Eric Heinz ENG 319

My Peers and I

Eric Heinz

ENG 319

December 11, 2008

Peer Review

Brianna: All of her work was very extensive and enjoyable to read – paper two was probably my favorite of hers. She seems to have a different voice in all of her essays particularly in the memoir assignment, she really did an excellent job getting all of her points down and then emulating one of the authors from this semester. At times it was difficult to see where the memoir was headed – but after reading her final draft she did an excellent job of revising and making sure that everything came together, hopefully I will get a chance to read a different kind of essay of hers, I would really like to see what other tactics she has as a writer.

Matt: Matt’s work is very strong, even though his memoir isn’t considered a persuasion piece it still touches on racial, economic, and political issues affecting the area he’s originally from. The most enjoyable part about Matt’s work is that he takes the issue or memory at hand and writes it the way he wants it to be told – in his initial response to Bizzle I believe he held back a little bit with his own voice and stuck to the reading. The memoir let him go way outside those lines and talk without boundaries, excellent memoir.

Noel: The addition of adjectives and elaboration really makes for a vivid memoir. It is difficult to judge what’s different about Noel’s work because her voices are so distinctive from one another. The memoir was incredibly inclusive, whereas the first paper rifled through memories that didn’t really flow together as well as the transitions in the memoir. Even so, she addressed the issues accurately, I would like to see a piece from her that is more closely related to the first essay in order to appropriately examine what else has changed.

Chelsea: Most of Chelsea’s writing is very alike. The best part of reading her work was that she stayed on topic and didn’t elaborate too much. Her foreshadowing to a grim night in her memoir really drew me into the rest of the story – this is a hallmark of great essay writing. In her analytical work, I found myself hearing the exact same voice from the memoir (voice as described as substance) in a different light. I would like to read another memoir of hers to see if her voice changes with content, but still recollecting a memory.

Myself: It’s been a nightmare of a semester. Somewhere in the midst I found a better way to write and edit. A lot of what’s changed for me is the fluidity of my ideas and essay structuring. I’ve rearranged my “5 paragraph” style of writing to work for many of the pieces that I’ve done in all my English classes this semester. One of the most enticing parts of the semester was going back and forth between academic discourse, journalism, and essay writing; each has their own distinct attributes and for me, especially in the beginning, was very difficult and hurt much of my work.