Reaction to Peer Review

My experience with Thursday’s peer review was a good one. Not only did it allow me to see the flaws in my writing, but it also allowed me to get ideas from other people to help me change up my own essay’s style and formatting. It is always helpful to have another person look at your work, because it is often difficult to catch your own mistakes or be critical of yourself. By having two other people read and edit my essay did make me see my essay in a new light. It showed me that points I thought were analysis were actually more like summary, and highlighted areas that I needed to focus on and fix. I learned that no matter how many times you read over your essay, there will always be areas that need more work. I definitely did not think my essay was perfect, but I thought I was off to a good start. After the peer review, however, I realized that I need to spend a lot more time on connecting my quotes back to my thesis. I also need to focus on avoiding so much summary and replacing that with analysis. Finally, I need to try to make clearer connections between the two authors. Looking over my essay after other people read it, I realized that my argument was a bit fragmented. I compared the two authors, but there were not clear, smooth transitions and connections. Overall, the peer review was very helpful and made it clear to me what areas I need to focus on more before I turn in my final draft.