When reviewing my peers’ essays throughout the semester I have learned what to look for and comment on. At the beginning of the semester the comments I left were very surface level. I focused more on simple things such as grammar, punctuation, and adding context around quotes. Now with what I have learned about thesis and quote integration I am able to add deeper comments regarding that to make suggestions to make the essay better as a whole. For example, on Lilyan Blood’s essay 3 draft I suggested things I never would have thought to suggest when I first peer reviewed. I noticed her thesis was just one short sentence so I suggested she expand on that. Then I noticed some of her paragraphs didn’t have topic sentences so I suggested she add topic sentences before getting into what the authors she was working with were saying. I also suggested she add more context around her quote because she only had one sentence of context in some places. Lastly, I suggested she add something before her quote in the same sentence because most of her quotes were just placed after the end of a sentence. So I recommended she add something like “he/she said…” All these comments I left on Lilyan’s essay are a huge improvement from the comments I left at the beginning of the semester. Despite this I still want to continue to improve my peer review skills. I would like to improve my ability to know where to suggest my peers could add more and expand on an idea.
