The authorial technique analysis paper (look at me, sounding all smart) peer reviews we had to do were definitely not my favorite assignment. To an extent, I can understand why teachers have students do these, but my answers always feel a bit forced. I don't want to be rude in my critique, but I also would dislike to give them a false sense of perfection. It's even harder when you've never talked to that person; it's like "Hi, I'm Monty, I don't chat much in our class, but your essay was absolutely HORRENDOUS". If I know the person at least, they can know that my honesty is with the best intentions.
I'm not a fan of offending others, which is ironic, because I seem to do that more often than I'd like on accident. And, although I have the mentality of not really caring what the peer critiques I'll receive say (which is, in some ways, a wee bit of a lie), I'm convinced that whoever I'm reviewing for will be hurt deeply. I highly doubt this is actually true of anybody in our class, but something in my head instinctively tells me otherwise.
Thankfully though, the pieces I critiqued didn't suck.
Now I feel sort of awkward, since I reviewed your paper (which I really liked, by the way). When I read someone else's paper, especially one with really good ideas, I get carried away with reviewing. Part of this is because I actually like editing, just because of how it forces me to think through things from a different perspective. I hope the comments I made on your paper make sense and help writing the final draft easier.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it's a lot of fun reading your blog! (I just realized this is another peer review of sorts... hmmm...)After all, you have a really neat way of writing your opinion.
(And the picture is awesome!)
Oh, I am in no way offended by peer reviews, PROMISE! It's my own thing, I just have a hard time critiquing something another person wrote if I kind of sort of know them, but not really. If they're a good buddy or completely anonymous, I'm cool with it. And editing is fun, I do it with my stuff a lot :) and thank-you, I really appreciate you saying that!
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