LEARNING OUTCOME 4

When it comes to revisions, one of the most powerful ways to be successful in revisions is to get a peer to look over your work. Often times, another set of eyes can help tremendously when it comes to revisions, as they are able to add in their own ideas and expertise into your essay, giving you much needed feedback and advice. Whenever I do peer review, I try to be as constructive as possible, focusing more on the larger, global revisions rather than the local revisions, such as grammar and spelling. This helps the author of the essay to better develop their essay and to make it be more cohesive, stand out, or speak more truly to what they want to achieve in the essay. For instance, in one peer review I did for Project #1, I try to give advice as to what to add to certain areas. I don’t just say “oh you need some more here”, I try to give good examples of what could be added to get the author thinking.

I also tend to focus more on the ideas of the essay, asking for the author to add more of their own opinions into their writing, more “I Say”. I try to focus on important areas of the essay, such as the thesis or quote explanations when it comes to this kind of revision.

I also focus on the connections where we take the quote and try to put into a conversation with ourselves since that is the most important part of the body paragraphs.

Of course, my reviews could always be better, I can learn how to give more advice and more examples of what to add to the essay. It also helps me to do these peer reviews because it gives me a ton of feedback that I could use for my own essays. Being able to be in the role of a peer reviewer allows me to see my own essay from their perspective, in turn allowing me to understand the points of confusion and the areas that need work within my own essays. As I continue to grow this ability, I will gradually get better at not only peer revisions, but at my own revisions as well.