Upon beginning Writing Project 4, I had a particularly difficult time with figuring out specific solutions that were relevant to my topic. Honestly, I think that I chose a topic that was much more complex than I could handle. I knew that the transfer of credits was really common among students across the nation, but I couldn't quite figure out any proposals that could solve this universal problem. This was probably the most difficult paper I have ever written. It took a lot of time to map out what I was going to write, but I feel that, in the end, I constructed a decent structured essay.
To be quite frank, of all the times we have done peer review, I would say that the anonymous review sessions were the absolute, most effective. Part of why I thought of it to be so influential on our writing is because we were able to be truly honest with our criticism, without having to worry about hurting our classmate's feelings. I feel that that is extremely vital in terms of receiving legitimate, helpful feedback. And because it was anonymous, for some reason I felt more inclined to do my utmost best at revising the papers I had and making sure that they were getting another point of view towards their writing. It was most definitely successful, and it is always helpful to be exposed to another person's view or opinion.
There was, however, one negative aspect from this certain revising process for Writing Project 4. While we were sure to meet with our peers about our essays for Writing Project 3, we didn't really stress that as much for Writing Project 4. I think it was one major step of the revising process that shouldn't have been taken lightly. For me, it's much easier to comprehend a person's critique face-to-face, through a conversation. Although my peers had written down comments and suggestions on my paper, much of what they said would be much more effective had they been clarified through communication.
