Blog Post #6

Throughout high school, I used peer review for almost every paper I wrote, whether it was required or not. Typically, we would write a rough draft for class, and you would swap papers with another student in the class, and they were given a rubric of what they should look for in your essay. The rubric was helpful because it gave the reviewer an exact checklist of what they should be looking for in the essays, and provided different ways in which the student could offer ideas to the essay they are reviewing. This method was both effective and ineffective. Those students who actually felt like working hard that day and really looked to help give constructive criticism on your essay were extremely helpful to my writing process. However, some students were very unwilling to work hard to help give me constructive criticism that was actually useful, which was pretty detrimental to my writing process. I rely very heavily on peer review so that I can know whether or not my writing makes sense or if my ideas flow on the paper. More often than not, my first draft is very choppy and can sometimes not make a lot of sense to anyone besides myself. I have had super successful peer review sessions in which another student has been able to tell me where my ideas in my essay are flowing and going well, and where they are entirely lost, or I have strayed away from my main idea.

That being said, our most recent peer review session was extremely successful for me. Reading aloud to my partner was a bit awkward, but it quickly made me realize what I liked and didn't like about my writing, and which parts of the essay made sense, or didn't make sense. In my author's note, I mentioned that my essay contained two different ideas and that I was struggling to connect them. In response, my partner looked at both ideas with me and helped me decide which route to go. This was extremely helpful because it made it clear to me the central idea of my essay and helped concentrate my thoughts. I was also unsure if my sponsor of literacy was a true sponsor. By reading through my essay and asking questions with my peer, we were able to extract deeper ideas about my sponsor and helped make it clear who it is and how they affect me to this day. Even though this peer review session was so helpful, I still feel like I need several more before I was to hand in a final essay. After making the revisions to my first essay I already had my roommates read it and ask for their opinion on my piece. I also asked my mom if she would be willing to read my essay and give feedback. I truly believe that having another set of eyes looking at your writing is so beneficial because they will notice things that you never would. And if you have several different people reading and reviewing, each person will notice something different about your writing. Then using the collective feedback from each reviewer, you can make your essay clear, concise, and well-written.