Leaving Medication Unattended

Responsibilities of the Reviewer

As a reviewer, it is important to remember that you have been invited to help another person by giving feedback about their work. Writers can feel vulnerable during this process so be respectful and professional, but honest, in your feedback. It’s a good rule of thumb to follow these five rules when reviewing another person’s paper:

1. Read the paper once without comments so that you get a feel for the whole piece.
2. Provide a focused summary of feedback that uses a rubric or a checklist to support your narrative comments.
3. Target big ideas or broad skills that will have a significant impact across the entire piece. For example, recommending that they reorganize certain parts so that the flow of ideas are smoother and more coherent is better than talking about the proper use of commas.
4. Use constructive criticism with sensitivity to the writer’s feelings by providing specific feedback about how to improve the piece, such as, “I liked this part and was wondering more about the context. Can you relate support of breast cancer awareness to the company’s mission or target market? How does the cause (breast cancer awareness) fit in with the company and what it is selling? How is this cause related to a social responsibility issue?
5. Be sure to identify what’s “good” in the paper as well as by being positive about the things the writer is doing right. Reinforce their efforts and those skills that make the piece effective. Think of the ”sandwich approach,” i.e., start with mentioning something good about their writing, discuss some areas for improvement, and then finish up with some suggestions for solving the weaknesses.