Peer Review

What is Peer Review?

In the sciences, "peer review" is the process an experiment undergoes to see if the results of a study are reproducible.

In a writing classroom, peer review, or "peer edit," is a chance to exchange ideas in a social setting.

The Classroom Model

Effective writing requires “reflective thinking” which is, as Kenneth A. Bruffee explains, “something we learn to do, and we learn to do it from and with other people." Given that learning is a social act, then collaboration is essential to increasing independent understanding of any subject. Further, “writing is at once both two steps away from conversation and a return to conversation,” meaning that writing simultaneously influences and is influenced by conversation (see Bruffee, Collaborative Learning and the Conversation of Mankind"). Thus, writing is a type of collaboration, with collaboration being, in fact, a form of communication.

Though there are numerous peer review approaches—which are discussed at length below—peer review is, at its core, a collaborative process of students giving feedback to and receiving feedback from their peers in class. Then, based on the feedback received on their work, students make their desired revisions to their text, leading to more polished, confident submissions. Essentially, peer reviews are collaboration about communication; so, in participating in peer review conversations, students practice engaging with ideas through a critical lens which transfers to their culminating ability to confidently analyze, critique, and consequently revise their own writing pieces and overarching concepts as well.

Additionally, despite its necessity within the writing process, students frequently forego revising their paper drafts before completing their final submission. While there are a myriad of possible reasons for this trend, one likely cause is student uncertainty of what revisions they should make in their paper. Although many professors and instructors provide their students with summative feedback on their writing, this feedback is typically centered on justifying the given-grade for a paper submission and is sometimes difficult to apply to future papers.

Conversely, a successful peer review process benefits both the reviewer and the writer and leads to genuine, substantial revision. Because the peer review process expectedly occurs before the final draft of a paper, feedback is more formative, meaning that the feedback assesses current levels of mastery and provides concrete suggestions for improvement that are both specific to the piece as well as transferable to general writing practice. In essence, integrating formative feedback into the writing process through peer review transforms revision into an exercise in applying new learning.