Special K

Peer Reading

I have this thing about other people reading my papers. When professors read them I'm fine, because I don't physically have to watch them. I don't have to see their facial expressions as they question my word choice and lack of clarity. Yet when a classmate reads my papers, I hate it. I hate "peer reading" days in class where we all share our papers with each other (Chris laughs at me when I physically twitch at the notion of someone else reading my work).

So exchanging my paper with another classmate and being forced to hear it read aloud was a less than exciting time for me. This was a huge paper, very important, and I just didn't want to hear again. Please, don't bring up Willy Loman or his hallucinations- I'm done. Yet I still had to sit there as it was silently critiqued by a classmate. Luckily, I was able to ignore half of it (simply because, after working on it for so long, I just didn't want to think about it anymore. Plus, I could practically recite it word-for-word). I was surprised during the parts I did hear, however. Sometimes I would think, "Did I write that? Wow, that was really good. 'A' here I come." Then at other times, "That was bad, horrible. I'm going to fail." I could hear all the little mistakes and problems as well as the good. I have a tendency to turn in a paper and try to forget about it until I receive the grade. Yet as I listend to it being read aloud, I had to relive the paper again. Next time, I'm bringing ear plugs.