Intro to Public Writing: Carly Holladay

Peer Reviewing: A page from Srivastava’s book

The reading from Srivastava’s books provided much insight about keeping good writing and reading friends around. Peer reviewing is only as helpful as long as you have those around who will do it willingly, and not just classmates. I feel when it’s with friends, the critiques are able to be comfortable and honest because there won’t be a threat of seeming too rude. It’s like when you ask your friend to scratch you back, and I’m glad Srivastava said to show gratitude to these friends because they really do deserve it.

Personally, I love peer reviewing and I love being reviewed. The rush from putting my work through a critical lens is kind of addicting, and I love to try different ways to fix the work. Especially with writing I’ve worked hard on, I love trying different things and attempting to improve myself with each response back. Like I’m constantly proving to someone (typically myself) that I can improve every time I write.

Currently, as an English: Creative Writing major, my assignments this week are essays, poems, and fiction stories that I hope all are given good, honest feedback. My assignments are to also peer review some ficition short stories, and I’m excited to give my honest reaction. I think the best compliment a writer can give to another peer is honest feedback. If someone is too overly positive and doesn’t provide anything to actually help the writer succeed, then I consider it a bit disrespectful. Like do they think I can’t handle it?

I think the key to peer review is to pick the pros and cons and then try to see what the author is trying to do. However, you should never actually look into what the author wants you to think because this might skew how you see their work. Go into the piece blindly, and for me, I like to take notes as I read. These are typically about my theories on what will happen next, the tone the author had set (or lack thereof), use of imagery, and how I feel about the characters and their motives. Then I look back at those notes and the writing as a whole and tell the writer what worked and what didn’t.

For nonfiction work, like public writing, I’m personally not equipped to review. Of course I’ll try when asked, but I usually take a page out of Srivastava’s book and politely make it known to my friend I’m not the best person to be reviewing this. I liked that part of his chapter, and I also think this honesty is really healthy for writing.