Contructive Criticism and Just Plain Criticising- There IS a Difference

I used to be so worried about offending someone when doing a peer to peer review. I have had some not so constructive criticism on school work in the past (not anyone at Kaplan ;0) ). It can cause someone to become discouraged when they are trying to re-write their paper after some harsh criticism. The more writing classes that I took, and the more peer t peer reviews we had to do, I learned that there is a very fine line between trying to help and just plain nit picking. You may not like someones topic, or their style of writing, but one thing we all have to remember is that not everyone has had the same educational ease that you may have. I for one usually did very well in school, everything but math came easily to me. So if I was reviewing a paper that had a ton of spelling mistakes, instead of pointing out every little word that is mis-spelled, you could just politely say "hey I noticed some spelling mistakes, so you may want to use spell check or have a parent or friend that is good with spelling take a look at it" That way, you are bringing it to their attention so that they do not leave it that way and get points taken off, but you have not been a butt head and made them feel uncomfortable by pointing out every little thing. As the person being reviewed, you also have to remember that the point of peer review is to get hp on your weak spots. No one wants to rip your paper apart looking for mistakes, it was an assignment, and we are all trying to help each other. So when peer reviewing this week, just remember that everyone has feelings and that we should review each others papers with the same respect that you want from the person reviewing your paper. Happy New Year to all!