In all peer reviews, everyone started with a first draft. My first peer review was heavily focus on global revision. There were two recommendations on my part that were closely linked together. The first was a recommendation to cut the introduction paragraph down to be an introduction paragraph and at least part of a body paragraph. This is linked with my second recommendation: the best way I thought to present their ideas. Giving this person an organisational pathway of sorts, I was able to the same from my first draft of the same prompt to my final draft.
A different person, in the same round of peer review, I recommended something very different. The biggest problem for them was finding their voice amongst the sources. I pointed out something they wrote: “by using words to inflict fear and instill the thought that what they are going through is a war, is something that should be abolished.” At this point, I saw that they found their voice, but it faded away right after. So I recommended that, if this is the best way to make their own voice heard, it should become their thesis. I recognized I also had to this in my final paper. There is no definitive first draft of this paper because of that. These two peer reviews I did early on the year helped me at the time and at the end of the course. It is in this way that being critical of others’ writing can help me be critical about my own writing.
