Coming into English 110, I had no idea how to properly peer review. I only commented on wording and sentence level errors. This is considered surface level, and that is all I ever did in high school. As I am getting ready to leave English 110, I have a much better understanding on peer review. I know to focus on global revisions, like integration of sources, main arguments, and claims. This will help peers more than just commeningt on grammar. For our “Grades” paper, I commented suggesting to add a comma here or there, and nothing else. I didn’t mention anything about the actual content of the paper. Fast forward to our final “Big Data” project. My group and I made our own rubric, which shows a huge improvement from our first reviews. We now know what to look for and how we should be commenting to help each other out. I use letters to mark what my comment is focusing on, which will help my classmate when they’re revising their paper. If they want to focus on their claims they can go right to the comments with (C) and work from there. I also like to ask my peers questions that should help them better develop their ideas. Whether it be that they didn’t completely cover an idea or they need to add more evidence, these questions will help with that. On Kiara’s “Big Data” first draft I commented, “(TS): I like what you chose from each source to support your claim, but I think you can blend them together better… If that makes any sense. Make sure the reader knows why you added these pieces of information from your sources; make sure they connect.” In this sentence I am trying to give Kiara advice on blending her sources and information together. I wanted her to focus on her source information and why she chose that specific information. If she can understand that, the reader will too. Readers are only going to be able to understand your claims and evidence if you do. This comment on Kiara’s paper helped me revise mine as well! I thought about what I suggested to her and I tried to do the same. Another comment I made on Kiara’s paper is, “(N): I believe this is where you want to have a naysayer, but it wasn’t clear to me. I would make sure you let us know what your naysayer is trying to say and who they might be. What is their argument towards you? Who might think that way?” Like I mentioned above, I like to ask questions to help my classmates expand upon their ideas. That is what I tried doing in the comment. I wanted her to make her naysayer claim stronger, so that whoever was reading it would know that it was a naysayer claim. She may have had parts of a naysayer, but overall it needed to be developed and that is why I commented what I did. As you can see, there is significant growth in my peer review skills. I no longer focus on local issues, but rather global issues. The main argument, claims, and evidence are really what make a paper stand out, not just the grammar. By focusing on the global issue first, major revisions can be made to produce an excellent piece of writing.
