Peer Review

I think peer review is something that students can really benefit from. I like the idea of being able to trade papers with someone and get that the other person’s opinion on your paper. I also like getting to read other people’s papers because that gives you a chance to see how the paper maybe could have been approached differently. There have been many times when I have read someone else’s paper and thought, wow that sounds good, I would have never thought to write the paper this way. I think that everyone involved benefits from peer review. I also like that peer review gives you the chance to have someone read your paper before you turn it in and they can give you suggestions for your paper.

I think a different strategy that could be used for peer review would be for two people to sit down with their two papers and peer review each others. I think it would be good if the writer of the paper read their paper to the reviewer before the reviewer had a chance to read it themselves. Then the writer could tell or explain to the other person problem areas they had with their paper. Then the reviewer would all ready have a good idea about what the paper was about and what the writer is trying to get across. Then the reviewer could take the paper and read it back to themselves. Since they all ready heard the paper before, they can concentrate more on the little details of the paper. Once the reviewer is finished reading the paper and filling out a form, if that was part of the peer review process, then the reviewer could go over what he or she thought about the paper and what they wrote down on the peer review sheet. This way the writer does not have a question about what the reviewer wrote or tried to fix. Sometimes when peer reviewing, if the reviewer has a good suggestion, it may be a lot to write down. In this case it would benefit the writer if the reviewer explained their suggestion and explained the notes they wrote on the writer’s paper.

I guess what I am getting at is that I think the peer review process would be more beneficial if there was a lot more communication between the writer and the reviewer. Instead of just passing your paper to someone, having them read it and fill out a sheet, and pass the paper back to you, really talking with each other would help the writer of the paper. This way anything that could be confusing is cleared up. Additionally, that gives the writer more of a chance to point out specific areas where they need help and ask specific questions about how they can fix something.