"As the world becomes more and more connected through electronic communication and people become more dependent on Web resources, exploring an effective writing instructional strategy in online collaborative environments becomes imperative."
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Anonymity in Collaboration by Ruiling Lu Trafford Publishing
book review by K.R. Mecom
Ruiling Lu's, Anonymity in Collaboration, is an authoritative and comprehensive study of the process of peer review in college writing courses. While acknowledging the many benefits of peer review, Lu explains some of the drawbacks such as a student's unwillingness to critique their friends and a student's reluctance to take their peer's feedback seriously. To alleviate these many concerns and problems of traditional peer review, the purpose of this book is to introduce the concept of anonymous peer review where the identities of both the reviewer and reviewee are kept secret. As Lu states the purpose of her study is to "add to the limited body of knowledge on anonymous e-peer review and evaluation." Lu goes on to explore in-depth the questions of whether e-peer review would be an effective tool in college writing course, if it could improve students' writing performance, and if it could result in more critical feedback. To conduct the study, Lu used two undergraduate freshman composition classes; the experimental group gave anonymous feedback, while the control group did not. Through a detailed analysis of her collected data, Lu reaches the conclusion that anonymous e-peer review "is a worthwhile endeavor." Not only does Lu successfully conclude that anonymous review helps students' writing, but the feedback it produces is more critical and in-depth than traditional peer review.
Lu's study is an invaluable look into the practices of teaching writing and offers well-thought and researched suggestions for its future. Written in an understandable and engaging voice, Lu carries the reader along with her in her search for answers about anonymous peer review and its benefits.