Effects of Anonymity and Non-Anonymity on Students’ Writing Reviews and Corrections

This study compared the effects of employing the senior review activity in two modes of anonymous and non-anonymous reviews. There were seven senior students who have made reviews on the essay writing drafts of two junior classes on the same topic. It was found that the two groups of junior students had positive attitudes toward the mode of reviews they participated in and that senior students had made more constructive comments on junior students’ writing when their names were not disclosed. The findings on senior students’ attitudes also informed that even though they had no problems with the review conditions of either being anonymous or non-anonymous, they preferred to know whose work they were reviewing. The paper discusses some implications for the application of a review activity in a writing classroom as well as directions for future studies.