Be able to critique their own and others’ work by emphasizing global revision early in the writing process and local revision later in the process.
At the beginning of this class, I dreaded the idea of peer review, but the more we practiced this skill the more I became comfortable with it. In my first peer review, I was unsure what it was truly like to make global revision comments, and didn’t want to upset anyone with my comments. As time went on I realized how helpful this can be for myself and other students. In paper 2 I found it hard to pinpoint places that really needed a lot of global revision since the writing seemed to feel complete. Most of my comments seemed to be loose suggestions or compliments rather than good examples of global revision. In this comment, I did try and offer a place where a caveat could be made to strengthen the writing, which I do think was beneficial for the author. Yet, there weren’t too many more strong suggestions I offered to strengthen the writing. In project 3 I was able to add a lot more comments, especially since I realized my comments could really be helpful. I used a lot of questions to provoke thought in the author and allow them to think about ideas and concepts that they might not have. For example, I said, “Explore: What is the benefit of including them in all aspects of life? How does this help us see the full body of experience?”. I think that my revision skills have grown a lot throughout the semester, but there is always room for improvement. Being able to look at other people’s writing and then make suggestions I think has helped me be able to look at my own writing in a more objective way and find areas that are not as strong and where I can make better connections. The practice of peer review has made me a better writer.
