All professional writers practice peer review. Feedback is integral to their success. While news writers work closely with editors, academic journals rely heavily on peer reviewers to make decisions on the quality of articles. Plus, these reviewers always make suggestions for improvements. Peer reviewers for articles and books might recommend additional research, or a clearer articulation of methods and data collection. They also comment on the strength of the argument and claims, organization, and clarity. Editors and copyeditors in turn help with sentence-level issues, formatting, and citation.
Even if you don’t plan to publish articles, learning how to conduct peer review effectively will make you a better writer. Most companies expect their employees to work in teams to produce written materials such as budget proposals, reports, manuals, mission statements, and website content. These can be long and complicated documents, requiring the work to be broken down into units. You can count on collaborators reviewing and commenting on your work, helping to make it as effective as possible. They’ll expect feedback from you as well.
Learning to give quality feedback also makes you a better editor of your own work. That’s because you judge other’s writing differently from your own. It’s hard to be critical of your own work, but you can get better at that by practicing constructive criticism of others. Finally, doing peer review forces you to express/articulate what you think is important about writing, and what makes good writing. Therefore, it makes you more aware of your own habits and perceptions. Good writers don’t just write well, they can explain clearly what good writing is in different situations.
Steps for Effective Peer Review
- Read the writer’s essay first without marking it up. This is important in order to grasp the writer’s purpose and what they’re trying to accomplish. If you begin commenting right away, you may miss their point, or offer advice that you later have to edit or delete.
- Read the essay again, this time making 4-5 comments (2-3 sentences each) on the following:
Main point/Thesis: Does your peer clearly explain, in the first paragraph or two, whether he/she agrees or disagrees with the author? Does your peer explain in 1-2 sentences what evidence he/she will present? If not, then what do you suggest to make the thesis more clear?
Supporting Claims: Does your peer provide clear reasons why he/she agrees or disagrees with parts of the author’s argument?
Evidence & Support: Are these claims supported with sufficient summary, paraphrase, and quotation?
Representation of Sources: Does your peer sufficiently and fairly represent the author’s claims and reasoning?
Focus & Cohesion: Does each paragraph have a clear topic sentence? Does your peer stick to that topic and develop it
Organization: Are there any paragraphs that you think could be broken up and developed separately?
Clarity/Grammar: Try not to comment exclusively on grammar. Only comment on sentences or phrases that seem unclear. Marking spelling or punctuation issues is premature at this stage.
- Write 3-4 sentences of final comments/suggestions on the essay’s overall quality and what you think would help it succeed according to the original assignment guidelines. Are there any ideas or experiences you’ve had that might help them revise this paper?
- Return drafts and review each other’s comments. Then engage in discussion. This is a good time to ask each other for clarification about comments, and also to have a conversation about your overall intentions and obstacles. Talking about comments is important to begin reflecting and planning on your revisions.