Peer Review

To me, peer review is a way to help ourselves determine if we are going in the right direction for our project. Someone reviewing your paper, and you looking at multiple other papers, may make you see that you are or are not fulfilling the purpose of the essay or project. I personally think its helpful for me to compare my work to others because it tells me if I am missing any key elements to my paper. As a writer, I not only want to know if the structure of my essay is good, but also if I am missing the mark. I could’ve misunderstood the topic, or not quite understand it, but if I get some feedback on my work, I can tailor it to fit the guidelines we were given.

As a reviewer, I would need to review the other person’s best work, because that way my reviews would be accurate. If they give me an unfinished paper, or one they were planning on completely changing before the due date of the final draft, my comments wouldn’t be very helpful.

I prefer groups of 2 or 3, only because that makes the peer review process a little more focused. I think someone would be likely to give better comments if they were focusing only on my paper, and not 4 others.

In terms of how long a peer review should take, it depends on how long the essay is and how many your have to look at. If your looking at someone’s best work, it shouldn’t take as long to pick out some details they could improve. But if someone turns in a sloppy rough draft it could take a long time to iron everything out so their essay is following the requirements.