In my head, peer review was going to be the turning point for all essays. I’d read through the rough drafts, find common errors through them, and formulate guidelines for the peer review to follow. This worked well the first and second time. Most students had their papers in hand to exchange with their chosen classmates, took them home, and brought back critiqued copies. I’d glance through them to make sure my guidelines were met and either give a check, 1/2, or zero depending on level of completion.
As the semester progressed, students began realizing that if they weren’t present on the day of the exchange they wouldn’t receive any papers to critique and thus did not have to do the critique! In attempt to close this rather gaping loophole I’d send group emails to clusters of three (or whatever numbers allowed) absentee students asking them to use the email to exchange their rough drafts, print, and critique for return next class. The most common thing to happen was one of the three would send the draft and I’d get an email from them later asking what they should do, as the other two maintained radio silence. In fact, there wasn’t a single successful e-mail exchange. The likely cause of the silence was not-completed drafts–but I’ll never know.
When the critiques became due it was commonplace to hear “I wasn’t here for the exchange. Will I get points off my essay?” as I made my way around the room. “Not directly,” I’d reply “but without a second pair of eyes, you’re doing yourself a disservice and that might lower the grade.” The smile and “Oh, okay!” was one of the more viscous things I had to swallow throughout the semester.
In conclusion, working with people still sucks.