Some of the most meaningful activities can turn into disasters. Take peer review, for example. It’s meant to be a positive experience where sharing your writing with your peers brings thoughtful feedback and criticism that makes the other students think more carefully about their own writing. My students in first year writing recently did their first peer review for the Opinion Editorial. I had them first do a rush write, basically a timed free write for a few minutes, on their past experiences with peer review and what they hoped to both give and get out of the experience that day. As I started them on the activity of peer review with a detailed guide to follow, I read some of their responses. They included things like, “Peer reviews have always been a waste of time for me as I never get valuable feedback;” “Too many peers are unsure of what to actually fix or they are too timid to critique the paper;” “I’ve never done peer review, in high school only one teacher out of 4 used it and no one really got the point of why they did it;” and “I don’t trust my peers because I’ve written something that they don’t understand and my teacher gets it but they don’t. Its because I’m a good writer.” However honest and true these responses may be, they reflect that students have the wrong idea about peer review and also about writing in general, it seems to me.
When I began to think about graduate school, it was a secret wish of mine to take a non fiction workshop class. I was able to sign up for a workshop the fall semester of my second year, but I was both terrified and excited because I didn’t know what I would write and what the reaction of my peers would be. I ended up writing about my family in all of my essays and sometimes it was hard to separate the criticism I received from my own feelings about the subject matter. A friend of mine, who was a more experienced writer, reassured me that at some point everyone writes about their family, and that the feedback in workshop is about the writing itself, not about me as a person. That quickly became clear and I felt foolish for thinking it, but I can understand how first year writing students would still struggle with presenting something they’ve labored over and then feel personally attacked when they get criticism on it.
So it falls on the job of the teacher to help students understand how peer review can work and its value to them as writers. One student wrote, “I feel that it can be difficult to ask someone to alter content because they have a certain thing they are trying to get across.” This is a common misconception from first year writers because it perpetuates the idea that there is one right way of writing, and if someone doesn’t get what you are trying to get across, it is because they’ve missed the point. This is when I think it’s important to emphasize that clarity and a sound argument, elements fundamental to writing, don’t diminish what you are trying to get across. That is what your peers help evaluate when they read your writing.
I tried to reiterate to my class that because they seemed to have had similar negative experiences with people not being critical at all, and feeling like it didn’t help their writing, that it’s better to be critical and get good feedback so that they can change things about their writing. Easier said than done of course. But a few tips, gathered from first year writing instructors, can aid in the process of doing a successful peer review:
- Prepare your students for the peer review experience. This can be done a number of ways. I chose to do a free write to have them reflect on past experiences with peer review. I also introduced them to the rubric so that they knew what I expect of a strong essay and they too can take those expectations and help hold their fellow writers to those standards. Modeling what you hope peer review can be like can also be an effective way of preparing them. Act out appropriate ways to give feedback and inappropriate ways (albeit with a sense of humor). Get the students to discuss what meaningful feedback looks like. It’s not enough to write, “good” or “awkward” next to a sentence or paragraph. Likewise in a group discussion to remain silent or only comment that you thought it was good is not helpful. Discuss with them what they would want to hear to help them improve and encourage them to give that type of feedback.
- Execute the peer review. This needs to be done with a set of instructions given beforehand or explained beforehand. I used a five-phase peer review for the Opinion Editorial where questions prompted the type of things they were looking for in the writing, that adhered to the rubric, and helped them write out more detailed feedback. In reflective writing, a different set of instructions would be necessary, but nonetheless crucial for making it an instructive and productive time. Assigning students roles if using large group discussions of a student’s essay can help so that one person is taking notes while the rest of the class is giving feedback. Being ready with questions to prompt productive feedback is necessary so as to guide and model what type of feedback students should be giving. However, often in small groups, students feel they have the freedom away from the teacher to say what they think and even talk openly about their writing in a way that is purely for their peers. This should be respected and can work very well but needs to be set up properly.
- Reflect on the peer review. Have students take a few minutes to write a reflection of their experience with peer review or share their experience as a class. It can be extremely useful to have students write out a plan right then with how they will revise their paper based on the feedback they have just received.
Of course, it is important to remind students that feedback and criticism from peers is still suggestions and are things optional to change in their paper. They are, after all, the author and have the final say. However, I always stress the importance of considering your audience and that your peers are your audience, so if it doesn’t jive with them then something is clearly wrong. Clarity and effectiveness is something that can be judged by anyone, and most often not by our own self because we as the author have come from the ideas to the words, so we need to make sure those we write to understand what we are trying to say.