LEARNING OUTCOME #4: PEER REVIEW
My partner’s paper had many different strengths and weaknesses. It was organized very well, I noticed that each claim was stated clearly within the body paragraphs, with evidence and analysis to follow. My partner had a few areas where there were grammatical errors, language, or sentence phrasing that could be adjusted. She included solid evidence from texts that supported and built upon her argument but could have improved the ways in which she framed it in her paper.
When reviewing her essay, I strived to be positive and enthusiastic while offering ways to improve her writing or mentioning points that needed work. With each comment, I tried to include an explanation as to why I was making that suggestion. For example, there were a few points in her essay in which she used the term “higher ups in the workplace” when discussing how abuse of power plays into sexual assault. I commented on this with the suggestion that she could instead say “People of high rank” or “People of high status.” I explained that using this language instead would clarify exactly who she was referring to and how they had power.
My partner used a lot of great pieces of evidence to support her claims. However, when including these in her paper, she did not introduce them. They were included as the beginning of a sentence, on their own. I thought that adding an introduction to these quotes would help her paragraph flow better, and ease into the quote. In my comment to her I made sure to include how I thought she chose a great quote that explained the relevance behind the issue but explained that it could be improved by adding an introduction to the text or author before the quote, in order to ease into it and provide context.
By reviewing my partner’s paper, I offered constructive criticism from an alternative perspective. I hope to have helped her improve her essay by making suggestions and pointing out areas that could be improved, and by giving her explanations as to why adding those aspects would improve her paper from a reader’s perspective. I tried to be enthusiastic in my comments as well as within the review worksheet, because I believe my partner’s essay was off to a really great start and wanted to build on her momentum rather than tear her down.
