(Peer Review) – Be able to critique their own and others’ work by emphasizing global revision early in the writing process and local revision later in the process. (Word count 486)

Peer reviewing in highschool consisted of correcting sentence level errors. My peers and I would read each other’s essays and only look for spelling mistakes, run on sentences, or grammar errors. This was in hopes to make our writing flow more smoothly, but looking back now that did not truly improve any of our essays. Feedback and critiquing was little to none and there wasn’t a real difference from rough to final draft. I was alway walking away from these peer reviews with the exact same essay I walked in with.

That is different for me now, as I am not afraid to give constructive feedback on my peers’ work. I do believe that I can actively read and edit my peers’ work, and give beneficial criticism that will improve their papers. The peer review guideline has been very helpful to reference but I would have to give the most credit to my sister. She has been editing my essays for as long as I can remember and from discussing and reading her feedback I have been able to learn to edit how she does. I believe I am able to thoroughly and thoughtfully respond to my peers’ work which allows them to excel in their writing. 

With our last essay I found myself thoroughly reading and responding to my peers’ essays. I informed her where I believe she was doing well and places where I felt needed work. Unfortunately, I do not have the best photos from reviewing my peers’ work.

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Above you can see only some of the comments I made on my peers’ draft for the second essay. I addressed areas where my peer could add in their own voice as well as giving suggestions on how to improve the flow throughout their essay. I also mentioned how they could review the book “They Say I Say” to find some nice transitions. I end with a final comment telling them what parts I liked and why, as well as parts and places to improve on. 

The images below are just a few of my comments on my peer during the final essay. I can see an improvement in how my editing has improved as I begin to give more valuable comments and ways of improvement in specific locations.

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Although, I will say I strayed away from the peer review guidelines, I was still able to give constructive feedback, and more of it for a matter of fact. Many of my peers who I worked with would strictly stick to the guide and only provide me with very few comments that did not entail how I could improve. Much of the feedback I would review consisted of identifying my thesis, or telling me where I did a good job. Overall, through the peer review process I have been able to identify areas needed of  improvement, as well as gaining more confidence in my writing ability.