Peer Review Workshop Review

I thought I would post about the Peer Review Workshop, as I actually took a lot away from it (at least more than I thought I would)! It helped to drill into my head that criticisms of my work do not equal attacks. Logically I know this, but as I'm sure most of you are aware it's so easy to get emotionally attached to your own written ideas. When someone tears them apart (or at least it feels like that's what they're doing) you tend to become defensive or quite honestly embarrassed and sad (at least I do). The workshop hit home with me in that I genuinely took the comments from my SSHRC proposal in a different light. Some of these comments were harsh, but most of them were clearly designed to help me not only make my proposal better, but to make myself a better student and communicator. This should be common sense by the time one enters a Master's program, but I'm glad I had the reminder that criticism is really designed to help you, not embarrass you. I feel much more confident going into my peer review with these thoughts in mind, and hopefully I will see my own writing improve even further as the course goes on.