{"id":2247,"date":"2023-03-28T13:58:58","date_gmt":"2023-03-28T17:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/writing-program\/?page_id=2247"},"modified":"2023-09-28T12:34:54","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T16:34:54","slug":"peer-review","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/writing-program\/writing-in-the-majors\/concepts-and-practices\/peer-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Peer Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by Rebecca Wilbanks<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peer review is a workhorse of the writing classroom, for good reason. Students receive feedback from each other without the need for the instructor to comment on every submission. In commenting on each other\u2019s work, they develop critical judgment that they can bring to bear on their own writing. Working peer review into the schedule requires students to complete a draft ahead of the final deadline and sets the expectation that they will revise. Students benefit from seeing how others executed similar writing tasks. Finally, the skills that students practice during peer review\u2014soliciting, providing, receiving, and responding to feedback\u2014are essential to success in both scholarly and professional contexts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 While students often report that they found peer review to be valuable, students and faculty sometimes worry that peer feedback may be inaccurate or unhelpful. These concerns are valid: for peer review to be successful, students must receive clear instructions about what aspects of the text to focus on and training in how to formulate responses to peer drafts. The class must develop a shared sense of standards and a language to articulate them. The good news is that when peer review is supported in these ways, substantial evidence<\/a> supports peer review\u2019s benefits. With appropriate preparation, Melzer and Bean report that three or more students collectively produce feedback analogous to that of an instructor. Some classes even use a rigorous peer review system to generate grades for assignments<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 It’s best to put the guidelines for your peer review in writing. These guidelines could take the form of a set of questions for students to respond to, a rubric to fill out (usually the same rubric that will be used to grade the assignment), or instructions for writing a response letter to the writer. Students will also benefit from seeing examples of helpful (and less helpful) feedback comments. You can use these sample comments to push students to provide greater specificity in their feedback (Less helpful: \u201cNice work. You did a really good job on this assignment.\u201d More helpful: \u201cI really like how you responded to the claims of Author X.\u201d) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What to Ask of Student Reviewers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As you design the peer review, consider how you will balance these different options: <\/p>\n\n\n\n