The peer review process is helpful for many reasons. In terms of global revision, the peer review process teaches students lessons that can be applied in their daily lives. The main lesson it teaches students is to be humble when given input or feedback. If they lack a humble attitude, they will be less likely to apply the input they were given, into their papers. This would cause them to hand in papers with mistakes that could’ve been avoided. Locally, the peer review process is important for students taking English courses because it results in an easy to understand, polished paper with less errors. Until recently, I have not had a pleasant experience with peer review. Most students (including myself) are too scared to give their honest feedback to their peers when editing their papers. One thing that helped me get over this fear was the peer review glossary that my class designed as a group. It helped ease my nerves because we all agreed on terms that would not discourage each other. These terms included ” I wonder”, “please explain” or “i’m confused”. I grew comfortable with using them especially since my Professor stressed the importance of not constantly telling the writer that they did a great job. She explained to my class that only focusing on the positive aspects of peoples papers would cause our peers to think that their papers were perfect.
My class recently used the peer review process to edit the last papers that we would ever do in the class. I relied heavily on our “class glossary” while editing my peers paper. In the introduction paragraph of the paper I underlined the thesis and provided general feedback on the flow of the graph. I learned that the most effective way to edit a paper is to provide a good mix of positive and constructive comments. When I read a sentence that impressed me I would let the writer know but I would also point out the sentences that needed “rewording” or “unpacking”. I also highlighted the quotes that the reader used so that he could recognize if it was introduced and analyzed. Finally, I left the writer with a little note containing some recommendations on what he could do to improve the paper.
