6 Peer Review, Revision, and Editing

Dr. Karen Palmer

Reading a text as a reviewer should be considered both a privilege and an opportunity. The professional world demands the ability to negotiate ideas and work collaboratively to achieve success, and peer review offers a wonderful way to practice those skills. Peer review, then, offers advantages beyond merely helping a classmate earn a better grade. Peer Review offers an opportunity to apply what students have learned in the role of a teacher. By looking at their peers’ work, a student will better retain what has been learned and become a better writer in the process.

Reviewing Responsibly

As peer reviewers approach a text, they should bring with them several qualities: an ability to remain focused on the task of improving the text; an ability to prioritize the needs of the author; and an ability to provide specific, insightful feedback. Peer reviewers should think critically about how well a text fulfills its purpose in regard to the rhetorical situation of the essay. Focusing on how well a fellow student presents his/her argument should help keep peer reviewers from attacking the author as a human being and should prevent the reviewer from hijacking the text with suggestions that change the stance of the author or the purpose of the writing.

Reviewers should understand that the draft is not final. Since the text will likely be revised, focusing on issues of grammar or spelling is not as useful as focusing on the content and rhetorical strategies of the text. In order of importance, reviewers should focus on issues of content, focus, organization, topic, and purpose.

A good reviewer should offer insight that is grounded in the text. Engaging writing critically requires the ability to point out inconsistencies, to question logic, to seek clarification, and to open the author’s eyes to anything he or she may have taken for granted.

A Process for Reviewing Peer Papers

1)  First, read the paper all the way through, just as you would a poem or a short story. Appreciate what the writer is trying to say before you begin making comments, either good or bad. If you can’t figure out what the writer’s point is, try reading the paper a second time through. Remember, you are part of the audience for this paper, so it’s important that you ‘get it’!

2) Second, hold the paper up against the assignment criteria. When you feel that you understand what the writer is trying to say, jot down what you think his/her main point is. Take a look at the assignment’s major criteria. For an ad analysis, a reviewer might look for a clear thesis statement that indicates the strategies used by the advertiser, a strong description of the ad, a discussion of the magazine in which the ad was located, a discussion of the strategies used with examples from the ad, etc. Does the writer fulfill the criteria?

3)  Give the writer feedback containing at least three positive comments, as well as pointing out at least three areas that the writer could improve. Remember to include specific examples. Don’t just tell a writer his intro lacks luster…give him some ideas to spice it up. Don’t just say, “I like the paper,” give reasons why. Offering suggestions and reasons help the author to make better decisions about revision.

4) Your review should include the following three items: a recap of the main point, three things you like about the paper, and three areas the paper could be improved. As you do so, remember the golden rule. Speak to others with respect and consideration. Your job is to help them do better, not put them in their place. However, just telling someone they did a great job when you see areas they can improve is not fair. Find a balance between constructive criticism and encouragement.

5)  Remember to focus on revision, not on editing or proofreading.

Here is a sample peer review for an Ad Analysis paper:

Example Peer Review

  1. Main idea: The advertiser convinces the consumer that drinking Coke will help them to enjoy life more by using humor, bright colors, and nostalgia.
  2. Three things the author does well:
    1. The thesis clearly states the argument and gives three strategies used by the advertiser: humor, bright colors, and nostalgia.
    2. The description includes enough description that I can picture the ad.
    3. The topic sentences match the wording of the thesis.
  3. Three things the author can improve:
    1. Consider moving the complete text from the ad from the description to the body paragraphs. It might be more effective to use a short summary of the text paragraph in the description and then include the quotes as evidence to support your points.
    2. Consider adding another supporting example to each of your body paragraphs.
    3. Consider rearranging the order of the strategies discussed so the paper builds up from least to most persuasive strategy.

Revision

Revision is an important part of the writing process. Our first draft should never be our final draft. There is always room for improvement. A published author of a New York Times best-selling novel can still find opportunities to make the novel better.

It’s important to note that revision concerns making changes to what is said and how it is said. It includes adding or deleting paragraphs, changing the organization of points in the paper, adding more support, clarifying ideas, etc. Revision is not a matter of fixing spelling errors and adding punctuation marks. Instead, revision is where an author refines the ideas to ensure that the purpose of the message is fulfilled.

In addition to taking note of comments from peer review, students should consider taking their papers to the Learning Center on their campus for additional feedback. Reading the paper out loud to a friend or a family member can also help students find areas that could be improved.

Editing

Editing is the very final step. Think of editing as the icing on the cake. This is where a writer will make the final product look great. Students should not begin editing until they are sure that the draft is exactly how they want it. Submitting papers to a service like Turnitin or Grammarly can help students find grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors.

Here is a great checklist to use prior to submitting a final draft:

Editing Checklist for Academic Essays

Format

  • All papers are in MLA format
    • Appropriate headings and page numbering are used
    • Margins are correct: 1/2 inch from top to right header, 1 inch all around
    • Spacing is set to double, with no extra line spaces between headings and title, title and body, or between paragraphs
  • Within the essay, parenthetical citations are used (Lastname 13).
  • A works cited page is included when appropriate, with all necessary information.

Mechanics: Spelling, Punctuation, Grammar, Syntax

  • Did I run spell-check?
  • Did I check homonyms? (Example: to, too, and two)
  • Did I look up difficult words?
  • Did I proofread aloud to catch obvious errors?
  • Are all sentences complete (subject & verb, complete thought)?
  • Did I use one verb tense throughout (unless there was a good reason to switch)?
  • Did I use present tense verbs to discuss texts?
  • Have I checked for run-on sentences and comma splices?
  • Does my paper flow when read aloud? Did I use different sentence lengths and styles?

Once editing is complete, it’s time to submit the final draft of the essay!

A Note on AI

For Drafting…

As the video above notes, many students fall into the trap of using AI. Maybe they are overwhelmed with the assignment and don’t really know what to do. Maybe they have too much on their plate and just don’t have time to write. (or they’ve procrastinated) Or maybe they just. don’t. care.

First, consider this–you are a student in a composition class. You’re here so that you can learn skills that will make you a competent writer for the rest of your academic, professional, and even personal life. You might never need to write an ad analysis, but the skills you learn as you complete that work will benefit you down the road. If you just ask ChatGPT to write it for you, you will not learn those lessons.

Can AI be useful? Of course! Learning to use AI effectively is not only beneficial, but it can also be super fun. However, this course isn’t the right context for. You can use AI like a writing tutor to give you ideas about how you can make your essay better, but don’t use AI to write your essay.

Just like you have a personal voice in your writing, so does ChatGPT. And it’s pretty easy detect. Even if you’ve somehow disguised your paper so that Turnitin doesn’t catch on that you’ve used AI, your professor will immediately hear that robotic voice that is a) super repetitive and, more importantly, b) doesn’t seem to get the point of the assignment. I would so much rather read an imperfect paper written by a student who is invested in the topic and writes in their own voice–those papers make me smile. AI just doesn’t seem to be able to write a paper that really makes sense and addresses the assignment.

For Editing…

Even tools that professors recommend to students for editing help, like Grammarly, often utilize at least some level of AI. Make sure that you carefully consider each of the recommended suggestions. Not only can Grammarly make mistakes, but accepting every suggestion can make your writing sound robotic. It also increases the likelihood that your paper will be flagged as AI by a plagiarism detector, like Turnitin.

If you carefully consider each suggestion, just like you would if you were deciding whether to accept a suggestion from a fellow student, you will a) learn more about grammar and writing and b) better preserve your own voice.

I would rather read a paper with a few editing errors that is interesting and has a personality than a perfect paper that is devoid of an actual voice.


Attribution:

  • Content created by Dr. Karen Palmer and licensed under CC-BY NC.
  • Editing Checklist” from The Word on College Reading and Writing by Babin, et al licensed by CC NC 4.0.

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Peer Review, Revision, and Editing Copyright © 2024 by Dr. Karen Palmer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.