Peer Review
One of the challenges of writing well is that we cannot read our own writing the way a reader reads it. We read our own work through the lens of what we know and think. We might spend a lot of time choosing words and sentences to form our ideas in a way that we think will be clear to our reader, but those words on the page are always irrevocably connected to what’s in our brains.
In contrast, a reader comes to our page unencumbered. A reader doesn’t know what you experienced or what you’ve been thinking about or what you know. A reader has only your words on the page. If you have ever written something that you thought was perfectly clear, only to be asked, “What did you mean here?” — you have experienced the disconnect between what you know and what your reader knows. This disconnect is a problem we can’t solve on our own.
All writers, not just student writers, experience this lack of objectivity with their work.
This is why peer review is essential for all writers.
Peer review is the process of sharing your work with another writer for the purposes of seeing your work as a reader sees it. The primary task of a peer reviewer is to articulate to the writer: “Here is what I see on your page. Here is what you are saying.”
Here are some guidelines for a productive peer review session:
1. Be kind. The quality of the writing does not determine the quality of your attitude toward the writing or the writer.
2. Be positive. Find what is working well in the writing, and comment on it .
3. Be conversational. Suggestions are suggestions, not corrections or demands. It is the writer’s work.
4. Be specific. Every comment must be located at a specific line or paragraph in the text. Generic comments offer little or no help to the writer.
5. Be a big-picture reader. (Don’t get hung up on spelling and punctuation.) Focus on the following:
- the ideas are clear and fully developed
- the work is well organized and the structure is organic to the content
- the thesis is clear and matches the ideas presented in the rest of the work
- the essay adheres to the assignment specifications
6. Be essay-focused. Evaluate the writing, not the writer. It doesn’t matter if you agree with the writer’s ideas, choices, or beliefs. It does matter how those ideas are presented on the page.
7. Be curious. What do you want to know more about? What is interesting and could be expanded? What else could the writer include? A note like “More here” or “expand” in the margin of the draft is a simple way to offer this suggestion.
“Peer Review.” Authored by: Sara Rufner. Located at: https://ua.pressbooks.pub/writingandthesciences/chapter/peer-review/
License: CC BY-NC
