Semi-constructive Criticism - The Peer Review Blog

Thoughts on Student 1's Essay

I thought this student's paper was okay. The draft talked about corvid intelligence and the issues around them such as inhumane breeding or hunting. However, I could tell right away that the draft was more or less unfinished. Especially in the "Defining the Problem" section, I think the student has some competent sources to use, but they didn't seem to make use of it. It's one thing to say "____ is affecting their habitats/population" and maybe if I was a random reader, I wouldn't give it much thought. But after being personally more detailed and specific in my own writing and as a more scholarly audience, just saying something is bad won't cut it. I also took advice I got regarding headers and gave it to them so that they could revise their headers. Another minor issue I took with was tone and sentence construction. To be quite honest, something as simple as taking apart conjunctions makes the paper sound much more professional and writing emphasis sentences that don't start with "This is important because..." would let me give more credibility to the student.

Thoughts on Student 2's Essay

Where do I begin? Well, the essay started with no title. Thankfully enough my memory remembered that one of my peers wrote about corvids and the other was elephants, so this one had to be the elephants-related paper. I think my most valid criticism was when this student tried to write off elephants going through rings of fire as intelligence. I'm sure my comment below says it all. If the previous student's paper was considered unfinished, this one was bare bone. This is especially prevalent in the Discussion of the Philosophy section. I barely could consider it one, because there was little substance. No philosophical questions were asked, I felt no urgency about the situation, and as much as I wanted to feel bad about the issues they later brought, I left with no idea of how bad the issues were. This paper also suffered from a lack of a professional tone. Direct advice isn't always the best, so sometimes more direct questions are better to ask so the writer can understand what's missing. It's not a good sign, if I finish reading and have more questions than answers.

My Thoughts on Peer Review

To be blunt, I have somewhat negative opinions when it comes to Peer Review. The synergy and effectiveness in Peer Review comes from who is involved. I already don't value my own writing, so immediately I don't think I should be the one giving criticism to people about their writing. Additionally, from the two above students' works I looked through, I don't expect amazing commentary about my writing. Students at my age still don't have a polished eye for writing so it's hard to really rely on it. (I haven't even RECEIVED comments for my latest draft even.) The only memorable advice I can think of are about mistakes/revisions I was a) already personally aware of or b) made aware by the instructor. I also was corrected for grammar that was actually fine the way it is. As frank and seemingly off-putting this may sound, I felt that comments I received from peers were not very useful/helpful.

Peer review, I feel, is a double edged sword. I'm sure it is a good tool for improving one's work whether its research or an essay analyzing a novel. Having an outside eye can give fresh ideas. However, as I said earlier, it depends on the credibility of those involved in the review cycle. Do I trust my writing? Do I trust the others' writing? Since I've answered "no" to both of those questions, I think it lends itself as to why I don't particularly find it effective and focus on comments received from someone who has more expertise (or rather the one actually grading my work). Reading other people's work hasn't really developed my skills whatsoever, if anything I actually showed my peers' work to my little sister and asked her what she thought. Comparing my draft and to my peers' drafts, my sister (a junior in high school) actually felt more confident in her own writing skills. Peer review lent itself better to my sister than me, so I think that says enough.