Peer review gives you the benefit of real readers who offer their suggestions and answer your questions. The following guidelines will help you learn from your reviewers’ comments and revise successfully.
Help reviewers understand your purpose for writing and provide background about why you chose your topic and what you hope to accomplish in your draft. Tell reviewers your specific questions and concerns so that they can focus their feedback.
After you’ve worked hard on a draft, you might be surprised to hear reviewers tell you it still needs more development. Don’t take criticism personally. Consider why a reader is confused, and figure out how to clarify your point.
Your reviewers will offer more suggestions than you can use, so be strategic. Sort through all the comments you receive, with your original goals in mind, and focus on global concerns first.
To help you learn about your strengths and challenges as a writer, make a list of the global and sentence-level concerns that keep coming up in your reviewers’ comments.