Reaction to Peer Review

The peer review session was a very constructive experience. Having a different set of eyes looking at my paper helped me to catch things that I would have never caught on my own, such as my overuse of personal narrative and improper grammar and formatting. But more importantly, it allowed me to judge just how strong my paper's argument was, and if any major changes were needed in the essay. For example, I discovered that I needed to include the authors' names in the introduction, and that I need to support my argument with more quotes from the text. In addition, by looking at my classmates' papers, I could glean valuable insight that would help me with my own essay. I made note of things they included that I forgot, such as arguments I did not consider. or areas of the text I could have included.  I noticed that compared to my peers, who stuck closely to the text, I strayed too far from them and thus I needed to reference the texts more.  In fact, on question 3 of the peer review sheet, my peers even provided specific examples that I could reference!  More important than the peer review sheet, however, were the specific notes written on the draft itself. By pointing out specific areas where my writing could be improved, even something as simple as a single word replacement, the paper could be improved drastically. My peers even went as far as to point out areas where my writing was strong, which makes it easy for me to isolate weak points and make them stronger.  Overall, the peer review was very positive in helping both me and hopefully my classmates in improving their papers.