Arguments

The essay that I covered was "The $78 Million Bag". In this essay the writers try to appeal to the readers through the use of marijuana. They write about how what most people have done last night which tries to ease tension on the subject as well as appeal to the reader. Along with this is a tone that is lighter then what would be expected from a serious subject. Another thing I noticed with the essay is that there are a lot of statistics. The statistics all come from other sources and are used to put together this $78 million. The use of statistics being incorporated into the whole paper gives the writers credibility which helps support their argument because they are more believable. The third thing I noticed in this analysis is that the argument of this essay is not so clear and is open to interpretation. I think this is important because that way when you are arguing in your own essay then  there is a lot to talk about. If the argument was so pin point then it would be very hard to argue for because the evidence and everything else needed for a good argument is not there.

Peer Review Process

First, I think the peer review process helps out a lot in class. It is effective because it helps to hear ideas from other peers. Ideas from other peers help me because my peers always have different ideas no matter how hard I try to look for other view points. I think that it can be improved with more open discussion. Instead of one person filling out a worksheet for your paper, maybe having a group talk about each persons paper after being read out loud would help. As a peer reviewer I think my strength is that I am very analytical. I really try to see if the paper is sticking true to its thesis. My weakness is that I don't mention simple mistakes because, while they are important, they are not as important as other aspects like wording or sentence structure. In my ideal peer review each person would read their paper aloud and then have the audience asking questions about the paper. In answering these questions the writer can see the problems and what needs to be changed in the paper. I think this would best be done in groups of 7 or 8 students, that way its more personal but there is also a good number of students working on each paper.