Developing Stronger Peer-to-Peer Feedback in the Undergraduate Creative Writing Workshop

Allie Oosta; Rori-Leigh Hoatlin

Allie Oosta Grand Valley State University
Rori-Leigh Hoatlin Grand Valley State University

Abstract

This analysis of peer-to-peer feedback explores the types of feedback most prominently seen in the 200-level introductory course, the 300-level intermediate courses, and the 400-level advanced course in creative writing at Grand Valley State University. The undergraduate creative writing students who completed this study observed writing workshops, interviewed writing faculty, surveyed writing students, and analyzed over three hundred peer-to-peer feedback letters. The results of the study showed that undergraduate writing students often supplied reaction-based comments that were negative and vague, but rarely gave specific and positive advice that was technique-based. This study suggests that undergraduate writers would benefit from pedagogies developing more balanced peer-to-peer feedback in the creative writing workshop.

Author Biographies

Allie Oosta, Grand Valley State University

Allie Oosta graduated from Grand Valley State University with a BA in Writing in April 2011. At Grand Valley, she worked as a lead writing consultant for two years, and in 2011 the East Central Writing Centers Association named her “Outstanding Tutor of the Year.” Allie intends to continue her education in writing studies and aspires to direct a writing center someday.

Rori-Leigh Hoatlin, Grand Valley State University

Rori-Leigh Hoatlin attended Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, from 2007 to 2011, graduating with a BA in Creative Writing in August 2010. She is currently a first-year graduate student studying for her MFA in Creative Nonfiction at Georgia College & State University (GCSU) in Milledgeville, Georgia. She is assistant to the supervisor at GCSU’s Writing Center and assistant editor of the East Central Writing Center Association biannual newsletter.