The process of peer reviewing is a critical step for all writers. On a professional level, peer review is one of the obstacles needed to be overcome in order for a manuscript to be published in a scientific journal. For students, it is a crucial learning opportunity for criticism and evaluation when working towards a completed final draft. The process typically involves an author completing a write up of some research she performed, then submitting the write up to a colleague for review. The peer review happens when the colleague reads through the manuscript, making both suggestive and supportive comments on the piece. The purpose of the peer reviewer is to identify any areas of the original work that may need improvement. However, the reviewer should not be condescending and rather write the review as if he were writing to himself. While reviewers should be constructive, they need not be unkind. Once the review is finished, the comments are returned to the author for revisions. In academia, the revised draft is usually worked on until it becomes the completed draft. In professional writing, the revised version must be resubmitted for further reviews by colleagues, and revisions must continue to be made until the manuscript is either approved for publishing or rejected altogether.
Some benefits of peer reviews include: fresh eyes looking at your writing, the value of others’ opinions, and personally learning how to work with criticism. Some cons of peer reviews include: putting the fate of your article into someone else’s hands (especially in professional writing), the suggested revisions may not align with the information you wanted to include, and taking the revisions personally.
