Responding to Other Students' Writing

essay

Richard Straub writes this entry in an analytical way of understand how to respond and make comments to other student’s writings. He makes me the reader understand that my goals as responding to my peers writing is to offer any suggestions that the author may or may not want to include. Sometimes when reading other papers, I tend to be picky about what I see. Is it good enough? Does this author really need this in this paper?

"The paper is not yours; it's the writer's. She writes. You read. She is in charge of what does to her writing. That doesn't mean you can't make suggestions..... Be reluctant at first even to say what you would do if the paper was yours. Its not yours. Again: Writers write, readers read and show what they're understanding and maybe make suggestions."

- Straub

I have to understand that this is not my paper. I did not write it; thus my suggestions can only really be suggestions when it comes to situations like this. The author has the option to change their perspective of their paper on the terms of their own decision. I am only here to provide in case one needs it.

If am to provide guidance I need to be specific and not stray from being critical. Sometimes its good to tell the author what you may or may not like when it comes to their paper. The whole point of of this article is pretty much to explain how one can interpret and respond to another peer's paper in the best way.