In this class, we mainly did our peer review about the paper2, and my group members helped a lot. They pointed out several problems about my paper: My thesis should be clearer and more specific, maybe some of sentences in my body paragraphs are better topic sentences than those topic sentences I used, and the intro to examples should be smooth etc. Eric understood my paper and reorganized the main points by his own language, which gave me some inspiration. Peer review is a perfect method for students to edit and revise our paper without the direct help from professors. We are able to touch peers’ opinions and try our best to improve others’ papers. It is a method to obtain advantages from classmates and enhance own papers. For me, doing peer review is also a way to recognize how American students write their paper, which helps me to blend in the American academic environment.
I agree that peer review sessions can be quite helpful in helping to improve our writing. It is always refreshing to have a fresh set of eyes read my work, because they will likely catch problems that I might overlook. Personally, I appreciate having someone else read over my work because I become too attached to the writing. Sometimes, I want to keep specific sentences or ideas just because I like them, regardless of whether or not they actually answer the prompt or help to improve my paper. Also, it helps to remind me that there should be several different drafts when writing a paper, and it is nice to get feedback from a wide range of people, because each reader will have a different perspective with their own ideas for improvement.
I also agree that peer review is really helpful. I was able to work on my thesis and make it specific enough to be able to support the rest of my essay. In my first draft my thesis spoke only generally about emotions. In my second draft I pointed out what those emotions were and how they were contributing to the author’s purpose. With a peer reading my essay, I was able to see which things were unclear to the audience and mute points. The class session that day was very helpful to understand my own writing and the clarity of what Wright is trying to show and my interpretations.
I think that peer review sessions can be productive when there is enough time given to get into the paper in depth. The point of reviewing a rough draft is to get into the ideas of the paper, not the issues on the surface. In this class peer review has been very helpful for me developing my ideas.
Haoyi, I agree that peer reviews can be very helpful. Having another student read your work, especially in a non-competitive setting like our tutorial class, makes things less intimidating that perhaps talking to a professor. One of the most helpful for me is just having someone look at my writing and let me know how well it flows. Sometimes when I’m in the midst of writing, especially during the long process of a paper, I lose touch with what I’m writing, and my writing voice changes, and the paper can sound disconnected. For this reason it is so good to look at papers over again and have other people read them.