1. Peer review in the formative
stage of writing
MARY DAVIS, LIJUN TANG, RAWAN ALBAQAMI,
TSILAZAZI ITWI
OXFORD BROOKES INTERNATIONAL

2. Studies of peer review
Benefits
 Greater student
participation and
responsibility for
learning (Hyland,
2000)
 Platform for
collaborative dialogue
between students
(Rollinson, 2005)
Possible problems
 Prefer responses to
their work to come
from tutors (Jacobs et
al, 1998)
 Only pay attention to
feedback when it
comes from teachers
(Mustafa, 2012)

3. Method
 PETAL project on Pre-Master’s programme
 Peer review strategy for each module
 Pre-activity, activity and post-activity
 Example from academic writing module

4. Pre-activity
 What is a peer review?
 What are the advantages and disadvantages of peer
review?
 How does peer reviewing help with first drafts?
 How can you be a good peer reviewer?

5. Activity
 1. First impressions






Does it seem well organised, with clear paragraphing?
2. Introduction
Does it present the topic clearly? Does it define key terms?
3. Review of the literature
Is there a good range of citation? Is there a clear research
gap?
4. Main body/ discussion of topic research
Does it follow logically from the literature review? Are the
main points clear?
Conclusions
Does the conclusion link back to the research questions? Does
it offer a clear summary of the overall scope of the essay?

6. Post-activity
 Peer reviewee: what did you learn from this
experience? Which advice do you think was useful?
 Peer reviewer: what did you learn from this
experience? Which advice do you think was useful?

7. Student experiences of peer review- Lijun
China
 Answers only from teachers
 Students do not listen to other students
 Students do not share answers
UK
 Answers from lots of sources
 Students may have better answers than teachers
 As reviewer, may not be confident to give feedback
 As reviewee, may still be worried about the teacher’s
feedback

8. Student experiences of peer review- Rawan
Saudi Arabia
 Students think the right answer comes only from teacher
 Students share answers but don’t base best answers on each
other’s work
 Students don’t like to show mistakes to other students
UK
 Like sharing answers and find peer review interesting
 As reviewer, feel stress about giving the right answer, not
expert, feel responsibility to give review as it may affect
reviewee’s mark
 As reviewee, happy with other students’ feedback (though it
could be wrong)

9. Student experiences of peer review- Tsila
Zambia
 Teachers tell students if right or wrong, but give no
guidance why or how
 Students who are friends share information, others do not
share anything
UK
 Students work together and get more feedback
 As reviewer, feel it is a privilege to give feedback, but worry
that it may be wrong
 As reviewee, feel less confident in work, and think not as
good as others

10. Conclusion
 It may add value to peer review to build pre- and
post-activities around it
 Student approaches to peer review may be influenced
by different cultural/educational experiences
 Peer reviewers worry that their feedback is not good
enough or may lead the reviewee to problems
 Peer reviewees mostly feel satisfied with the
experience of receiving feedback from other students,
but may have doubts about it.

11. Questions
 What experiences of peer review have you had?
 As a peer reviewer and a peer reviewee, what have
you found to be the benefits and problems?
 Do you think cultural differences need to be
addressed in peer review?
 How can we improve the experience of peer review?

12. References
 Hyland, F. (2000).ESL writers and feedback: giving
more autonomy to students. Language Teaching
Research, 4(1), 33-54
 Jacobs, G., Curtis, A., Briane, G. and Huang, S. (1998).
Feedback on student writing: Taking the middle path.
Journal of Second Language Writing, 7(3), 307-317
 Mustafa, R.F. (2012). Feedback on the feedback:
Sociocultural interpretation of Saudi ESL learners’
opinions about writing feedback. English Language
Teaching, 5(3), 3-15
 Rollinson, P. (2005). Using peer feedback in the ESL
writing class. ELT Journal, 59(1), 23-30