First of, my sincerest apologies about the late post. Apparently I did not correctly submit this...
If I have counted correctly, this Tuesday was the third time we did peer-reviews in class. Personally I find that this seems to be helping me a lot. My peers usually point out awkwardly phrased sentences (I swear they look fine to me...) and arguments that I need to explain to a greater extent.
Yesterday, one of my peers asked me to define the word 'crux'. Here's what the dictionary says:
crux (krks, krks)
n. pl. crux·es or cru·ces (krsz)
1. The basic, central, or critical point or feature: the crux of the matter; the crux of an argument.
2. A puzzling or apparently insoluble problem.
Me being from a different country I automatically assume that each and every classmate that grew up in a english speaking country will know more words than me.
This simple example is something that I learned through the peer-reviews: don't just assume your audience knows everything, make sure to explain it thoroughly.
In which way has the peer-reviewing helped you? What did you folks learn?
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After writing a paper, I’ve usually spent so much time with it that I become desensitized to small mistakes (like excess commas, word choice, or overall flow of sentences). For me, having someone else look at my writing from another perspective helps because they are more likely to catch mistakes that I may have overlooked.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kevin. For instance, when I write, I become so engulfed with my style that I am completely blind to my obvious mistakes. Even when someone comes up to me for the first time and corrects me on something, I'm like, "No, I think my way is correct too". But its after reading it a number of times that I realize that it is in fact wrong.
ReplyDeleteAlso., peer review helps me in two specific ways: a) it helps me view mistakes that I overlooked and b) since its people at the same level with me, for some apparent reason I tend to believe them even more that the teacher. I believe this happens due to the fact that if a student catches a mistake, that means its pretty obvious. While in the case of a teacher, he/she is just being "picky".
I think peers are all very shy to say what is wrong with a paper, however once the group gets comfortable enough with each other they do. But it is nice to get all of the nice comments out of the way first rather than just saying "Well this sucks because..." So it is nice to have someone who breaks it to you softly when you have a bad sentence, paragraph, or even a page. It is also nice to get a day to review what someone else has done with the papers we are supposed to write. I am very scared for tuesday however this is one of the hardest papers I have ever written. Good luck to all.
ReplyDeleteI love getting feedback from peers on how my work can be improved. It makes my writing much clearer and more organized. My favorite part of it is when my peers suggest things that I can add to my paper that I haven't even thought about. Peer edits broaden my perspective on the subject. I don't know about you guys, but I also love being the one who is doing the peer edits too. If I have ever edited your paper, you have probably noticed that I usually write everywhere on it, even if the paper is already written really well. I love giving my input on things, and commenting on people's work. So if I have ever written everywhere on one of your papers, don't worry; I probably just liked it a lot!
ReplyDeletePeer reviews were a whole new experience for me this semester. I'm not used to having someone read over my writing, and it is something that took getting used to. Writing is usually a personal thing for me, so having a peer read over it and then give me criticism left me pretty sceptical. After I heard and read the feedback and I realized how helpful it is to see someone elses perspective on it. I have really enjoyed the inclass peer reviews and it is something I hope other classes will incorporate.
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