I have never done peer review so intensively for another person prior to taking ENG 110. Proficient peer review skills were a requirement of the course, and in order to get a good grade on the peer review I really had to deeply analyze and try to helpfully critique each essay I read. Through this process I definitely improved in my abilities to make valuable comments. The peer review example I have attached is from the second writing project, which I believe had stronger comments than the first writing project. This kind of peer review seemed very new during the first writing project. Although after reading my peers’ comments on my own paper, and looking at the comments my peers were leaving on the papers I was reviewing it was easier to see what constituted as a good comment. In class discussions were very helpful in identifying what kinds of comments we should add. After receiving my grade for the first peer review by the time we had to peer review again I was much more capable.

I think that this is evident in comments I was leaving. My comments are more focused on how the author can improve their writing. For example I commented “You could do a better job at introducing Ungar’s article. You could describe what he means by misperceptions, and what his position is towards liberal arts. Maybe you could initially introduce his article earlier in the paper, because I think my suggestion would awkwardly fit here.” In this comment I urge the author to not only more clearly define the terms used, but also urge the author to reposition the introduction.

Here is another good example of one of my comments, “In the beginning of this paragraph you start to go into detail about the forms of citizenship, but then dive right into critical thinking with no transition. You should continue with your idea of citizenship and what that means to liberal arts instead of abruptly ending.” I believe this is a good constructive comment because I identify what the problem is and also give my opinion on how they could fix it.

What I see in some of my comments that I could improve is offering a solution instead if just identifying the problem. For example, “I don’t think this quote really offers anything towards liberal arts or STEM because it doesn’t describe anything that’s a characteristic of liberal arts or STEM.” In this comment I have stated that the chosen quote is not helpful to the essay. Although I end it on that, I do not add any solutions for the author to use.