My work on peer reviews this semester shows that I was able to complete learning outcome #4. Learning outcome #4 shows my ability to effectively peer review and give useful comments to my peers to help improve their papers. On the first peer review workshop we did, I struggled to write the feedback in the format given to us on the workshop 101 worksheet. It was very different from high school because in peer reviews before this class, we didn’t go as deep into analyzing and giving feedback on the writer’s work. After doing peer review on project #1, I felt more confident in being able to give feedback in the format required when we did peer review on project #2. When peer reviewing papers, I took it one page at a time. I read through the page and then went back and left comments for local concerns such as adding a comma, rewording a sentence or anything that had an awkward flow. Then I went through and and left comments on global concerns such as paragraph structure, their thesis or adding in more explanation after evidence. I followed this process for each page as I went through to make sure I gave the required amount of comments and then left a feedback letter at the end. In Danielle’s essay attached below, for local concerns, I left comments on a missing word, lengthening an introductory sentence and labeling a part that seemed confusing when read. For example I wrote about lengthening her topic sentence, “This sentence seems a little short for a topic sentence. Possibly consider lengthening it so there is more explanation because your next sentence leads into your quote.” I felt that the sentence was too short and it needed more detail and her next sentence just went into her quote without explanations so if she added that, it would improve her paper. I left global comments on her paper such as taking a quote out of her introductory paragraph when I said, “Possibly consider breaking this quote up from your intro paragraph and moving it. This means your introduction would introduce Mann’s essay and then your first body paragraph would include this quote and explanation.” Other global concerns I commented on were where she could relocate the quote as well as showing places that needed more explanation or analysis. I also gave her suggestions on places she left incomplete such as her hook, explaining her evidence, and connecting a partially complete paragraph back to her thesis. Over the semester, I feel I worked on developing my peer review skills to give useful comments to my peers. By improving the feedback I was able to give, I have fully completed learning outcome #4 this semester.
