I am a fan of peer review, I have been from the start. I find it kind of ironic that I can find some odd wording in someone else’s paper, but completely miss it my own. Every suggestion that I have received has been “spot on.” On this last paper, one of my reviewers pointed out that I had used the words “each other” in two consecutive short sentences and that it was redundant and sounded awful (she put it much more politely.) I went back and reread the sentences and Dang! if she wasn’t right. I don’t know how I didn’t pick up on that myself, but those are the kinds of things I need help with identifying in my own papers because they seem to slip by me. (I think that I do OK when reading others’ papers, for instance, I recently noted that a writer had used the word “very” three times in one paragraph – now there was a definite need to omit needless words!)
When we read Strunk and White and Williams guides, I noticed that there were quite a few areas that needed tweaking in my writing. It’s almost the same thing when reviewing papers. When I see the over use of needless words, it makes me more determined to try and keep them out of my own writing. So in a sense, proofing other papers has a slingshot effect in that it makes me hyper aware of what I write in my own papers.
I especially liked the star rating system that was introduced with the second review. I felt like I had specific areas of content that I was to be looking for when proofing other papers, it was a confidence booster – for me. And while receiving a poor star rating may be a little harsh, you have to respect that it is only one opinion, but it may be a very valid one, one that has probably been given only with your best interest in mind. I think a setting of 10 stars instead of just 5 may give the giver/recipient a little more breathing room.
Schools are teaching students as young as first grade to peer review, so there has to be some validity to the process. I know that it has helped me produce much better final products.
