RE: Tannyd

While I agree that you should not revise your paper solely based on the reviews of your peers, I don't believe that peer review is a bad thing. They give an opportunity to receive feedback from the intended audience (or give feedback as the intended). Suggestions are based on readership... If you are reading something and it doesn't make sense to you, it probably doesn't make sense to other people reading it either. Also, everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. So by helping each other out we are able to share our strengths and come up with the best possible overall outcomes. Even if you feel like you aren't the expert, you still have something of value to say! You have been learning the same thing as the rest of the class, but there will be areas that you are better at than some students. You might be able to think of something that the writer didn't because you have a different thought process or just an outside viewpoint. Occasionally in writing you can get stuck in something of a tunnel where you only see where you were going with something. Someone on the outside may be able to see things that you can't. Also utilizing the experience of several different students means that everything should be able to be covered by someone. Just because you have never, say, had to cite a personal interview, someone else probably has, so they would be able to help! Overall a good process for everyone.