About revising peers' posts and works.

Yesterday in class we were given some peers' works and we had to revise them. We did this in order to see if we are able to recognize and correct mistakes. After Marta and I revised Stefania's work, we handed it to Sarah and got aware that correcting other people's work is difficult because:

• The meaning of the text can be clear to the author while tricky to the reader;
  
• When correcting someone else's work you should find a kind way to do it. This does not mean that sometimes you'd better shut up on your peer's mistakes, of course. Actually, I think you should underline ALL the mistakes you meet within the text, and eventually put the word or the sentence you think is right. If you do not correct your peer, you don't help him/her and just let him live in an happy ignorance which BELIEVE ME is worse than letting him be aware of his level of English. We are here to learn and we can do it sharing our knowledge, as well. If you possibly can do something for you peer, please do it!!!
• Remarks are not always easy to take. Especially if you worked hard on that post your collegues found full of mistakes. Last year when I was at the University of Zaragoza, almost every week I had to write an essay in English for a film arts course. We were given marks for those works and I failed the early essays I handed. I was sad because I thought I had done a good job and couldn't possibly understand what was wrong with me. I was angry with the professor who I thought didn't understand anything:( However I wanted to pass that exam (which on the other hand, I found very interesting) and decided to see what the problemwas and how to solve it. After I read my essays lots of times I realized that what I wrote was unclear and unstructured. The ideas were good but the form was bad. There lacked good conceptual links between sentences and it was hard to follow the whole text without asking yourself "Whaaat?!?"In order to write well, I understood that after you finish your work you should try to read your text as it'd be the first time you see it. This way, you'll be more critical of what you read.

Corrections are difficult both to make and to receive, but we should bear in mind that they really help us to cope with our lacks in language skills. To a greater extent accepting remarks and doing them help us to improve ourselves. We should serenely discuss about our wicknesses and work to overwelm our difficulties in order to become as more open-minded as possible.

After yesterday's lesson, I read my last post and I noticed I made the same mistake I did in Spain. I'll correct in the next days and try to make it smoother for you to read.
See you tomorrow my dear peers!