6.7: Verbal Peer Review

Peer review is an essential part of the writing process. It can help you as a writer to identify areas of your writing that are confusing to your reader or that do not communicate as clearly as you wish. As you revise each assignment for your portfolio, consider asking a classmate to peer review your work. You can use the peer review forms we used for each assignment during the semester (see Blackboard). For a change of pace, a verbal peer review can be helpful in collecting feedback.

Portfolio Verbal Peer Review

The verbal peer review is a great way to get feedback on the assignments in your portfolio. It also gives you the opportunity to talk through your revision process, which is an effective first step in putting together your cover letter paragraph for the assignment.

8. ADDRESSING YOUR CONCERNS ABOUT REVISING

Below are common concerns that students have about revising their writing assignments, with advice on how to manage each concern. For additional advice, talk to your instructor or a Writing Center tutor.

|l|l| &
Whenever I revise, I just &
make things worse. I do my &
best work without revising. &

That’s a common misconception that sometimes arises from fear,

sometimes from laziness. The truth is, though, that except for

those rare moments of inspiration or genius when the perfect ideas

expressed in the perfect words in the perfect order flow gracefully

and effortlessly from the mind, all experienced writers revise their

work. If you’re still not convinced, re-read some of your old papers.

How do they sound now? What would you revise if you had a

chance?

What can get in the way of &
good revision strategies? &

Don’t fall in love with what you have written. If you do, you will be

hesitant to change it even if you know it’s not great. Start out with

a working thesis, and don’t act like you’re married to it. Instead, act

like you’re dating it, seeing if you’re compatible, finding out what

it’s like from day to day. If a better thesis comes along, let go of the

old one. Also, don’t think of revision as just rewording. It is a

chance to look at the entire paper, not just isolated words and

sentences. &

|c|c| How do I get really good at revising? &

The same way you get really good at golf, piano, or a video game-do it often. Take revision seriously, be disciplined, and set high standards for yourself. Here are three more tips:

- The more you produce, the more you can cut.

- The more you can imagine yourself as a reader looking at this for the first time, the easier it will be to spot potential problems.

- The more you demand of yourself in terms of clarity and elegance, the more clear and elegant your writing will be.

How do I revise at the sentence level? & Read your paper out loud, sentence by sentence, and follow Peter Elbow’s advice: "Look for places where you stumble or get lost in the middle of a sentence. These are obvious areas of awkwardness that need fixing. Look for places where you get distracted or even bored-where you cannot concentrate. These are places where you probably lost focus or concentration in your writing. Cut through the extra words or vagueness or digression; get back to the energy. Listen even for the tiniest jerk or stumble in your reading, the tiniest lessening of your energy or focus or concentration as you say the words . . . A sentence should be alive" (Writing with Power, p. 135).

Practical advice for ensuring that your sentences are alive:

• Use forceful verbs—replace long verb phrases with a more specific verb. For example, replace "She argues for the importance of the idea" with "She defends the idea."
• Look for places where you’ve used the same word or phrase twice or more in consecutive sentences and look for alternative ways to say the same thing OR for ways to combine the two sentences.
• Cut as many prepositional phrases as you can without losing your meaning. For instance, the following sentence, "There are several examples of the issue of integrity in the book," would be much better this way, "The book repeatedly addresses the issue of integrity."
• Check your sentence variety. If more than two sentences in a row start the same way (with a subject followed by a verb, for example), then try using a different sentence pattern.
• Aim for precision in word choice. Don’t settle for the best word you can think of at the moment-use a thesaurus (along with a dictionary) to search for the word that says exactly what you want to say.
• For more information, please visit these handouts on word choice and style.

Section adapted from Revision Concerns. The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Creative Commons.