Peer Review for Missy Webb

Throughout high school, essays were essentially my life. I wrote piles upon piles of essays for AP classes and what not.

It has really taken me by surprise that I have not had to write a single essay this semester. I've written a ton of lab reports, but no standard English essays.

What surprised me even more is that I don't want to write an essay! Because I've written so many, that is the genre I am definitely most comfortable with, but where's the fun in that?

I am no longer in the "essay mind mode", so I thought it would be good to peer edit a standard essay, so I can get back into that kind of organizational thinking.

"Laptop". 2/14/15 via pixabay. CC0 Public Domain.

I chose to leave a content suggestion on Missy's Production Report for her standard essay, which can be found here.

How my feedback helped the author:

• I left the following suggestions

• State what her connection is to the topic either in the first paragraph or the introduction to establish credibility with the audience

• Add more commentary in between the facts to explain the significance of the facts to the audience

• Add concluding and introductory sentences to make the paragraph flow

I think I was able to help Missy by suggesting she add more commentary to strengthen her voice and to add something about why she cares about this topic. I think both of those suggestions will help strengthen her voice and build her credibility. She incorporated the facts nicely and with ease, but the paragraph will be stronger if she adds a few things.

How I incorporated course materials:

I left suggestions based off the "Questions to consider when giving feedback" section of the Student's Guide to First-Year Writing.
I turned to this source specifically for ideas on how to peer edit the use of sources and use of evidence. Since Missy's paragraph had a lot of facts, but not enough analysis, I thought suggestions in these areas would be the most beneficial.

One thing I admired and can learn from:

Missy did a wonderful job researching the topic, selecting the best facts, and incorporating them into her writing. I know when I do research, I feel like every piece of information is important so I try to cram it all into the essay. She only picked out 3 big facts that give her enough to talk about to keep the audience engaged and make her point. I can definitely learn from this.