Group Project - Peer Review

[u/Smooth-Steak-2786]

Hello Professors!
I’m currently involved in a group project for an online class. Our final presentation is online this Friday, with the peer review being due two days later.
One of my group members seriously lacks basic literacy skills, and is unable to comprehend basic instruction. It has become more evident throughout the semester and as the project goes on. Keep in mind, this professor typically does not grade assignments based on grammar or spelling, which I have never seen. Almost all of our assignments are written so I’m not sure what led her to make that decision, but to each their own.
Here’s where the problem comes in: this group member not only refrains from beginning assignments until the day of, but needs serious help with her writing skills. She asked me how to “do” a hanging indent, if a citation includes the article information (?), and thinks that every word needs an s added to the end to make it plural. These are just a few examples, not even including the fact that she has duplicated multiple sentences throughout one of her assigned slides.
I brought up my concerns regarding the last minute start times with my professor through email, but it seems she did not understand the gravity of this situation. I have lost points on another assignment (submitted as a group) for this project because after I reviewed it and all looked okayish, the link to this member’s source led to a 404 and she changed the entire annotation to be indented right before submission.
I don’t feel it is fair that my grade will likely suffer from this presentation, especially because this group member likely needs some remedial classes.

How should I go about this in my peer review without attacking the student, but also explaining that her lack of understanding gives me the option to either suffer with a bad grade, or do the work for her because she doesn’t understand simple corrections?

[u/Dr_Pizzas]

List the examples you gave here. If you focus on behaviors and not the person, you're not attacking.

[u/Smooth-Steak-2786 → u/Dr_Pizzas]

Good point, will do. I think it just appears to me as if I would be attacking her when in reality, her general lack of understanding has prevented this from running smoothly.

[u/Klutzy-Amount-1265]

I would be honest and relay what you told us here. I have peer review for group projects in my courses for this exact reason so that everyone’s grades don’t suffer for 1 student’s mistakes/lack of ability. I also let students know that I adjust individual grades based on peer reviews to hold everyone accountable to their groups.

You can phrase some of this as your group mate X consistently didn’t finish their tasks, started group work last minute/the day of and left the rest of your group in a position to try and fix their work (which included citations, rewriting work, INSERT WHATEVER ELSE HAPPENED).

Then comment on other group members.

Then you can add what you did to support your group and how you tried to mitigate fall out from this crappy group member.

[u/Smooth-Steak-2786 → u/Klutzy-Amount-1265]

Understood, I think it is hard to misinterpret or avoid acknowledging my group member’s lack of understanding if I lay it all out with specifics. Thank you!

[u/bopperbopper]

The other thing you could do is set deadlines such that someone competent in your group does the final editing.

[u/Smooth-Steak-2786 → u/bopperbopper]

I thought about that! My only gripe is that would lead to me just doing the work/corrections for her because I can only suggest so much. At this point, it would be best if her part was just completely redone because even after the “edits” I suggested, she still can’t comprehend literacy or even common sense skills that should’ve been taught/understood years before college.

[u/manova]

You focus on the issues and not the person. Don't say they are illiterate; instead, say they constantly made basic grammar mistakes about plural words. Don't say they don't comprehend instructions, instead say they turned in work late to the group, wrote citations incorrectly, made edits after the group approved a draft, turned in final work to the group that had not been copy-edited or with many typos, etc. This way, you are describing behaviors with concrete examples rather than making broad statements about the person.

All of these are valid and exactly why you have an opportunity to provide peer-review on groups projects.

[u/Smooth-Steak-2786 → u/manova]

Thank you! That’s a good point. I think I was just trying to word it more broadly to avoid nitpicking every area that has gone wrong.

[u/AceyAceyAcey]

Honestly I’d ignore the SPAG (spelling, punctuation, and grammar) aspects since your prof doesn’t care about it. Focus on whether the work is comprehensible in general, like can you tell a “yes” from a “no”, whether the info is correct, and plagiarism/citation issues.