4R

The words “peer review” always triggered the word “good” in my head whenever it is brought up. Excited to be a part of writer’s workshop in high school for the first few times, I’ve learned that it was pretty awful in the end. I will never forget sophomore year in Mr. St. Jean’s Honors English class where we had to evaluate our peers work as part of our grade, and I got my essay back with the word “good” written sporadically. Not only was I upset that my partner did not take the time to effectively peer review, but now I was not able to change my essay enough for the teacher to notice and essentially did not do as well as I wanted to. From this, peer review has always placed a sour taste in my mouth.

                However, in class this week, we discussed the pros, cons, and purposes of peer review, and shined a new light on it. It made me want to give this process a new try and outlook in hopes of coming out with something positive! Some pros we discussed included having more eyes on your paper, practicing revising and reading, and seeing things from a different way of approaching the same assignment. The cons, which have truth because I have experienced, included giving the wrong advice, having hurt feelings, being too nice, and lack of time and effort put in.

Not only did I want to give peer review a second chance, but definitely obtained new ways for myself to become a more efficient peer editor. I now know that I should read the essay once through to get the gist, then go back and review it so I won’t get caught up with little grammatical errors or confusion. With this, the videos in class showed exactly how to and how to not be a peer reviewer, things like looking for improving organization and seeking a strong thesis statement are much more favorable than spelling and grammar mistakes. From the first assignment we were given with our groups, I can already tell my group members will be awesome in putting in effort and honesty when peer reviewing, so I am excited to see what can come out of it!