In the efforts to nurture future scholars, educators incorporate peer review as a fundamental skill for students. Peer review tasks break away from the norm of instructing students to conduct research and document findings. Instead, peer-review assignments force the learner to take on the role of an assessor, which is quite challenging. In particular, an online writing service offers the best 10 peer review practices for those who want to learn more on how to deal with such assignments.
Reading and Understanding the Guidelines
Students should read and understand the peer review guidelines before starting the review process. The peer review guidelines explain the desired nature of the feedback by identifying the key elements that the peer review manager or instructor expects the reviewer to consider in drafting the paper. The tutor can assist the student in properly interpreting the rules by simplifying the guidelines into a list of dos and don’ts. Online tutoring and writing centers have experienced tutors who can assist students in comprehending the meaning of detailed guidelines.
Establishing the Scope of the Assignment Prompt
A good peer reviewer must understand the purpose and scope of the writing prompt that the author employed in developing the essay. Unlike instances of documenting original research for publications, a writing prompt precedes most classroom assignments. As a peer reviewer, the content of the assignment prompt is invaluable in evaluating the text of the essay because it defines the scope of relevance. Online tutoring and writing centers aid the reviewer in developing a complete picture of the fundamental aspects of ideal essay responses.
Developing a Checklist
Based on the scope of the essay prompt and the peer review guidelines, the student creates a checklist to ensure that the resulting peer review is exhaustive. The checklist is a compilation of the information that the peer reviewer and tutor cooperatively distill from the extensive guidelines and essay instructions. During the development of a review checklist, the tutor’s input is essential because the person can identify potential overlaps in checklist items and offer meaningful critique on the hierarchy of items on the checklist.
Conducting the Review Systematically
A systematic approach ensures that the peer reviewer avoids over-focusing or under-focusing on any essay aspect. An ideal peer review consists of feedback on multiple essay aspects, for instance, structure, and originality. If peer reviewers attempt to provide feedback on all elements simultaneously, they will be overwhelmed. The reviewer should focus on one element at a time. The systematic approach is supported by tutors who identify the common element-specific mistakes that the reviewer should look out for when conducting the review.
Rereading the Review
After completing the initial review, the peer reviewer should self-assess the review. The initial draft of a review may contain some flaws where the wording of the feedback does not accurately capture the intended meaning of the reviewer. Before engaging in the self-assessment of the review, the peer reviewer can benefit from the opinion of the tutor, who may point out logical flaws, exaggerated language, and incorrect interpretation of the material under review. The tutor’s opinion acts as a guide for the self-assessment of the initial peer review draft.
Managing the Workload
The peer-review process is time-intensive, which requires the reviewer to assign ‘unessential’ tasks to tutors. Unlike proofreading, peer review consumes a substantial amount of time because the peer reviewer is not familiar with the paper’s content and was not involved in the research. Consequently, the peer reviewer needs to seek the assistance of the tutor to reduce the workload. For instance, the peer reviewer may request the tutor to provide detailed summaries of all articles cited in a source because the reviewer cannot read all cited articles.
Remaining Focused on Relevant Aspects
Students have limited experience as peer reviewers, which increases the likelihood of confusing peer review with copy editing. The correction of grammar and formatting errors is not the role of peer reviewers. Less experienced reviewers may allocate time to engage in editing activities, which are not essential to the peer review. Online tutoring and writing centers offer proofreading services. If it is difficult for the reviewer to overlook grammar and formatting errors, the peer reviewer should find a writing center to do editing and eliminate the distraction.
Providing Professional Feedback
Peer reviewers should strive to maintain a high level of professionalism in articulating the issues with the material under review. During the initial drafting, reviewers document their opinions as they formulate in their minds in real-time. As a result, the initial remarks may appear harsh, dismissive, or rude, even though they identify real problems with the text. Writing instructors from online writing centers can reword or reframe initial remarks to ensure that they meet the standard of professionalism required in peer reviews.
Covering Objectivity
The peer reviewer must maintain objectivity while conducting the peer review. Peer reviewers are engaged in research in the same discipline associated with the material under review. Peer reviewers may have personal preferences for research techniques whose superiority may not be supported by empirical evidence. The peer reviewer may make the mistake of enforcing personal biases in assessing another researcher’s work. The instructor takes an important role in helping the reviewer to objectively review an essay because another person is not predisposed to similar biases.
Using Concise Language
One of the purposes of a peer review is to communicate the flaws of the essay to the author or researcher, which enables him or her to make corrections. The reviewer should select the appropriate words and syntax to communicate an issue without lengthy ambiguous explanations. The writing instructor who reads the review acts as the target audience and spots instances where language may be modified to be more succinct.
Conclusion
High performance on peer review assignments can be achieved through the practice of 10 best practices and intensive engagement of tutors and writing instructors from online tutoring and writing centers. These 10 tips discussed in this essay provide students with the necessary knowledge to simplify the complex review process and properly utilize online tutoring and writing centers’ services. Adhering to these top 10 tips and consulting online tutoring and centers should dispel the difficulty associated with peer review assignments.
