Sample Peer Review Guide
Peer review sessions provide students with a "real" audience (prior to the final evaluation/grade), help students become more astute readers and writers, and can reduce the amount of labor you devote to commenting on drafts. The following handout provides a sample of a peer review guide used for a "rhetoric" (or composition) class. The class divided into groups of 3-4 students and used this form as they responded to a second draft of a
critical analysis writing project. Feel free to use/modify it for your own classes. A few suggestions:
- Tailor any peer review guide to your particular assignment.
- Include questions specific to that assignment.
- Avoid questions that permit simple "yes" or "no" answers; ask students to explain their responses.
- Provide a model for productive peer review (perhaps by having the entire class participate in a mini-workshop, responding to a draft displayed on an overhead projector).
- When students read drafts aloud to other group members,the quality of peer review sessions often improves.
- Realize that the quality of peer reviews improves with practice; use the first peer review as a learning/training session.
- For other suggestions about peer review go to the Manoa Writing Program or the University Writing Program at Virginia Tech.
REVIEWER'S NAME: __________________________
AUTHOR'S NAME: ___________________________
Course Name
DIRECTIONS:
Exchange papers. Read the draft closely; then answer the following questions. Don't reply with "yes" or "no"; provide useful comments that will help the author revise. As a reviewer of this draft, provide feedback on the text's value as an analytical research paper. You want to determine if the paper is clear, coherent, organized, and analytical. Don't be too concerned about sentence-level issues in this draft! If grammatical or punctuation errors appear frequently and interfere with your understanding of the text, let the writer know. But don't point out every sentence-level error; we'll focus on these in the final draft. Answer the following questions:
a) What is the thesis? Has the writer formulated a thesis that s/he can support? Remember that a thesis is a one sentence statement about your topic. It's an assertion about your topic, something you claim to be true .
b) Describe the draft's organization.
c) How "readable" (clear and coherent) is the draft?
d) Is the argument clear and convincing? Why?
e) How does the author use sources to support his/her points?
f) Is there sufficient analysis (not summary!) to convince you of the author's argument(s)? Are the "hows" & "whys" answered?
g) What do you like best about the draft?
h) Provide three focused suggestions for revision.
this guide adapted to various forms and used by S. Williams in SUNY Binghamton's Binghamton Enrichment Program and other classes '89-'98.
