Using Peer Review/Giving Effective Feedback Student Handout

Giving Effective Feedback – Peer Review

Tips and Example Feedback

Try to follow some of these tips when giving feedback to your peer(s), and always try to imagine things from their perspective; ask yourself whether your peer(s) will be able to use your feedback to improve their writing.

1. Be supportive as well as honest

“This paragraph confuses me because…”
“You have an interesting detail here that I almost missed because…”
“Your opening thesis statement told me exactly what you were going to argue, but the logic of your argument was hard to follow because…”

2. Be specific (why is something confusing?)

“This word means something different to me because…”
“I am not sure which example you are referring to here because…”
“This sentence might be clearer if you wrote it in the active voice because…”

3. Write comments on the draft and use additional paper if you need to

Make sure these comments are specific and easy to interpret
Try not to edit someone’s work; instead, tell them how they can edit it
Use a coding system to highlight related errors/issues (e.g. circles around tense issues, underline sections where the logic doesn’t flow…)

4. Keep feedback confidential

5. Focus on the paper, not the person

6. Use plenty of “I” statements to de-personalize your feedback (rather than “You” statements, which can make people uncomfortable)

“At this point, I thought the essay was going to next consider…”
“I would probably find this section easier to understand if…”
“I like the way this point is connected to the next one, and would find the argument easier to follow if all the points were connected like this…”

7. Provide suggestions rather than commands

“Consider moving this point up one paragraph so that it follows on directly from this point…”
“I think this section would be easier to read if it was written in the active voice…”
“It might be worth finding another example that provides support for this claim to make the argument more convincing…”