Peer Review of Student Writing
Undergraduate Studies Writing Office
Instructor Workshop
September 30, 2009
Goals for Today
• Review the research on peer review as an
instructional method.
• Describe different methods of peer review.
• Consider ways to implement peer review
methods in your class.
The Peer Review Requirement
According to the criteria set by the Faculty
Council, students in Writing Flag courses must
have an opportunity “to read each other’s
work in order to offer constructive criticism.”
—Document 5155-5163 of the General Faculty.
Why is Peer Review Required?
• Students can learn a great deal from seeing how their
fellows approach the same writing problems they have
tackled.
• Reading someone else’s work gives students a sharper eye
for nuance, potential misreadings, and mechanical flaws,
helping them see their own writing through others’ eyes.
• Peer feedback can convince a student to take an
instructors’ comments more seriously. If, for example, two
or three peers agree with the instructor that an explanation
is unclear, the student is less able to rationalize criticism as
coming from “a really picky professor.”
Research on the Effectiveness of Peer
Review
• Patchan et al. (2009) found that, with guidance (a
rubric and incentive to take the task seriously),
students can provide feedback similar in both quantity
and quality to that of instructors.
• Monroe and Troia, (2006) establish that collaborative
writing helps students develop higher standards for
writing and better self-assessment skills.
• Lundstrom and Baker (2009) found that students who
gave feedback improved their writing more than those
who only received peer feedback. Students with the
poorest writing skills improved the most.
The usefulness of peer review depends upon the
instructions and guidance you give students.
• Show students how to give good feedback. Modeling it
will help them give good feedback themselves.
• Have them refer to the evaluative criteria for the project.
• Push for specificity. Ask them to refer directly to the text
as they critique. Where did the reasoning seem sloppy?
Which examples were unconvincing?
• Show students how to provide feedback supportively,
focusing on what would improve the document. Be
gracious when giving or receiving feedback yourself.
Some Options for Peer Review
Peer review may be response-centered, with peers simply describing their
reactions to the writing (“I was confused here,” “This description doesn’t
make sense,”), or advice-centered, recommending specific changes
(“Focus more on how the controversy played out in the press,” “Explain
why Chu’s opinion is the one we ought to be concerned with”). You can
ask students to do either or both.
In all cases, students should have guidelines for the review process.
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Have two or more students exchange of drafts, read them, and write reviews of
them informed by a rubric or set of questions.
Have students read drafts aloud to one another, and discuss them in small groups.
Have students respond to one another’s work in online forums.
Analyze a student paper as a class via overhead projection.
Meet with small groups of students to discuss and revise papers.
Use Blackboard’s Discussion Board to share and comment on papers.
Sample Peer Review Guidelines
Seth Kahn, Director of Composition at West Chester University, gives students
the following instructions for peer review:
While reading your classmate’s draft,
• Find at least five or six places you want information/details you’re not getting,
and ask for them as specifically as possible;
• Mark the center of gravity in the narrative, whatever you think is the most
interesting or important part of the story; and
• Mark the passage where you like the writing best, and try to explain in a
sentence or two what you like about it.
Kahn then follows up with in class revision sessions where students address
peers’ responses. This method focuses students on ideas, requires them to
use specific language, and provides some structure for the revision that
should follow peer review.
Privacy Issues
Please note that that peer review does not violate FERPA privacy
protections for students. UT’s Legal Affairs Office states that
peer teaching is explicitly allowed under FERPA (the Supreme
Court has held that even peer grading is allowed under FERPA
protections).
If your class includes assignments that may be very personal in
nature, warn students ahead of time that they will be sharing
their work with their peers.
Additional Resources
• University of Hawaii-Manoa Writing Program: Peer Review
Forms http://www.mwp.hawaii.edu/resources/wm7.htm
• Undergraduate Studies Writing Program: Peer Feedback
http://www.utexas.edu/ugs/teaching/writing/
References
Bean, John C. Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating
Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001.
Kahn, Seth. “Re: Best practices in hard times.” Email to Writing
Program Administrators Listserv. 28 Jan. 2009.
Lundstrum, K, and Baker, W. (2009) “To give is better than to receive:
The benefits of peer review to the reviewers’ own writing.” Journal
of Second Language Writing, 18(1), 30-43.
Monroe, B.W., & Troia, G.A. (2006) Teaching writing strategies to
middle school students with disabilities. Journal of Educational
Research, 100, 2006, 21-33.
Patchan, M. M., Charney, D., & Schunn, C. D. (2009). A validation study
of students’ end comments: Comparing comments by students, a
writing instructor, and a content instructor. Journal of Writing
Research, 1 (2), 124-152.