Okay, over the past couple of days I have been working with a few other writers as part of a peer review of the last project for the summer term. I must admit I am a little tentative to comment on this last peer review. Namely because in a group of three (including myself) I was only able to peer-review with one other person in my group. This is not because I neglected the third member of our group, but because this third member neglected to adhere to the posted deadlines. Our projects were due by 8/13 at midnight and our peer review session was scheduled from monday to wednesday of the same week. I pose this question to you; should I be penalized for not being able to comment on all the essays in my group because one of my group members posted their draft late? I think not and I am sorry that I wasn’t able to do so, but alas all has passed.
The comments that I received in this last peer review session really helped me to improve my essay before submission. This is mostly because prior to our peer review I had posted a few guiding comments that I hoped my group members would comment on. Posting such guiding comments was a suggestion that was made during our previous review session and I really feel that ever since it has been a big help. Instead of using a star rating system I rather like saving a couple paragraphs at the end of my draft for specific feedback that I hoped to receive. Specific feedback is what we all aspire to get in a peer-review session and the best way that my class has achieved this is when we post guiding comments.
By responding to other classmate’s writing I have learned that not everybody writes the same as I do…big shocker I know, but seriously as I was reading other people’s drafts I started to get a sense of their thought processes which enabled new ways of approaching my own writing based on the perspectives and styles of other writers. Overall, peer-review is a very handy process that should be utilized in every writing class/seminar. I am thankful to have had the opportunities this year.
