Feedback and Critique

I believe that I am fairly good at offering criticism to other’s work. I complement anything I like and if there is anything that I see that could make their paper better I tell them. I think that giving complements is a defiantly a good thing to do while you are editing someone else’s paper because it shows them their strong points while also showing them what they could do better in. I would never say anything hurtful; however, I would want people to be completely honest when viewing my paper so I plan to do the same for everyone else. Even if I am given a bad comment I think of it as a good thing because it will only make my paper better in the end.


I know that constructive criticism is never a bad thing. Sometimes editors can be too harsh with their comments; however, with peer editing I find that never to be the case. Constructive criticism is never giving corrections but thoughts and ideas on how the text can be improved. The only errors that should be corrected are grammar. I feel that sometimes it can be hard to give criticism to classmates because if I am at the same level they are, why should I be giving them criticism on their work? Although I think that I am good at giving the constructive criticism, sometimes it can be hard to say everything I want to say about a classmate’s paper. I do not want to be the one to make anyone mad for not getting the point they were trying to make in their paper and going a completely different way with it without knowing it.

I think that the most helpful critique that a person can give to me is asking me questions on anything in my writing that might be confusing or could be elaborated on more. Not only will that extend the length of my paper but make it a great deal more thorough. I want to make sure that everything in my writing is explained and there are no questions of what I was trying to say in the end. I want all my points to be sharp and backed up with as much information I can have. The more proof I have the more I feel my paper is complete. While writing peer editing comments for our first paper, I asked a lot of questions to help the people who had not made the page requirement. I hope they are able to use the questions and comments to further their thoughts. The questions, in addition to helping get things explained more, are there to get the writer thinking about more ideas and thoughts to include in their paper.

At this point, I have not received any peer edits back; however, I hope the comments will help me to make my paper more understandable and organized. I also hope that my group will ask me questions as I have done to their papers so that it will help me think of ideas to put into my paper and give it more direction.