Peer Review Best Practices

Receiving Feedback – The Importance of Perspective

It can be difficult receiving feedback on work that you have put a lot of effort into. However, seeing how other people perceive what you wrote is critical to understand how your important information is being conveyed. If the reader isn’t understanding what you wrote, it means you might not have conveyed your ideas in clear or detailed enough ways.  As indicated by the Roald Dahl quote, there is no such thing as a perfect work – any writing, even if already excellent, can be improved.

Giving Feedback – Understanding your Purpose

As a reviewer, you should be conscientious of how the author will perceive your comments while being fully understanding of how easy it is to misconstrue criticism as a comment on the person rather than a suggestion to improve their product. Make sure that, as you make comments, you have approached the work with an open mind and are encouraging the author to continue to improve the work.

Your purpose in providing a review is to give the writer constructive, effective feedback. This means you are not simply checking for grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc., but you should be reviewing the assignment requirements, evaluating how your peer addressed key content points, and guiding your peer toward growth and improvement.

How to Get Started

The following steps will help you give constructive feedback:

1. Targeted: Depending on the length of the assignment, choose 2 – 3 key points your peer(s) should focus on for growth and improvement.
   1. When deciding on key points, consider if they need to be better aligned to the goals, instructions, and rubrics of the assignment.
   2. Reference the goals, instructions, and/or rubric criteria to the key points being addressed.
   3. Writing conventions need to be addressed, but should not be the sole focus.
2. Actionable: When peers read your feedback, they should be able to figure out what steps to take for improvement.
   1. Don’t make the changes, but give suggestions or even offer links to helpful resources.
3. Specific: Be specific by linking your suggestions to the precise ideas, paragraphs, sentences, phrases, and words.
4. Supportive: Frame your suggestions in a kind way that is kind but constructive.
5. Delivery: Use written, video/screencast, and audio as tools to give feedback.

Best Practices for Providing Feedback

Here are some best practices for the peer review process that will help you provide the most helpful feedback to your peers.

Do –

1. Focus on identifying errors in logic, missing relevant information, and lack of clarity.
2. Restate what you think the author is trying to convey before providing your criticism. Doing so can help an author understand how their work may not be conveying its intended message.
3. Be as specific as possible about what you are commenting on and follow this up with specific reasons to back up the comment.
4. Use language carefully to focus criticism on the work, not the author.
5. Keep editing limited to clear grammatical mistakes, typos, and spelling errors.

Don’t –

1. Provide only negative comments
2. Provide only positive comments
3. Provide comments that are general in nature and not supported by specific examples or reasons.
4. Use language that can be easily misconstrued as a statement about the author.
5. Make suggestions that are built on rewriting the work to your style of writing, or doing the described work the way you would have done it.
6. Provide reviews that are only editorial (see #5).

References

Ambrose, S.A., Bridges, M.W., DiPietro, M., Lovett, M.C., & Norman, M.K. (2010). How learning works: Seven research-based principles for smart teaching. Jossey-Bass.

Gardner, M. (2019). Teaching students to give peer feedback. Edutopia.