My View of Peer Review

       The peer review process is not a new concept to me, as I have been required to do so throughout my education. However, the method we have been asked to use is unlike anything I have ever been exposed to. For me, peer reviews were always a chance to read over another classmates paper, as he or she read over mine, and try to find more grammatical and spelling errors in theirs than he or she could find in mine. I remember at one point we were asked to make what was called a compliment sandwich, this would consist of a compliment, followed by an area that could use some work, and then finished up with another compliment. Lame, I agree, which is probably why no one took it seriously and the comments were usually vague and generic: "I like your story. Use more detail. I like the ending."         The peer review technique that Straub recommends and we have been using in class, on the other hand, is one that is designed to effectively better the writers paper by focusing more on the story and how it is told, than how it has translated onto paper. This technique stresses that the reader/reviewer should not try to fix everything in the paper, but focus on two or three main aspects of the writing. Also, the technique suggests leaving as many compliments as comments. Allow the writer to know which areas you like as well as those that need work, and to be specific with the reasoning behind the comments. Straub reminds us that we are only readers, and in the end the paper will have the writer's name on it; with this in mind, be polite with suggestions as they are only that, a suggestion to the writer.          I feel that this method of peer review will be more helpful than those I have used in the past from the readers standpoint, but I feel it is almost just as helpful from the writers perspective as well as when writing your own paper. The comments I have received on my paper were all very helpful when looking back at my own paper because it gives me a specific area that needs work and goes into detail on why the reviewer thought so, in fact, I even had a few comments which contained examples on how it could be written. I feel like after only one session of peer review I am beginning to understand the benefits of peer review as it should be, and why it is such an important part of he writing process.