CLICK HERE for my peer review of Hannah Will’s paper 3
The more I experience peer review, the more I have come to appreciate it. The peer review I have received has been very helpful in improving my work, but giving peer review has been just as useful or perhaps even more so. I missed the class in which we were assigned peer review groups for Project #3, and due to being behind in the course did not have work of my own to be reviewed. When I attended class the day of peer review, I sat in with one of the groups and tried to add to the discussion as best as I could, following along with the writing they were critiquing. Being a part of the conversation that was had and seeing the drafts of my peers really helped me to finally get started on my paper. I have found that for me, discussion is absolutely essential in turning loose ideas into more coherent thoughts and eventually words on paper. In order to still get some written peer review work in for the project, I ended up being assigned the work of a peer from another cohort to review. I’m used to the group model of peer review, so when it came to reviewing Hannah’s essay it felt like the quality of review I was able to provide was higher than it might normally be (which is why I’m featuring it here). Although I have taken this course before and as such have a good amount of experience with peer review, it has always been somewhat difficult for me to be critical of someone’s work without feeling like I’m stepping over a line of sorts. This “timidness” in the past could result in me not offering enough critique, or in me critiquing something but being hesitant to propose any kind of solution. I feel like I have gotten far better with my peer review in both of those areas this semester, and that I demonstrate this improvement in my review of Hannah’s work. In the first comment on page 3, I say that I feel the paragraph in question has too much summary, and then I offer a suggestion of how she could better utilize the space. I make an effort to not be nitpicky but still point out potential points for growth whenever I see them, such as suggesting Hannah use some more specific and definitive language in multiple places in her writing. By offering encouragement alongside my critique, I feel as though I can help give the writer the confidence in their own ideas to write stronger arguments. This process of giving peer review also causes me to think about my own work in the same context, which has been incredibly valuable.
