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Peer-Review-with-Response-Sheet_Russell (2)

The document outlines the importance of peer review for writers, particularly in legal and academic contexts, emphasizing that feedback can enhance the clarity and persuasiveness of writing. It provides detailed directions for conducting peer reviews, focusing on evaluating the thesis, evidence, and readability rather than merely editing. The goals of peer review for both writers and readers include improving critical analysis skills, understanding audience needs, and fostering effective communication.

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12 views

Peer-Review-with-Response-Sheet_Russell (2)

The document outlines the importance of peer review for writers, particularly in legal and academic contexts, emphasizing that feedback can enhance the clarity and persuasiveness of writing. It provides detailed directions for conducting peer reviews, focusing on evaluating the thesis, evidence, and readability rather than merely editing. The goals of peer review for both writers and readers include improving critical analysis skills, understanding audience needs, and fostering effective communication.

Uploaded by

shekshavalivali876
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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PSCI 115F

Spring 2013
Prof. Russell

Peer Review

Practicing Peer Review can be very helpful throughout your career as a writer. And later in
life, as associate attorneys, you will be expected to submit your work to supervising attorneys for
their feedback in order to make your arguments stronger and your writing clearer. You will
submit briefs to judges on a regular basis arguing your clients’ positions that will be carefully
reviewed for their persuasive nature and clarity. As political scientists, you will spend much of
your career submitting your work to other scholars at conferences and during the publication
process, all with the goal of making your work stronger- your ideas sharper, your language more
convincing. The more people you have read your work, the better your work will be.

Directions: Spend about ten minutes reading through the essay once without marking on it.
(You may want to read without a pen or pencil in hand to lessen the temptation to jump in.)
Then read through it again, writing instrument in hand and with the response sheet alongside
you. Feel free to make whatever comments or annotations you would like on the essay; take
time to fill out the response sheet with candor and thoroughness. I will ask you to hand in your
annotated copy of the draft as well as your response sheet.

Some reminders about Peer Reviews:


• Peer Review is not necessarily an exercise in editing or proofreading. Your primary
concern should not be with the essay’s grammar, but you can comment on style. In Peer
Review, you pay attention to the substance of the essay: its thesis, its organization, its use
of evidence, its introduction and conclusion, its transitions, etc. You are not trying to
“fix” the other writer’s draft but to offer an objective perspective on its effectiveness.

• The point of Peer Review is not to play professional editor but to offer and receive the
honest, informed, and supportive feedback of intelligent peers.

• For the writer, the goals of Peer Review are to give you opportunities to evaluate the
choices open to you and to be aware of why you make the choices you do; to give you a
concrete sense of your audience and their needs (and the potential gap between your
language and their understanding); and to reduce the anxiety of the writing process by
reminding you that it’s just that—a process that necessarily and helpfully involves trial
and error.

• For the reader, the goals of Peer Review are to hone your training in critical analysis; to
apply the feedback you give to your own writing; to expose you to multiple methods of
writing practiced by your peers; and to exercise the crucial interpersonal skills you will
need in other classes and your careers—teamwork, communication, critique, advice, and
negotiation.
Author: Reviewer:

Response Sheet

Thesis
1. Assess the quality of the thesis, i.e. the question the writer wants to answer or the issue
the writer wants to wrestle with. Evaluate its clarity, contestability, intrigue, and
inventiveness. If you feel the thesis needs revision, suggest a strategy for doing so.

2. Assess the fit between the thesis and the essay as it’s written: how well does the essay
follow through on the thesis? How well does the essay keep the thesis in sight as it
moves through the body paragraphs? How well does the conclusion both return to the
thesis and give the reader someplace to go with it?
Evidence
3. Assess the use of the textual evidence: how well does the evidence (both direct quotations
and indirect references) engage the argument and move it forward instead of feeling
merely “plugged in” to “prove” a point? How plentiful is the textual evidence? How
appropriate or relevant is it to the discussion at hand?

4. Consider counter-examples: what evidence could you introduce to challenge or


complicate the argument? How does the essay respond to potential mismatches between
its argument and other examples from the text (that perhaps don’t get mentioned)?

Readability
5. Assess the readability of the essay: how fluidly does it move from point to point,
paragraph to paragraph? How engaging is the style of the prose, the voice? At what
points do you lose the thread of the argument or find yourself confused?

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