Peer feedback is the secret weapon for better academic writing

Academics tend to think of writing as an independent process. But it can be incredibly helpful to have other people look at your work. Peer review makes the writing process collaborative and constructive.

When you’ve been stuck on a single paragraph for a long time, you no longer see all the words. You’ve decided what you want to say and your brain fills in the missing information for you. That’s why the sequence of your thoughts on the page can seem clear and logical to you but incoherent to someone reading it for the first time. Your peers can see when you’re moving from point to point abruptly, or failing to provide proof of your arguments.

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They’re not there to judge your ability or intelligence – they’re simply a resource, a means to help you get your ideas from your mind to someone else’s, via the page. 

Peer review allows us to see written work as a process rather than a performance. You receive formative feedback when your ideas are fluid and can be altered, rather than submitting a completed work for a final evaluation.

The advantages of peer review

Test your audience: Your peers represent your authentic audience. If they can’t follow your argument, then neither will a reviewer or marker.

Increased development of critical thinking: Providing feedback to your colleagues on their work develops your critical thinking skills. Reading through and evaluating drafts of other people’s writing brings to the forefront issues with clarity, structure or logic, for example, which may exist in your own writing. It helps reduce the sense of isolation that can come from writing difficulties, as you know your peers are experiencing the same challenges.

Academics who engage in guided peer reviews improve their writing quality not only for the draft they receive feedback on, but for all future writing drafts, according to research.

How to choose your reviewers

It is crucial to have reviewers who provide constructive criticism. Although many people want to support their friends by simply saying, “It looks great!”, this won’t help you improve. Your reviewers should be able to tell you exactly which areas of your writing need improvement by identifying them as irrelevant to your argument, or unconvincing.

Not all reviewers need to be experts in your field. In fact, reviewers who are not familiar with the topic you’re writing on can often provide the most valuable feedback, pointing out areas where they found your explanation unclear. Perhaps send your work to a range of reviewers, whose familiarity with the subject matter varies. 

Be specific

You need to provide specific guidelines for what you’re looking for in their feedback. If you simply say: “What do you think?”, you’ll get vague responses, which won’t be very useful. Specific questions allow reviewers to answer questions on time and will provide you with information that can help you with your writing.

Here are a few specific prompts:

• Does my introduction present a clear argument?
• Did you reread any sentences for clarity or meaning?
• Is my argument logical or does it jump around too much?
• Are any of my points repeated too frequently?
• Are my examples supporting my claims?

Using prompts helps focus the reviewer’s attention on the meaning and structure of the writing, rather than surface-level mistakes.

Receiving feedback

It is completely normal to feel uncomfortable receiving critique from a peer reviewer. At times, the feedback you receive may make you feel that your work has not been properly evaluated. However, this feeling of discomfort is an unavoidable step on the way to improving your writing. Always keep in mind that this feedback will help you become a better writer.

Here’s how to manage feedback effectively:

• Never respond to feedback without taking a break, whether it be a few minutes or a few hours
• If multiple reviewers have identified the same issue, you should decide how to address it
• The feedback provided on your paper is not indicative of your worth as a writer; it only represents the experiences of the reader regarding the paper
• Being able to manage feedback is an essential skill for all academics. View feedback as a necessary professional skill.

How to revise your work

When receiving feedback from different sources, stay organised. Group feedback into categories, to make it easier to go through and implement it. Start with organisational issues and the paper’s structure. Then move to feedback on the overall argument, clarifying and supporting your argument where reviewers have identified weak spots. Then fix any unclear areas or convoluted sentences. Now, as a final review, you can address grammatical and formatting issues. This approach will make revision much less overwhelming.

Providing constructive feedback to peers 

Many peer review processes do not structure feedback systematically. Instead, they often go line by line, editing for grammar, or provide very general comments that contain little helpful information. The peer review process can be made more effective if reviewers have a structured system for providing feedback. 

When you’re providing feedback on another academic’s work, perhaps try separating the stages of feedback into an initial draft, focusing on the bigger-picture issues of argument, organisation and logical coherence. Once that has been redrafted by the author, delve deeper in the revised draft, focusing on granular details such as the writing’s clarity, style and precision.

This way, the reviewer mirrors how an established academic would write and edit their own work, and the writer will benefit from avoiding spending time editing sentences that will not necessarily be included in the final draft.

Develop a supportive writing practice

Peer feedback works best when it becomes a regular practice and not just a one-time event. Writing groups evolve into supportive communities, leaning on each other to deliver constructive feedback. Learning how to communicate feedback respectfully and effectively, in a collaborative environment, is key to succeeding in academia.

Peer feedback is not an optional component of academic writing; it is integral to developing your writing skills. Providing feedback to your peers helps develop your own clarity and confidence, significantly improving your writing skills. More importantly, it demonstrates that writing is not simply about creating a research paper or article, but about sharing knowledge and ideas with others. 

Dina Nasr is assistant professor of parasitology and Rayan Awadalla is an undergraduate student, both at Dubai Medical University. 

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