Last week we talked a great deal about how writing a “shitty first draft” is the first step when writing any work. Whatever you end of writing will probably be poorly phrased, incoherent, and full of grammatical and spelling errors (kind of like this blog post!). Revising your first draft is essential if you want to turn in something that is worth reading. You should never finish your first draft and think, “Well this isn’t THAT bad, I think I’ll just turn this in as my final draft”. Revising your first or second draft is essential and the best way to revise your work is through other people. Peer review is a wonderful thing. It’s basically like cheating, but it’s allowed. The main advantage of peer review is that it allows your paper to be analyzed by a new mind, one that probably does not know much about your topic.
A common problem people have when writing something is expressing what they really mean. When you write your first draft and read it over, you will almost certainly find some problems with what you wrote. Sometimes, however, your own knowledge on the subject will allow you to overlook some problems because you know what you are trying to say. If someone else reads your work, they may find it confusing because they did not do the research you did, so they won’t understand what you are trying to say. Your brain is like your best friend and your worst enemy. It is constantly filling in the gaps for you and overlooking your mistakes. This means that if you revise your writings all by yourself, you might miss some glaring problem with your paper. Peer review eliminates that issue, since we do not all share the same brain.