I actually enjoyed doing the peer-review process because the two paper I was assigned to had some relevance to my own paper and it was interesting to see the opinion of others. The first essay that I did a peer review on was very difficult because the author did not have the assignment completed for review. They only had an outline of what they plan to write and had random sources in a section of the paper that they plan on using when writing their essay. This made the peer review process very difficult to do because I did not think that the person even had a thesis or had an opinion formulated. They contrasted the different controversies and provided evidence that supports each of them but did not take a stance. However, I enjoyed doing the peer review for the other paper because it was complete and coherent to read.
I actually found it difficult to critique others’ work because I did not want them to feel offended, but I am sure that my critique would overall improve the quality of their essay. When I saw powerful reasoning or a great use of a source, I would definitely let them know the positive effect that it put on their paper! There were many things that I learned while doing the peer review process. One of the authors included a header to each paragraph and I found that to be very useful as I would have an idea of what to expect prior to reading the next paragraph. I think I might use that idea as well in order to improve the clarity of my own paper. Based on my reading on other people’s paper, whenever I use terminology that may be a little advanced for the reader, I will include a short description following it in order to eliminate uncertainties. Overall, I thought the peer review process was very helpful and I appreciate receiving feedback from others that will help improve on the quality of my paper.
