacognition throughout the semester to help students find their confidence and begin the first steps of building trust with each other so everyone could thrive. 

The Process Begins

For their very first discussion post, I asked students to recall their writing history. I wanted them to write a brief reflection about their early school days to determine if they had any writing experiences that stood out in their memory. Perhaps they could remember a time in middle school when they won the class poetry contest, or a time when they spent days writing a story only to receive a D with red ink splattered all over the words. Early writing experiences often shape a student’s confidence or lack of confidence in their writing (Baverstock & Steinitz, 2019). This low stakes assignment was easy for students to share with others since it spoke of a time from their distant past. 

Students shared their love and hate relationship with writing. They spoke of their frustrations and insecurities. One wrote about the sheer panic of having to read their writing to the class. Another shared that English was their second language, so they never felt comfortable with expressing themselves through writing.  Not everyone had a bad memory of early writing, but the majority felt very uncomfortable even fearful of sharing their writing, especially their academic writing. 

Groups Meet and Share

With this fear in mind, I placed students in groups of four and told them they would be in these groups for the entire semester. Again, I used metacognition to help students process their thoughts about academic writing. Before they wrote a reflection, I shared some poor examples of published academic writing in hopes of improving students’ own self-efficacy. With a few shared examples of “bad writing,” students could begin to feel that perhaps their own writing for this course had a chance. In another discussion post created for the small groups, they shared their reflections about their own experiences with academic writing knowing that eventually they would have to critique each other’s papers. For some, it had only been a few years since they had taken classes, yet, they revealed that in those years since taking a class, writing consisted of only emails, nothing of any substance. 

Groups then had an online meeting to share possible topics for their first paper and create group norms for future meetings. Students also shared how they preferred to receive feedback and what to do if comments from peers became too harsh. This metacognitive exercise allowed students an opportunity to reflect on their own learning styles and preferences then reveal them to the people who would provide feedback. 

Groups shared their first academic papers for the course and then met online again to discuss possible suggestions for revision. For this meeting, they had an understanding of people’s insecurities about writing as well as what kind of feedback worked best for each person. Students were required to record and submit their online peer review sessions along with an individual reflection. 

How Did it Go?

Students’ reflections described their experience with the peer review meeting; they answered the following: Do you think the peer revision session was successful? Was the feedback helpful? Will you use the feedback? What suggestions do you have for your next peer review meeting? I was the only one who read the reflections, but I shared some of the more common suggestions to help make the second peer review session even stronger.  

The peer review sessions allowed students to engage in authentic conversations about writing. They discussed readings and topics from class as they answered each other’s questions and provided feedback about writing. This shared experience gave students the opportunity to learn from others as they compared their writing styles and listened to feedback. 

After a total of three peer review sessions, students wrote their final reflection. This metacognitive exercise prompted students to reflect on the entire course with an emphasis on the peer review writing groups. Overwhelmingly, students found the groups a success. They felt supported, and they increased their confidence with writing. Students felt they now had at least one other student to share future writing with. Feeling comfortable with sharing writing, opinions, and feedback with a classmate will help students navigate the next courses in the program. 

The use of metacognition throughout the course allowed students to consider their own feelings about academic writing and address any insecurities they might have. They also analyzed the type of feedback that works best for them so that peer review sessions could benefit each individual student. As students shared their feelings, their feedback, and their writing with the group, they began to build trust with each other and bolster confidence within themselves. These skills will follow each student as they move through the program. 

References

Baverstock, A., & Steinitz, J. (2019). What makes a writer? how do early influences shape, and working habits develop, those who write? Publishing Research Quarterly, 35(3), 327–351. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-019-09660-w