by Ann Shivers-McNair (asmcnair@uw.edu) Presented at the Graduate Research Network, Computers and Writing, 2014

1. Toward an Ecological View of
Electronic Peer Review:
Agency, Uptakes, and Transfer
Ann Shivers-McNair
University of Washington
asmcnair@uw.edu
The Graduate Research Network at Computers and Writing
2014

2. Research Questions
• Material rhetorical perspectives on agency
suggest that it is dynamic, fluid, relational,
situational (not possessed), and shared by human
and nonhuman entities in a social space.
• Rickert (2013), Dingo (2012), Fleckenstein (2010),
Grabill (2010), Spinuzzi (2008, 2003), Edbauer
(2005)
• How can we explore these perspectives on
agency in a case study of electronic peer review in
a first-year writing class?

3. Case Study: Eli Review in
First-Year Writing
• Course: a first-year writing course taken as a
distribution requirement; 20 students, nearly half
of whom self-identified as multilingual
• Tool: Eli Review (http://www.elireview.com/)
• Total number of peer review sessions: 5 (each tied
to a different writing assignment)

4. Toward an Ecology of
Student Interactions in Peer
Review
•Ratings of
comments
•Critical
reflection/survey
•Final portfolios
•Revision plan
•Critical
reflection/survey
•Final portfolio
•Drafts reviewed
•Comments given
•Review drafts
•Comments
received

5. Tracing Agency in Interaction
Objects of study Place/time What they can show
Student drafts Eli / prior and during
review session
Students working out
ideas
Student comments (to
and from)
Eli / during and after
review session
How students understand
and respond to each
other’s writing
Student revision plans Eli / during and after
review
How writers understand
and take up feedback
Survey/critical reflection
on peer review
Web form in class / end of
quarter
How students perceive
their work and
interactions (with each
other and with Eli) in peer
review
Students’ final portfolios Canvas e-Portfolios/ end
of quarter
How students understand
writing and revision, how
they take up feedback

6. Implications
• Studying the complexity of the “in between,” the
less-obviously marked pedagogical moments
• Agency as an important part of the
transfer/transition phenomenon
• Existing studies of students recognizing
pedagogical moments and responding flexibly and
agentively (Nowacek 2011; Adler-Kassner,
Majewski, and Koshnick 2012; Freedman and
Adam 2000)

7. Moving Forward
• Balancing a distributed agency view with a
research site and study objects that are,
ultimately, human-focused
• Balancing quantitative data and qualitative data—
which objects best illustrate agency-in-interaction?
• What theoretical and pedagogical implications
might a study like this have?