Ricard Straub - Responding, - Really Responding Summary

February 10^th, 2014

Richard Straub’s Article, “Responding, - Really Responding,” is exactly what it sounds and should be about. When it comes to peer review of another classmates paper, we usually do not know how to start, so we simply mark up the essay. But does that really “respond” to the paper, does it even help the writer of the paper? This is where Straub’s article’s main idea comes in. When you are reviewing someone else's paper, you do more. Yes, that simple. You don’t use one to three words to leave feedback, use around 8 words. Instead of simply diving right in and just correcting grammar, dig deeper. Think about the context of the paper, what it’s being written for, who going to read it, and why the paper is being written. Do more than a quick spell check. To do more for  a review means to not choose a positive or negative tone towards the paper. You got to be critical, yet you have to find the strong points in their paper—but that’s not all. More remember? After you have found the bad and the good, you explain, why it is the way it is, and what they could do to change it. To really respond is doing more in every effort to respond.