Consider Technology

Peer review often calls to mind images of students hunched over desks in a classroom, marking paper drafts with pens or pencils before they offer feedback to one another. Increasingly, however, peer review takes place on computers, tablets, or even phones, both inside and outside of the classroom. If you are conducting a peer review using a word-processing program, a commenting program, a class discussion forum, an ePortfolio tool, a wiki, or a blog, think about the kinds of tools you have available to support your peer review. (See more information about these tools.) You’ll almost certainly be able to save comments and revise them before you return the draft to the writer. You’ll probably have access to tools for highlighting text and suggesting edits to the document. You’ll be able to make links to related documents, Web sites, and databases. And you will certainly be able to share your comments not only with the writer but also with other members of the class, including your instructor. Some instructors, in fact, ask to see the feedback writers give to one another, not only as a means of ensuring greater attention to the peer-review process but also to get a sense of the kinds of writing issues members of the class are struggling to address.