Marking up my peers first draft of our first paper was very nerve-racking to me. I felt like if I did not give them good comments, they would fail and it would be my fault or I would give them a bad comment and they would think that I was not smart. Peer reviewing has never been my strong suit because I would never know what to say or what questions I should be asking. From the first peer-review workshop to the last, I saw exponential growth in my peer editing strength. When we were doing our first peer-reviews I would only focus on grammatical/local changes because I knew that aspect of English, but I did not really know how to focus on global changes or how to ask questions. For example, when we did our first peer-review I commented that my classmate should incorporate more quotes into her paper to help her add length and create a stronger argument. Now I am able to ask questions in a way of devil’s advocate, I agree with what they say but I am trying to make them expand more so their argument is stronger for those who try to oppose what they are trying to argue. I did this on our third paper to my classmate to get her to branch out on what she was talking about and strengthen her argument. I told her that there were a few spots where she can incorporate more detail about each author and what they are discussing which would add length and strength to her paper. An example in this paper where I used this devils advocate approach was when my classmate was discussing how countries want to work together, to come back at this I asked why. Why does it matter if countries work together? What good comes out of countries working together? Therefore I believe that my peer-review skills have gotten a lot stronger from the beginning of this class to now. I am now able to review my own paper as well, I search for global and local revisions that I can make to my paper. Global and local changes can make or break your paper, which is why it was so important for me to get a grasp of what they meant and how to apply them to my papers and my peers papers.
