This course has taught me how to make better peer reviews. Before my peer reviews consisted of only local revision comments such as spelling or grammar. However, several class discussions emphasized the importance of constructive criticism and offering ideas or quotes that your peer could use in their writing. For example, when I was peer reviewing a project 1 paper, “This quote works better in showing how food represents community and family than the previous quote. You should omit the other favorite meal essay quote then explain how this quote and the Widdecombe are important to your topic, in this case food being about more about family and community and less about fuel”.  Instead of just commenting on how a quote didn’t fit with the passage I also gave suggestions on how the quote fits better earlier in the paragraph. I am not just pointing out issues but also giving possible solutions that would make their writing better.

Another important part in peer reviewing is being able to identify the message the writer is trying to convey. This is useful since it allows me to make comments where I think the writer is starting to stray away from the point they are trying to make. For example, being able to identify the thesis of one’s paper and checking if the topics discussed throughout the paper relate back to the thesis is a good strategy when peer reviewing, “This paragraph introduces the idea that Soylent will unite people’s perspectives of food under one idea. Is this your message or is it the prior paragraph? From initial reading it can be said that your thesis is how one’s relationship with food is affected by community, family, and experiences”. By emphasizing global revision, it allows the writer to rethink possible weaknesses or confusion in their message. This in turn allows them to revise their errors and create a more solid message that does not allow for misinterpretation from the reader.

By emphasizing local revision while peer reviewing it allows the writer to fix mistakes that would cause confusion or damage the credibility of their writing. For example, when reviewing the same project 1 paper I noticed that they had quotations in the conclusion and said, “Don’t use quotes in the conclusion since this is where you sum everything up and not introduce new ideas”. This comment was made because quotations are used in body paragraphs to support your ideas while the conclusion is used to broadly summarize those ideas while leaving the reader with something to think about. Including extra information in the conclusion leaves no space to explain its importance and should be omitted. By identifying the error, I allowed the writer to correct it which would prevent possible confusion for the reader.