1.9 Gathering Feedback for Revision: Peer Review

Another strategy for making your point is to participate in peer reviews. A peer reviewA process wherein peer writers respond to each other’s work. is a process wherein you read a peer’s (or classmate’s) essay and offer your responses. In turn, your peer reads your essay and offers his or her responses. Students often regard peer review as one of the most enjoyable and beneficial steps in the writing process. The peer review that “works” is the one in which all members of the group are attentive to the essay’s strengths and weaknesses and considerate of the author’s feelings when giving constructive criticism.

There is a saying: “If you want to learn something, teach it.” When we teach, we verbalize facts and concepts. When we verbalize these concepts, we internalize—or learn—them. Reviewing a peer’s essay works the same way: when you verbalize the reasons that an essay is or is not effective, you learn the principles of effective writing. Therefore, when you participate in a peer review, you may be helping a classmate improve his or her essay, but, more important, you are helping yourself improve your writing.

Typically, in peer reviews, one member of the peer review group, not the author, should read the whole essay aloud. As other members of the group read along silently, they should record their responses in their own “shorthand”—for example, a smiley face might mean “This sentence made me smile”; a question mark might mean “I didn’t quite understand this”; an “X” might mean “This part seems unnecessary”; an exclamation mark might mean “This passage is perfectly worded!” These marks act as prompts for reviewers to report their responses orally to the group.

If your group has a set of peer review questions, answer the questions as specifically as you can, pointing with a finger to the places in the essay to which you are referring. Be sure to point at the essay’s strengths as well as its weaknesses.

Authors, remember to take all comments indiscriminately. Do not—by word, gesture, or facial expression—express disagreement with your reviewers, or they will stop giving you feedback, and that will not help you improve your writing. Also remember that you will not be able to use all the feedback you receive, but decide later, not during peer review, which is useful and which is not.

Reviewers, you do not have to “fix” the essay; all the author can reasonably expect from you are your responses. But do be constructive, honest, and diplomatic.