User:Saxophonic and Smooth/The Death of the Author/EmRoseSouth Peer Review

General info

 * Whose work are you reviewing?

(Saxophonic and Smooth)


 * Link to draft you're reviewing
 * User:Saxophonic and Smooth/The Death of the Author
 * Link to the current version of the article (if it exists)
 * The Death of the Author

Evaluate the drafted changes
(Compose a detailed peer review here, considering each of the key aspects listed above if it is relevant. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what feedback looks like.)

Hey Max,

It was really interesting to read about "Death of the Author" and learn more about your interests through your contributions! I think your addition on pedagogy is really important and as an ex-teacher, I think it makes a contribution that will "keep on giving!" A few notes that I hope might help you with any revisions:

-Section header: I might create a new section for your contribution. "Influences and Overview" is already a pretty broad heading with some rambly information from past Wikipedia writers. In order to draw attention to your section and the contribution it adds, I'd give it its own heading, maybe "Application in Critical Pedagogy" or something.

- Writing style: Maybe I'm over-used to grading middle school writing, but I think your writing style might come across as a bit complex for Wikipedia generally. Perhaps going through and simplifying your language for a more general audience would aid the flow of your additions. Additionally, try to focus your writing on an explanation of 'Death of the Author' (as that is the article focus), even while discussing it's pedagogical applications.

- - For example - - "Scholarship on pedagogy has also taken up several themes from 'Death of the Author' and applied them to different domains of academic and instructional research. While specific projects vary, concerns across research construct theoretical frameworks that rely on Barthes’s notion of emphasizing the reader’s impressions in textual practices." - - might be re-oriented and condensed a bit: "'Death of the Author' left an impact on applied educational theories, as themes of Barthe's essay, such as the primacy of reader's impressions, were integrated into educational settings by teachers and pedagogical scholars alike.

- - " However, viewed through a pedagogical lens, researchers Educational theorists' regard encounters between students and texts as dialogic," (citation needed)

- - "Along these lines, scholarship has explored broad and varied topics within pedagogy, such as information literacy instruction, critical thinking skills and literary interpretation, academic subjectivity, and writing pedagogies." So interesting! Very helpful overview here.

- - "For example, a model of information literacy instruction for librarians extends Barthes’s idea of deemphasizing author-centered ways of understanding texts by promoting dialogues between librarians and students. The goal of this model is for the librarian to listen to the student’s values and beliefs and move from being a “fact provider” and adopt a “learner-centered” approach." This illustration is great, and really helps bring the substance of your section into focus for the reader.

- - "Additional research on developing critical thinking skills in interpreting literary texts extends this idea of shifting responsibility of learning onto the learner. [7] Specific to the classroom environment, this research considers how literature can be used as a conceptual link for students to bridge the classroom content to the outside world." Is there a reason this citation splits these two lines? I would move the citation to the end of these two lines if it applies to both, which I'm gathering it does.

- - " In a Barthesian tradition," YES! Loved this here, as it makes the case for your section as a whole in a simple, but effective way.

- - "In a Barthesian tradition, its pedagogical aim stresses pedagogues respect the student (reader)s(') subjectivity by scaffolding literary question s ing, that start(ing) at the surface but eventually ris(ing) to an interpretive level, (thereby) encouraging students to express their own (interpretations of the text). views. Importantly, personal response is emphasized in this model over and challenges any notion of “right or wrong” answers.

- - "Interestingly, other research has drawn on “Death of the Author” only to subvert its original ideas of disrupting the singularity of author-centered literary criticism and interpretation by suggesting collaborative methods of authorship that enable plural pathways of knowledge." might be simplified to "Additional theory on literary interpretation subverts the original themes of 'Death of the Author' by suggesting collaborative methods of authorship enable (plural?) pathways of knowledge, thereby disrupting the singularity of author-centered approach."

- - " For example, in a recent attempt to challenge the “individualist author model of scholarship in the humanities,” scholars experimented with forms of peer production and publishing by pursuing an authorial collaboration of writing among scholars." Again, great clarification through example here.

- - "Although the model articulates an authorial stance, it advances Barthes’s ideas of encouraging multiple perspectives, interpretations, and ideological positions through the use of language by rendering authorship a pursuit of collective intelligence that calls into question traditional norms of scholarship" Fascinating!

- - Love this youth and teacher example. Are they related to collective writing? "The first explores having (the collective writing process of?) a group of youth with disabilities (as they) convey their life-narratives through fictional stories, while the second looks at teacher candidates co-authoring writing autobiographies with specific attention to their (shared?) values about teaching.

- - Both take up the idea of a text’s demonstrate the potential for dialogic engagement with between a text and its' constructor of meaning, and how (argue) that a dialogic process is essential for self-reflexivity and empowerment in the literacy process.

I hope some of these suggestions help you tighten your piece as it comes closer to publication! Great job, Max, and I'm looking forward to reading the final piece!

Em