2.5 Peer Reviewing

This section defines peer reviewing and explains the benefits for both the peer reviewer and the writer.

What is a Peer Review?

Peer reviewing is when you give your document to or trade documents with a peer or colleague to get their feedback on content, organization, formatting, writing style, and design.  They read your document critically while considering the intended audience, and they annotate it to give constructive criticism on how to improve it.

Peer review is not the same as usability testing in that your peers are not your users; instead, they give you feedback on the quality of the content, writing, and design, and they do not use the document in the same way a user would.  Despite this, peer review is a valuable activity to give you more feedback to help you revise in the next phase.

Additionally, research suggests that the act of peer reviewing builds necessary written communication (Jensen & Fischer, 2005), interpersonal, and teamwork skills (Walker & Williams, 2013), which increases your employability.

In Industry

Although most technical writers write with a team, mostly cross-functional which includes members from different departments, getting feedback on documents from colleagues is important, so be afraid to ask someone from your company to review your work and give you feedback. Checking for accuracy, clarity, organization, and logic ensures that the document will not cause harm to the company nor the audience which avoids lawsuits or other legal and reputational issues.

In school

To peer review, you need to trade papers with a classmate, but many students find peer review projects frustrating since they believe, they

1. 1. don’t have the skills necessary to give adequate feedback,
   2. are worried about hurting other students’ feelings, and/or
   3. don’t feel that they will receive helpful constructive criticism

As a student, peer reviewing can benefit both YOU as the reviewer and YOU as the writer of the document regardless of skill level:

For YOU as the REVIEWER:

Peer reviewing gives YOU as the reviewer the chance to see other student writing and how they approached the assignment. It lets YOU critically engage with the text, read, think, and comment on issues AND great ideas.  It helps YOU to learn how to write by reading other work just as when you read professional writing; in fact, sometimes reading student papers can be more helpful since you can relate to student writers.

Sometimes when you read professional writing, you may think that you could never write as well as them, but you could write as well as another student.  It gives YOU as the reviewer a chance to see what you could do in the future. It may also help you see how far you have come if you have better writing skills than the student who wrote the paper you are reviewing.

Lastly, as the reviewer, you need to give constructive criticism in a spirit of helpfulness. Be respectful. Don’t attack the student in any way. Focus on the writing.

For YOU as the WRITER:

You may not get excellent suggestions for writing since your peer reviewer may not have the writing skills you do, but if your paper is well written, think of the learning that you are helping the OTHER student do.  Your paper is helping them read, think, critically consider, analyze, etc.

Getting peer feedback also helps you get a different perspective on your own document.  Sometimes when you write, you may not see issues even if they may be glaring, so just getting another set of eyes on the paper may help you to see errors that need to be fixed.

Writing is more than just words on a page. Writing is about conveying ideas in a clear and understandable way, and just because you may understand those ideas since they are in your head, it doesn’t mean that other people will understand them. So getting outside feedback may help you to articulate those ideas more clearly.

Lastly, as the writer, take the feedback in the spirit in which it was given- to help you be a better writer and to improve your document.  Try not to take it personally although I know it is hard since we are so connected to our work.

Peer reviewing is a learning experience for you as a reviewer and for you as a writer. Don’t worry about not having the skills to comment because you aren’t giving the other student a grade, and with each peer review you will improve your writing skills.

After you trade papers, either digital or analog, you need to read the document carefully and annotate sentences and paragraphs.  Reread the assignment guidelines and the rubric that your professor provided and focus on elements that are needed in the document.

Questions to consider

For your tutorial peer review, consider these questions along with the main grading rubric for the completed deliverable:

• Does the introduction provide context such as the name of the software, what it can do, and why it is necessary? Can you identify the purpose and intended audience? What does the audience need to know before successfully completing this tutorial?
• Are the sections and subsections of the tutorial indicated by properly contrasting headings and subheadings which are parallel?
• Are the sections organized logically based on what the intended audience needs to know?
• Is the content written at a level that the intended audience can understand?
• Are all actionable steps written in the imperative and include step numbers?
• Are images scaled and placed properly? Do they illustrate the written steps adequately? Do they include arrows, circles, or rectangles to point out important elements?
• Are safety phrases, notes, definitions, and explanations included to help the audience understand?
• Is the document designed using the principles of design: grouping, contrast, alignment, consistency, and balance? Is the font size and style readable? Is the use of active and passive space appropriate? Is color used thoughtfully?
• Is the document usable and useful?
• What are the strengths of the document?
• What do you think needs to be improved?

How to peer review

Read the document slowly and carefully. As you read, use word processing tools to annotate the document. For example, if the document is in Word, use the comment feature in Review on the toolbar.   Embed comments in the document using highlights, strikeouts, and comments, and be as clear and specific as possible. For example, don’t write “this is confusing.”  Explain what you find confusing.

Make sure you point out issues make recommendations because the goal of peer review is to give CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, which is helpful, respectful suggestions for improvement. You should also state what you like in the document as well.

After you have annotated the document and written out all constructive criticism, give it to the author, so they can read it.

When you receive your feedback, read it carefully and remember that the reader is trying to help you improve the document.  Consider their feedback and start revising your document. You are not required to make all of the changes recommended by your reviewer; however, you should thoughtfully consider their suggestions along with your audience and purpose and then revise appropriately.