Throughout the semester on each 3 of the main essay projects we had, we had to peer review each other’s work. We were in small groups so each time everyone only had to review 2-3 papers. When going about the peer editing process, the first time I did not really have a certain way of going about it. It was pretty much the first time I have done a peer review like that, so I was fairly new to it. In class we talked about what we were trying to accomplish in the process of reading and reviewing each other’s work, so I had a little idea of what I was going to do. In the beginning of our very first one for example I peer reviewed Cassie Sanger’s paper. On her paper I initially went through it and read it through and gave her little comments of editing or I even gave small notes where I liked what she wrote. I did give some feedback on some major things in her paper though such as a comment on her thesis statement. As we did more and more work on peer review throughout the semester, I got more of a better understanding on what we were trying to accomplish and I had a great way of doing it. As we got to our last paper and last peer review I felt I was a better reader and writer compared to the beginning of the semester. That helped me when it came to the last project, for example I peer reviewed Alica Burr’s paper and compared my edits and comments from hers to the comments I made in the beginning of the year on Cassie’s paper you can see my improvement. This time around I made sure and I knew what type of comments to make when it came to simple ones like grammar, and format. I also knew how to comment on what we actually were trying to accomplish in the essay. For the final essay we had to connect 2 of our classmates writing to one of our sources. Alica did a good job on doing that in her draft, there were just some spots where I realized what she needed to make her essay better and I helped her by knowing that. I feel that the way we went about this whole peer review process did make me a better reader and writer because of the way I could see what my classmates were writing compared to my own, and I was able to comment on theirs as they could comment on mine also.
