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Kate Robinette

Professor Benjamin Dally

English 5-02

30 November 2015

 A roadblock for most student interactions in classes I’ve taken note of this semester is

nervousness of providing feedback. In a society where “good job” is expected to be the norm,

giving criticisms, however constructive, is feared for being harsh or even personally offending.

When receiving work back from fellow novice poets in Introduction to Poetry, I’ve noticed a

sharp lack of constructive yet firm comments and suggestions, while more experienced writers

have no problem tearing my work to shreds (in a positive way, of course). In his work discussing

this phenomenon of peer response to works, Richard Straub highlights what we should be doing

in our responses to classmates to give them the most useful insight to their own work, and allow

them to effectively communicate ideas to specific audiences.

Straub is helpfully specific throughout the entire passage, highlighting exactly “What Are

Your Goals?”, “How Do You Get Started?”, etc. He has provided an outline on do’s and do not’s

for responding to peer writings. The bulk of the work are the sort of etiquette rules for reviewing

others’ papers, with comments about how to sound-- “Not like a teacher. Not like a judge.

(Straub 139)”. It is this paragraph I found significantly interesting, as the actual tone of your

criticisms can have the most effect on whoever is reading them. If they receive a friendly but

honest and firm response, they are more likely to benefit from it and tweak their work to satisfy

your suggestion. However if they receive a condescending or scathing demand, they may grow

resistant to the change described in lieu of ignoring harsher words. In the same way your tone

may affect the effectiveness of your criticisms, a “short and sweet” review may be passed over

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entirely, less in a resistant way, but more likely because little “good job” or “like this” or “change

this” go unnoticed or not cared for.

Peer review has always been an important kind of writing, but with the rise of casual

writing thanks to computers and online communication, review is even more essential than ever.

It can be very easy to jumble words into a confusing run-on sentence when typing furiously, or

even when getting on a long writing streak. “With digital technology... writers are everywhere,”

Kathleen Yancey writes in her piece, “Writing in the 21st Century”. In order to further the

success of these writers, online and in print, peer review is crucial to make sure the bulk of

humanity can understand clearly what you’re talking about, not only grammatically, but

logistically. While it can be important to point these out, Straub also wants us to keep in mind

that we are not out to “seek and destroy all errors and problems… You are not an editor (137).”

Keeping your eyes open for language that can be changed and other improvements to the

paper is important, but scanning with a red pen for the wrong form of “there” is not your job.

How you read the paper and process the information should be your main task to communicate

feedback to the author: “Here I couldn’t really understand what you meant by saying you were a

‘problem child’... how so? Add examples for clarity!’”. Without talking down to the author,

treating them as an equal, as well as being direct and clear, you are able to effectively

communicate what you’d like to see improve in that person’s writings.

Reading our last essay in class with other students and sharing our works, I was more

aware of what kind of language I used in my writings. Being short and sweet was my specialty--

I didn’t want to offend. But Straub thoroughly explained to all of us how we could be effective in

our responses without being harsh or condescending. Now, classmates and I don’t see peer

review as an opportunity to compliment each other, we see it as a constructive form of criticism

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and suggestion that benefits all parties involved. With Straub’s help, I think we all view our peer

responses as a chance to improve ourselves and peers as writers.