The Marked First Draft of One Peer’s Paper I chose to include is a peer’s first draft from Project 1. Reflecting on the peer review comments I left on this paper, I see that many comments serve as a way to push the writer to think more deeply about a point they made in their essay. If there was an argument the writer made that I thought was interesting, I would first mention that I like the point they made. Then, I might suggest a direction they could further drive their point, or bring in a new point that may tie into what they are trying to say. I also encouraged places where the point made was an interesting one, but it could use evidence to provide a nice text-on-text moment. For example, one of my comments was: “I like this point! I think if you want to start interacting with the text a little sooner, you could include a quote from Widdicombe’s article where Rhinehart talks about how time-efficient Soylent. There’s a part where he talks specifically about how Soylent fits into a daily work schedule better than regular meals because you won’t have to stop for lunch break. You could include a quote from there, then explain how that could be problematic.” This was in response to a point the student made about the possibility of people not spending as much time with others if Soylent became an everyday meal replacement. Looking to my most recent peer review comments, I can see the growth and development in revision suggesting. Where I still continue to encourage new perspectives as I did in project, I have gotten much more to the point with my suggestions. I think I had a verbally timid approach to commenting for the first project, and by now I am less hesitant to express my thoughts because I know they are meant to provide feedback and help my peers improve their writing.
