creative writing peer review

BOLDFACE 101: THE CREATIVE WRITING PEER REVIEW

Workshops are an integral and exciting part of the Boldface experience. At first, however, they can seem intimidating. Don’t worry! This week’s installment of Boldface 101 introduces you to the process of giving and receiving peer reviews.

First and foremost, we urge you to prepare in advance. Thinking deeply about your critiques and making meaningful comments is important. Your classmates are there for the same reasons you are—to improve their writing. Don’t dismiss your role as peer and colleague, what you say matters! We hope you’ll check out the following pointers on giving and receiving feedback.

Giving Feedback to Fellow Writers

The golden rule is universal. Treat your peers and their writing with care and respect. Take this part of the writers conference seriously. You wouldn’t like it if others were inconsiderate of you or your work, so be mindful of how you present your comments. Beyond that, requirements are flexible. Your workshop leader will provide guidance in advance regarding how they want you to approach the process, but here are a few best practices to consider in the meantime:

• Avoid saying what you did or didn’t “like.”  These kinds of statements have more to do with opinion and less to do with what is or is not successful in a given piece of writing. You don’t always have to “like” something to see whether it’s worthwhile or whether it’s accomplishing its goal as technique or craft.
• Provide constructive criticism AND reinforcement.  It’s always nice to hear what you ARE doing effectively as a writer. Remember to encourage your peers when you spot something you think is especially effective, rather than letting it go unsaid and focusing 100% of your critique on what still needs improvement.
• Be specific.  Generic and vague comments aren’t very helpful in a creative writing workshop. Your peer review isn’t going to be useful unless it contains detailed analysis and examples of what is/isn’t working in a piece of writing. Make sure to be specific and elaborate on your ideas.
• Check for author notes.  If your peer has asked for feedback on a specific issue, make sure to address their concerns!

Don’t forget—you’ll be receiving feedback, too! Here are some things to remember when receiving constructive criticism:

• It’s not personal.  So, don’t take it personally. We understand this is easier said than done, especially when it comes to your writing. But that’s just it. It’s your writing, not you, that’s being critiqued.
• Listen actively and to understand.  In other words, don’t just give in to your first reaction, which may be purely defensive. Let your peers complete their thoughts and explain what they mean. Take some time to consider things before deciding whether to incorporate or leave out suggestions.
• Stay open-minded.  You might receive some radical insights, but sometimes it’s helpful to try unexpected ideas! Perhaps your short story is the beginning of a novel, or a plot twist reveals itself. Writing is a magical process that can lead you down new paths if you let it. So, try to remain open to possibilities!
• Ask questions!  If you don’t understand something, don’t hesitate to ask your group to clarify. That is, after all, why they’re there!

“Imagine spending the day at a coffeeshop filled with unique, passionate, intelligent writers who want to share their knowledge—and listen to you in kind. Now imagine doing that for five days in a row. That’s Boldface.” -Boldface 2017 Participant

We think you’ll find that meeting with the same group multiple times throughout the week makes for a close-knit and supportive environment. Hopefully, this brief guide to the creative writing workshop eliminates any uncertainties you may have. If not, let us know! Reach out anytime to  [email protected] , or better yet, get involved in the conversation on  Facebook ,  Twitter , and  Instagram !

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the Boldface blog for the scoop on our awesome visiting writers and other useful information. Happy writing (and reviewing)!

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Peer Review

About this Strategy Guide

This strategy guide explains how you can employ peer review in your classroom, guiding students as they offer each other constructive feedback to improve their writing and communication skills.

Research Basis

Strategy in practice, related resources.

Peer review refers to the many ways in which students can share their creative work with peers for constructive feedback and then use this feedback to revise and improve their work. For the writing process, revision is as important as drafting, but students often feel they cannot let go of their original words. By keeping an audience in mind and participating in focused peer review interactions, students can offer productive feedback, accept constructive criticism, and master revision. This is true of other creative projects, such as class presentations, podcasts, or blogs. Online tools can also help to broaden the concept of “peers.” Real literacy happens in a community of people who can make meaningful connections. Peer review facilitates the type of social interaction and collaboration that is vital for student learning.

Peer review can be used for different class projects in a variety of ways:

• Teach students to use these three steps to give peer feedback: Compliments, Suggestions, and Corrections (see the Peer Edit with Perfection! Handout ). Explain that starting with something positive makes the other person feel encouraged. You can also use Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial to walk through the feedback process with your students.
• Provide students with sentence starter templates, such as, “My favorite part was _________ because __________,” to guide students in offering different types of feedback. After they start with something positive, have students point out areas that could be improved in terms of content, style, voice, and clarity by using another sentence starter (“A suggestion I can offer for improvement is ___________.”). The peer editor can mark spelling and grammar errors directly on the piece of writing.
• Teach students what constructive feedback means (providing feedback about areas that need improvement without criticizing the person). Feedback should be done in an analytical, kind way. Model this for students and ask them to try it. Show examples of vague feedback (“This should be more interesting.”) and clear feedback (“A description of the main character would help me to imagine him/her better.”), and have students point out which kind of feedback is most useful. The Peer Editing Guide offers general advice on how to listen to and receive feedback, as well as how to give it.
• For younger students, explain that you need helpers, so you will show them how to be writing teachers for each other. Model peer review by reading a student’s piece aloud, then have him/her leave the room while you discuss with the rest of the class what questions you will ask to elicit more detail. Have the student return, and ask those questions. Model active listening by repeating what the student says in different words. For very young students, encourage them to share personal stories with the class through drawings before gradually writing their stories.
• Create a chart and display it in the classroom so students can see the important steps of peer editing. For example, the steps might include: 1. Read the piece, 2. Say what you like about it, 3. Ask what the main idea is, 4. Listen, 5. Say “Add that, please” when you hear a good detail. For pre-writers, “Add that, please” might mean adding a detail to a picture. Make the chart gradually longer for subsequent sessions, and invite students to add dialogue to it based on what worked for them.
• Incorporate ways in which students will review each other’s work when you plan projects. Take note of which students work well together during peer review sessions for future pairings. Consider having two peer review sessions for the same project to encourage more thought and several rounds of revision.
• Have students review and comment on each other’s work online using Nicenet , a class blog, or class website.
• Have students write a class book, then take turns bringing it home to read. Encourage them to discuss the writing process with their parents or guardians and explain how they offered constructive feedback to help their peers.

Using peer review strategies, your students can learn to reflect on their own work, self-edit, listen to their peers, and assist others with constructive feedback. By guiding peer editing, you will ensure that your students’ work reflects thoughtful revision.

• Lesson Plans
• Strategy Guides

Using a collaborative story written by students, the teacher leads a shared-revising activity to help students consider content when revising, with students participating in the marking of text revisions.

After analyzing Family Pictures/Cuadros de Familia by Carmen Lomas Garza, students create a class book with artwork and information about their ancestry, traditions, and recipes, followed by a potluck lunch.

Students are encouraged to understand a book that the teacher reads aloud to create a new ending for it using the writing process.

While drafting a literary analysis essay (or another type of argument) of their own, students work in pairs to investigate advice for writing conclusions and to analyze conclusions of sample essays. They then draft two conclusions for their essay, select one, and reflect on what they have learned through the process.

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• Kindergarten K

Writers Workshop

Conducting Peer Review

Why include peer review in your course.

Writers need feedback on their writing in order to improve. While instructor feedback is valuable, asking students to respond to each other’s writing provides additional opportunities for before-the-deadline feedback without increasing the instructor’s workload.

There are other benefits to peer review, as well: Peer review fosters students’ awareness of their own and others’ writing processes and approaches to the writing task. It gives students practice assessing their own and others’ writing and can reinforce course-specific criteria for writing assignments. Moreover, by both giving and receiving critical feedback, peer review teaches valuable skills like listening, evaluating, responding, and reflecting. Incorporating peer review in your class allows students to gain multiple perspectives on their writing, mimicking the process of peer review in professional knowledge production. Finally, having students engage in active dialogue about their intentions and ideas contributes to a collaborative classroom community.

But Don’t Most Students Hate Peer Review?

Peer review sometimes has a bad reputation. Some students (and instructors) view peer review as unproductive because they’ve received advice that’s too nice or too vague to be helpful, too critical to be constructive, or too focused on surface-level editing issues rather than content. You can overcome these negative perceptions by effectively structuring peer review as a regular course component.

What are Best Practices for Peer Review?

To ensure that peer review benefits both the writer and the reader and leads to substantial revision, instructors need to set ground rules. First, the basics:

• Peer review can be conducted in or out of class, in-person or electronically
• Peer review can be conducted in pairs or groups (many writing scholars recommend groups of 3-4)
• Peer review can be conducted in any number of ways, from having students exchange papers in class to using peer review programs like SWoRD .
• Peer review will need to happen more than once for students to gain practice and fluency
• Peer review should be conducted at least several days before the final submission deadline, to give students enough time make large-scale revisions
• Provide clear parameters and require a deliverable, e.g., a form / handout or a letter to the writer
• Provide coaching and guidance to help students become better peer reviewers

Instructors should prepare students for peer review by discussing your expectations with the class: What makes feedback helpful or unhelpful? What meaningful feedback can writers take from their readers? What criteria should be used to review papers in this class? Consider providing examples or models of the kind of feedback you’d like students to provide.

Effective peer review is a guided, structured process. You’ll need to provide students with focused tasks or criteria. Encourage them to consider their drafts as “works-in-progress” and prompt them to use description rather than evaluative language. For example:

Instead of “Does the paper have a thesis statement” try “In just one to two sentences, state what position you think the writer is taking. Place stars around the sentence that you think presents the thesis.”

Instead of “Is the paper clearly organized?” try “On the back of this sheet, make an outline of the paper.”

Instead of “Is the paper clearly written” try “Highlight (in any color) any passages you had to read more than once to understand what the writer was saying.”

Students should also indicate at least one thing their peer’s writing is doing well. Students aren’t always aware of what’s working in their texts, so having peers provide positive feedback helps them gain insight into readers’ responses.

Instructors can foster metacognition and agency in the writing process by asking writers to prepare memos for their reviewers that contain a brief summary of the paper’s argument and questions pertaining to the current issues they’re struggling with, e.g., “How persuasive is my argument? What additional evidence could I incorporate? Does my paragraph on p. 2 seem too long?”

Finally, for peer review to work, instructors will need to teach revision and talk with students about how to handle constructive criticism. Often, students make changes related to “low-hanging fruit”—wrong words, missed citations—and avoid taking on larger revision challenges, like restructuring a paper or incorporating more persuasive evidence. Those larger changes can be daunting. Remind students that you care more about macro-level issues like content, structure, and genre conventions. You might ask students to write a memo or reflection summarizing their peer review feedback: What revision tasks will they prioritize? What will be most time-consuming? How will they take steps to address the most challenging or time-consuming revision tasks?

You might even share your own strategies for taking on large-scale revision tasks!

Additional Resources:

• Includes general guidelines and a model for structuring peer review
• Planning for peer review
• Helping students offer effective feedback
• Providing guidance on using feedback
• Sample peer review sheets
• Bean, J. (2011). Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom . 2 nd Ed., Chapter 15, “Coaching the Writing Process and Handling the Paper Load”

Related Links:

• Responding to Student Writing
• Incorporating Feedback

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Centering Classroom Values in Peer Writing Workshops

By structuring peer feedback processes with intention, teachers can help students develop reflection and communication skills.

“What is more challenging for you—giving feedback or receiving feedback? Why do you think that is?”

I project this question on the board when students walk into our peer writing workshop. Along with helping them enter into the activity, it reveals the purpose driving our work: to become stronger at providing and receiving feedback—skills that translate beyond the classroom.

Peer workshops are some of the best days in our classroom. Below, I share practices I’ve found effective when facilitating these interactions in the writing classroom, transferable across units and contexts.

Teacher Preparation

There are many approaches to peer feedback, but over the years I’ve found two priorities key in the planning stage:

• Being intentional about the piece of writing students share. Less is more. Setting constraints for shorter pieces saves time on feedback day. And having the first peer workshop take place with creative or narrative writing allows students to get to know each other, as opposed to analytical or more standardized prompts.
• Establishing classroom values around growth and generosity. We introduce and reflect upon classroom core beliefs at the start of the year, centering these values. We circle back to them frequently; very intentionally, our classroom environment becomes a collaborative one—a critical precursor to peer workshops. 

I also give students time in class to plan and write pieces they will workshop. Giving them time helps them feel confident and prepared and allows them to get support in person if needed.

Pre-Workshop Reflection

No matter how prepared students feel, they will likely also feel some anxiety on workshop day—a natural part of sharing work with others.

I begin by having students go through these four norms as a class, selecting one they want to prioritize and sharing their selection with their group members:

• Generosity: Assuming 100 percent in your peers and giving 100 percent as a result in terms of investment and feedback.
• Curiosity: Entering into the space with a willingness to learn from the writing and feedback of those around you .
• Growth: Prioritizing how you can grow, not only in your own writing but also in receiving and providing feedback.
• Perspective: Valuing and engaging with how your own way of seeing things may be different than others’.

By talking through these norms and sharing priorities, students feel a sense of ownership and intentionality entering into workshopping—and practice important real-life self-advocacy skills.

As we begin the workshop, I have students attach a template to their draft for peers to fill out, by hand or digitally, thereby structuring feedback. Our template is built around Marisa Thompson’s close-reading TQE method , with students recording thoughts and questions as they read, noting the most important line and describing why, then noting an epiphany or major takeaway.

Next, students write their own “driving question” at the top of the feedback template—what do they want those reading their piece to focus on, or what are they most curious about regarding others’ perspectives? Naming the focus area you’d most like feedback on is another element of self-advocacy.

Finally, students share digital drafts, asking reviewers to make copies so that writers can’t see the feedback process as it unfolds and are able to stay present with the draft they’re reviewing.

Silent Workshopping

I require the classroom to be 100 percent silent during the feedback stage. Students are typically in trios, which means they have two peer writing samples to review. We split the silent feedback time in half, and I tell them when to switch to the next draft. I ask them to hold clarifying questions and commentary to stay true to our norm of being 100 percent invested in the feedback being provided. 

For shorter texts (e.g., 200-to-300-word flash fiction), they get approximately 10 minutes per piece for reading and feedback, doing their best to complete the template. This becomes a really cool space too, as you can almost feel students drifting away from initial anxieties while losing themselves in the reading of each other’s work and the offering of intentional, constructive feedback.

Collaborative Workshopping

When it comes time to share feedback, I ask students to listen to feedback aloud without opening up their own text that is now filled with written feedback. Instead, they listen silently as both of their partners explain their noticings and wonderings first—a process designed to prioritize listening and being a willing recipient of feedback. 

A few tips I’ve acquired over the years make this a smoother process:

• Outline the process and project instructions early on. For example, “Partner A will receive feedback from Partner B and Partner C, and then….” Once students dive in, it’s hard to slow them down!
• Have feedback recipients take notes. This gives them a place to prepare follow-up questions and clarifications while actively listening to feedback—another “beyond the classroom” skill.
• Allow groups to move at their own pace. I used to have minute-by-minute plans, but I’ve realized it’s much better to give each group space to move on only when they’re ready. To accommodate this, I have an independent reflection activity ready for them—that way, space is there for some groups to take longer than others. 

Significance

After feedback exchanges, we return to our norms, asking students to reflect on how they lived up to their intentions and what it was like to give and receive feedback—making this a dual-learning experience.

To me, the true value of this activity is what it does for the learning community. If a classroom relies only on the eyes of a single teacher to provide feedback and support for everyone within it, that really limits where the community can go as writers.

When we lean into peer feedback and collaborative learning as a purposeful foundation of the classroom, we create an entirely different ceiling as far as what students can achieve—and, in the process, equip students with feedback and reflection skills that go far beyond any specific writing skill.

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How to Write a Peer Review

When you write a peer review for a manuscript, what should you include in your comments? What should you leave out? And how should the review be formatted?

This guide provides quick tips for writing and organizing your reviewer report.

Review Outline

Use an outline for your reviewer report so it’s easy for the editors and author to follow. This will also help you keep your comments organized.

Think about structuring your review like an inverted pyramid. Put the most important information at the top, followed by details and examples in the center, and any additional points at the very bottom.

Here’s how your outline might look:

1. Summary of the research and your overall impression

In your own words, summarize what the manuscript claims to report. This shows the editor how you interpreted the manuscript and will highlight any major differences in perspective between you and the other reviewers. Give an overview of the manuscript’s strengths and weaknesses. Think about this as your “take-home” message for the editors. End this section with your recommended course of action.

2. Discussion of specific areas for improvement

It’s helpful to divide this section into two parts: one for major issues and one for minor issues. Within each section, you can talk about the biggest issues first or go systematically figure-by-figure or claim-by-claim. Number each item so that your points are easy to follow (this will also make it easier for the authors to respond to each point). Refer to specific lines, pages, sections, or figure and table numbers so the authors (and editors) know exactly what you’re talking about.

Major vs. minor issues

What’s the difference between a major and minor issue? Major issues should consist of the essential points the authors need to address before the manuscript can proceed. Make sure you focus on what is  fundamental for the current study . In other words, it’s not helpful to recommend additional work that would be considered the “next step” in the study. Minor issues are still important but typically will not affect the overall conclusions of the manuscript. Here are some examples of what would might go in the “minor” category:

• Missing references (but depending on what is missing, this could also be a major issue)
• Technical clarifications (e.g., the authors should clarify how a reagent works)
• Data presentation (e.g., the authors should present p-values differently)
• Typos, spelling, grammar, and phrasing issues

3. Any other points

Confidential comments for the editors.

Some journals have a space for reviewers to enter confidential comments about the manuscript. Use this space to mention concerns about the submission that you’d want the editors to consider before sharing your feedback with the authors, such as concerns about ethical guidelines or language quality. Any serious issues should be raised directly and immediately with the journal as well.

This section is also where you will disclose any potentially competing interests, and mention whether you’re willing to look at a revised version of the manuscript.

Do not use this space to critique the manuscript, since comments entered here will not be passed along to the authors.  If you’re not sure what should go in the confidential comments, read the reviewer instructions or check with the journal first before submitting your review. If you are reviewing for a journal that does not offer a space for confidential comments, consider writing to the editorial office directly with your concerns.

Get this outline in a template

Giving Feedback

Giving feedback is hard. Giving effective feedback can be even more challenging. Remember that your ultimate goal is to discuss what the authors would need to do in order to qualify for publication. The point is not to nitpick every piece of the manuscript. Your focus should be on providing constructive and critical feedback that the authors can use to improve their study.

If you’ve ever had your own work reviewed, you already know that it’s not always easy to receive feedback. Follow the golden rule: Write the type of review you’d want to receive if you were the author. Even if you decide not to identify yourself in the review, you should write comments that you would be comfortable signing your name to.

In your comments, use phrases like “ the authors’ discussion of X” instead of “ your discussion of X .” This will depersonalize the feedback and keep the focus on the manuscript instead of the authors.

General guidelines for effective feedback

• Justify your recommendation with concrete evidence and specific examples.
• Be specific so the authors know what they need to do to improve.
• Be thorough. This might be the only time you read the manuscript.
• Be professional and respectful. The authors will be reading these comments too.
• Remember to say what you liked about the manuscript!

Don’t

• Recommend additional experiments or  unnecessary elements that are out of scope for the study or for the journal criteria.
• Tell the authors exactly how to revise their manuscript—you don’t need to do their work for them.
• Use the review to promote your own research or hypotheses.
• Focus on typos and grammar. If the manuscript needs significant editing for language and writing quality, just mention this in your comments.
• Submit your review without proofreading it and checking everything one more time.

Before and After: Sample Reviewer Comments

Keeping in mind the guidelines above, how do you put your thoughts into words? Here are some sample “before” and “after” reviewer comments

✗ Before

“The authors appear to have no idea what they are talking about. I don’t think they have read any of the literature on this topic.”

✓ After

“The study fails to address how the findings relate to previous research in this area. The authors should rewrite their Introduction and Discussion to reference the related literature, especially recently published work such as Darwin et al.”

“The writing is so bad, it is practically unreadable. I could barely bring myself to finish it.”

“While the study appears to be sound, the language is unclear, making it difficult to follow. I advise the authors work with a writing coach or copyeditor to improve the flow and readability of the text.”

“It’s obvious that this type of experiment should have been included. I have no idea why the authors didn’t use it. This is a big mistake.”

“The authors are off to a good start, however, this study requires additional experiments, particularly [type of experiment]. Alternatively, the authors should include more information that clarifies and justifies their choice of methods.”

Suggested Language for Tricky Situations

You might find yourself in a situation where you’re not sure how to explain the problem or provide feedback in a constructive and respectful way. Here is some suggested language for common issues you might experience.

What you think : The manuscript is fatally flawed. What you could say: “The study does not appear to be sound” or “the authors have missed something crucial”.

What you think : You don’t completely understand the manuscript. What you could say : “The authors should clarify the following sections to avoid confusion…”

What you think : The technical details don’t make sense. What you could say : “The technical details should be expanded and clarified to ensure that readers understand exactly what the researchers studied.”

What you think: The writing is terrible. What you could say : “The authors should revise the language to improve readability.”

What you think : The authors have over-interpreted the findings. What you could say : “The authors aim to demonstrate [XYZ], however, the data does not fully support this conclusion. Specifically…”

What does a good review look like?

Check out the peer review examples at F1000 Research to see how other reviewers write up their reports and give constructive feedback to authors.

Time to Submit the Review!

Be sure you turn in your report on time. Need an extension? Tell the journal so that they know what to expect. If you need a lot of extra time, the journal might need to contact other reviewers or notify the author about the delay.

Tip: Building a relationship with an editor

You’ll be more likely to be asked to review again if you provide high-quality feedback and if you turn in the review on time. Especially if it’s your first review for a journal, it’s important to show that you are reliable. Prove yourself once and you’ll get asked to review again!

• Getting started as a reviewer
• Responding to an invitation
• Reading a manuscript
• Writing a peer review

The contents of the Peer Review Center are also available as a live, interactive training session, complete with slides, talking points, and activities. …

The contents of the Writing Center are also available as a live, interactive training session, complete with slides, talking points, and activities. …

There’s a lot to consider when deciding where to submit your work. Learn how to choose a journal that will help your study reach its audience, while reflecting your values as a researcher…

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Teaching Autoethnography

4. Workshop and Peer Review Process

It is essential as the instructor to create space in the classroom for the students where they feel free to comment on and discuss each other’s work. Your feedback is important, and so is the feedback they receive from their peers.

For all major assignments, I give students narrative written feedback. I do not copy edit or make a large number of marginal comments. I find in my experience that the more you can tell a story in your feedback, the easier it is for the students to process and incorporate your comments. This may not be a method that works for everyone, but I have found it to produce the best conversations and results.

In the remainder of this chapter, I will outline the two major methods I use to help students give peer feedback.

As often as possible, I try to make time in the class schedule for a large class workshop. This means each student will get to read her or his entire short work to the class for feedback. At my home institution, we are lucky to have a manageable class size of eighteen or twenty for our writing courses, making the full class workshop possible for everyone. If you have a larger class, you can alternate workshopping assignments, splitting up students so that only a few read each class period, making sure that everyone gets at least one chance to receive a full class workshop on a piece over the course of the semester. Another alternative when time in limited is to ask them to engage in a common practice of sampling sections of their longer pieces to share with the entire class. This mimics the process of a public reading in which authors are often asked to share pieces of longer works in hopes of encouraging the audience to want to read more. It is an important skill to develop and helps students see where the heart of a piece lies.

The rules I use for a workshop are common practice for many creative writing classes. Students are asked to read their work as written without any explanation. This helps the class hear the work as it appears on the page, closer to the experience of an outside reader unfamiliar with the person behind the writing and that person’s reasons for writing it. We have the added advantage of hearing each student’s voice, and this is also good practice for students who might want to share their work in a larger forum.

When students first share their work with the class, we follow a few simple rules. I draw a lot of principles for initial workshops from the Amherst Writers & Artists method. Pat Schneider’s book Writing Alone and With Others is a great resource and includes guidelines to build support and community in writing groups. Drawing on Schneider’s book, we offer only positive feedback to each other initially. This kind of feedback can include what we liked about the text, what stood out to us, what we remembered. This creates a safe space for the students to share first drafts of their writing. This work has not been critiqued or significantly edited, so sharing out loud and commenting in this way helps build student confidence. Students read in succession without pause. I encourage them to jot down things they like during the readings or to just take careful notice of what stands out to them. We then share our thoughts as a group. I also participate, reading work of my own and taking notes to model the behavior. This is a great way for students to get to know and trust each other and you. They start building community by referring to each other by name with the aid of name tags they keep on their desks for the first four weeks of class. If room allows, it also helps to have everyone sit in a circle when sharing.

Peer Review

Peer review is an essential part of the writing process. To facilitate review beyond the larger class workshop, which is not possible for extended pieces due to time constraints, I break students into small groups of three to five members, depending on class size, and have them exchange drafts. The first thing students do is write down concerns they have about their own writing. These concerns may include doubts about whether the text is cohesive, anyone will care about the topic, or a particular sentence is properly structured. Each then shares these concerns with a peer reviewer, who takes them into account when reading and reviewing the essay. The reviewers are asked first to read the writers’ concerns, second to put down their pens and read the entire draft from top to bottom, then third to respond in writing to the writers’ concerns and a sheet of peer review questions. I have included sample questions here that can work for any of the extended drafts with minor modifications. I help students keeps track of time and encourage them to spend forty to fifty minutes with each draft, especially the first time they are doing this. The students usuallyfinish at about the same time with my help. Once they have finished, they exchange written comments. The writers then read the feedback they were given and talk with their peer reviewers to clarify questions they have about the feedback and discuss overall impressions.

By doing peer reviews this way, students are able to have meaningful conversations with peers about their work, have the opportunity to see in detail how someone else chose to approach the assignment, and have written feedback and notes to take home for reference as they revise. Although students may understand feedback at the time of review, they may have forgotten much of the conversation by the time they are able to revise the paper. Having the written notes helps with this problem. As previously mentioned, I also always provide detailed feedback on student drafts of longer papers.

A sample three-week timeline for the formal paper might look like this: I ask students to turn in a draft for peer review during the first week. I ask students to bring two copies of their drafts so that during the class session I can do my first read of their work. This allows me to answer any immediate questions that come up during peer reviews or address concerns they want to begin working on right away. I provide detailed student feedback in the second week. I have a larger class discussion with the students about patterns I see in the writing so that we can have an open dialogue and share concerns. The final draft is due in the third week. Students are asked to submit the original draft, my comments, both peer reviews and their final draft. This way I can evaluate the process from top to bottom. For instance, if both peer reviewers and I suggest a revision to the introduction, I will expect a student to address this concern. In reviewing feedback, I encourage students to listen to their peers and to my feedback but ultimately to make their own decisions about how they want to revise their essays. The grade I assign is an assessment of where each essay is in relation to the progress I think it should make in the class.

Because of its creative nature, many students are interested in the prospect of publishing their personal writing. This may be different from what you have experienced in a typical first-year writing classroom. At this point, the students will have read a wide variety of pieces from essayists, fiction writers and journalists. With a variety of topics and perspectives represented, students will be able to identify with some of the writers and wish to join the conversation in a more public way. In class, I explain that publishing an essay requires another process, one that would take considerably more time and different audience awareness to achieve. We strive for progress within the limitations and scope of the semester, and I offer to meet with students individually to discuss paths to publication.

Peer Review Sheet (Sample)

Writer, please identify any issues you feel you are currently having with this piece of writing so that your reader/reviewer can focus on these issues.

How well does the author set up the idea of place/event in this piece? Point to specific details that give the concept of character dimension or stifle it on the page.

Are you able to get a clear sense of setting? How well do you feel situated in the environment of the piece? Explain how this feeling is achieved, citing details from the writing.

Does the author give enough personal background to situate the importance of the place/event as well as his or her own point of view? If so, what details help the author do this? If not, what do you think is missing?

Does the piece seem to flow from beginning to end? Is there a natural progression of characters and story line? If so, how is this accomplished? If not, how can the author make the piece flow more effectively?

Where does the story begin, and where does the story leave you? Do you feel you are able to enter the narrative easily and let it end where it does? Why or why not?

Is there specific language that you feel is particularly expressive and effective in this piece? If so, point it out here.

Is there specific language that you feel is somewhat stilted or dragging the narrative pace? If so, point it out here.

Do you have any additional suggestions or comments for revision? Please also feel free to use this space to express what you like best about the piece of writing.

I use a variety of readings to demonstrate different forms to the class. Even in a short period of time, it is important to expose students to many forms of personal writing, not just one. I also include forms other than nonfiction, such as fiction and poetry, to demonstrate writing styles. I cannot encourage you enough to choose readings that are appropriate for your own student body. What works for my students may very well not work for yours. My advice would always be to represent a diverse range of experiences to give students more opportunity to find a voice they can relate to and possibly identify with. I will include some sample readings throughout the chapters to give examples of readings that have worked in my classroom.

Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom Copyright © by Melissa Tombro is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Peer Review

The formula for writing a peer review is an organized process, but it’s easy to do when you follow a few simple steps. Writing a well-structured peer review can help maintain the quality and integrity of the research published in your field. According to Publons, the peer-review process “teaches you how to review a manuscript, spot common flaws in research papers, and improve your own chances of being a successful published author.” Listed below are four key steps to writing a quality peer review.

1. Read the manuscript in its entirety

It is important to read the manuscript through to make sure you are a good fit to assess the research. Also, the first read through is significant because this is when you develop your first impression of the article. Should a reviewer suspect plagiarism of any kind, s/he should contact the journal office at [email protected] .

2. Re-read the manuscript and take notes

After the first read through, you can now go back over the manuscript in more detail. For example, you should ask the following questions about the article to develop useful comments and critiques of the research and presentation of the material:

• Is this research appropriate for the journal?
• Does the content have archival value?
• Is this research important to the field?
• Does the introduction clearly explain motivation?
• Is the manuscript clear and balanced?
• Is the author a source of new information?
• Does the paper stay focused on its subject?
• Are the ideas and methods presented worthwhile, new, or creative?
• Does the paper evaluate the strengths and limitations of the work described?
• Is the impact of the results clearly stated?
• Is the paper free from personalities and bias?
• Is the work of others adequately cited?
• Are the tables and figures clear, relevant, and correct?
• Does the author demonstrate knowledge of basic composition skills, including word choice, sentence structure, paragraph development, grammar, punctuation, and spelling?  

Please see SAE’s Reviewer Rubric/Guidelines for a complete list of judgment questions and scoring criteria that will be helpful in determining your recommendation for the paper.

3. Write a clear and constructive review

Comments are mandatory for a peer review . The best way to structure your review is to:

• Open your review with the most important comments—a summarization of the research and your impression of the research.
• Make sure to include feedback on the strengths, as well as the weaknesses, of the manuscript. Examples and explanations of those should consume most of the review. Provide details of what the authors need to do to improve the paper. Point out both minor and major flaws and offer solutions.
• End the review with any additional remarks or suggestions.

There can be various ways to write your review with the structure listed above.

Example of comprehensive review

Writing a bad review for a paper not only frustrates the author but also allows for criticism of the peer-review process. It is important to be fair and give the review the time it deserves. While the comments below may be true, examples are needed to support the claims. What makes the paper of low archival value? What makes the paper great? In addition, there are no comments for suggestions to improve the manuscript, except for improving the grammar in the first example.

Examples of bad reviews:

• Many grammatical issues. Paper should be corrected for grammar and punctuation. Very interesting and timely subject.
• This paper does not have a high archival value; should be rejected.
• Great paper; recommend acceptance.

4. Make a recommendation

The last step for a peer reviewer is making a recommendation of either accept, reject, revise, or transfer. Be sure that your recommendation reflects your review. A recommendation of acceptance upon first review is rare and only to be used if there is no room for improvement.

Additional Reviewer Resources

• Example Review
• Advice and Resources for Reviewers from Publons
• Peer Review Resources from Sense about Science

For questions regarding SAE’s peer-review process or if you would like to be a reviewer, please contact [email protected] .

For questions on how to review in Editorial Manager®, please see Editorial Manager® Guide for Reviewers .

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1.1: Intro to Creative Writing

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• Page ID 132138

• Sybil Priebe
• North Dakota State College of Science via Independent Published

chapter 1: intro to creative writing:

Creative writing\(^7\) is any writing that goes outside the bounds of “normal”\(^8\) “professional,”\(^9\) journalistic, “academic,”\(^{10}\) or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary tropes or with various traditions of poetry and poetics. Due to the looseness of the definition, it is possible for writing such as feature stories to be considered creative writing, even though they fall under journalism, because the content of features is specifically focused on narrative and character development. 

Both fictional and nonfictional works fall into this category, including such forms as novels, biographies, short stories, and poems. In the academic setting, creative writing is typically separated into fiction and poetry classes, with a focus on writing in an original style, as opposed to imitating pre-existing genres such as crime or horror. Writing for the screen and stage—screenwriting and playwrighting—are often taught separately but fit under the creative writing category as well.

Creative writing can technically be considered any writing of original composition. 

the creative process: \(^{11}\)

Some people can simply sit down to write and have something to write about. For others, finding something to write about can be the hardest part of creative writing. Assuming that you are not in the first group, there are several things you can do to create ideas. Not all of these will work for all people, but most are at least useful tools in the process. Also, you never know when you might have an idea. Write down any ideas you have at any time and expand on them later.

For stories and poetry, the simplest method is to immerse yourself in the subject matter. If you want to write a short story, read a lot of short stories. If you want to write a poem, read poems. If you want to write something about love, read a lot of things about love, no matter the genre. 

the writing process “reminder”\(^{12}\)

Please Note: Not all writers follow these steps perfectly and with each project, but let’s review them to cover our butts:

BRAINSTORMING

PROOFREADING

Outline\(^{13}\) your entire story so you know what to write.  Start by writing a summary of your story in 1 paragraph. Use each sentence to explain the most important parts of your story. Then, take each sentence of your paragraph and expand it into greater detail. Keep working backward to add more detail to your story. This is known as the “snowflake method” of outlining.

getting started:

Find a comfortable space to write: consider the view, know yourself well enough to decide what you need in that physical space (music? coffee? blanket?).

Have the right tools: computer, notebook, favorite pens, etc.

Consider having a portable version of your favorite writing tool (small notebook or use an app on your phone?).

Start writing and try to make a daily habit out of it, even if you only get a paragraph or page down each day.

Keys to creativity: curiosity, passion, determination, awareness, energy, openness, sensitivity, listening, and observing...

getting ideas:

Ideas are everywhere! Ideas can be found:

Notebook or Image journal

Media: Magazines, newspapers, radio, TV, movies, etc.

Conversations with people

Artistic sources like photographs, family albums, home movies, illustrations, sculptures, and paintings.

Daily life: Standing in line at the grocery store, going to an ATM, working at your campus job, etc.

Music: Song lyrics, music videos, etc.

Beautiful or Horrible Settings

Favorite Objects

Favorite Books

How to generate ideas:

Play the game: "What if..."

Play the game: "I wonder..."

Use your favorite story as a model.

Revise favorite stories - nonfiction or fiction - into a different genre.

writer's block:\(^{14}\)

Writer’s block can happen to ANYONE, so here are some ways to break the block if it happens to you:

Write down anything that comes to mind. 

Try to draw ideas from what has already been written.

Take a break from writing. 

Read other peoples' writing to get ideas.

Talk to people. Ask others if they have any ideas.

Don't be afraid of writing awkwardly. Write it down and edit it later.

Set deadlines and keep them.

Work on multiple projects at a time; this way if you need to procrastinate on one project, you can work on another!

If you are jammed where you are, stop and write somewhere else, where it is comfortable.

Go somewhere where people are. Then people-watch. Who are these people? What do they do? Can you deduce\(^{15}\) anything based on what they are wearing or doing or saying? Make up random backstories for them, as if they were characters in your story.

peer workshops and feedback acronyms: \(^{16}\)

Having other humans give you feedback will help you improve misunderstandings within your work. Sometimes it takes another pair of eyes to see what you “missed” in your own writing. Please try not to get upset by the feedback; some people give creative criticism and others give negative criticism, but you will eventually learn by your own mistakes to improve your writing and that requires peer review and feedback from others. 

If you are comfortable having your friends and family read your work, you could have them\(^{17}\) peer review your work. Have a nerdy friend who corrects your grammar? Pay them in pizza perhaps to read over your stuff!? If you are in college, you can use college tutors to review your work.

Peer Workshop activities can help create a “writing group vibe” to any course, so hopefully, that is a part of the creative writing class you are taking.

WWW and TAG

The acronyms involved with feedback – at least according to the educators of Twitter – are WWW and TAG. Here’s what they stand for, so feel free to use these strategies in your creative writing courses OR when giving feedback to ANYONE.

Are you open to the kinds of feedback you’ll get using that table above with the WWW/TAG pieces?

What do you typically want feedback on when it comes to projects? Why?

What do you feel comfortable giving feedback to classmates on? Why?

\(^7\)"Creative Writing." Wikipedia . 13 Nov 2016. 21 Nov 2016, 19:39 < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_writing >. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

\(^8\)Whoa, what is normal anyway?

\(^9\)What IS the definition of “professionalism”?

\(^{10}\)Can’t academic writing be creative?

\(^{11}\)"Creative Writing/Introduction." Wikibooks, The Free Textbook Project . 10 May 2009, 04:14 UTC. 9 Nov 2016, 19:39

< https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php...&oldid=1495539 >. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

\(^{12}\)It doesn’t really matter who created it; all you need to know is that you don’t HAVE to follow it perfectly. Not many people do.

\(^{13}\)Wikihow contributors. "How to Write Science Fiction." Wikihow. 29 May 2019. Web. 22 June 2019. http://www.wikihow.com/Write-Science-Fiction . Text available under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

\(^{14}\)"Creative Writing/Fiction technique." Wikibooks, The Free Textbook Project . 28 Jun 2016, 13:38 UTC. 9 Nov 2016, 20:36

< https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php...&oldid=3093632 >. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

\(^{15}\)Deduce = to reach a conclusion.

\(^{16}\)"Creative Writing/Peer Review." Wikibooks, The Free Textbook Project. 16 Aug 2016, 22:07 UTC. 9 Nov 2016, 20:12

< https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php...&oldid=3107005 >. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

\(^{17}\)This textbook we’ll try to use they/them pronouns throughout to be inclusive of all humans.

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Blog • Perfecting your Craft

Posted on Sep 04, 2019

49 Places to Find a Critique Circle to Improve Your Writing

Contrary to popular belief, writers aren’t solitary creatures by default. In fact, we’re often better when we write together , swapping trade secrets and exchanging manuscripts for mutual critique. Unfortunately, accidents of geography can stop us from congregating as often as we’d like. We don’t all live in literary hubs like London and NYC, so finding a critique circle in real life can be a bit of a challenge.

Luckily, you don’t have to be limited by the vagaries of place: there are plenty of online spaces where you can find writing partners ( and their excellent tips ). From the Critique Circle — the internet’s most famous writing group — to the more intimate critique groups studding the netscape, it’s easy enough to find gimlet-eyed readers ready to bring out the potential in your works-in-progress.

We’ve rounded 51 places to get feedback on your work. General writing critique groups are at the top, and genre-focused communities at the bottom. Because, to paraphrase the Starks of Winterfell , if the lone wolf dies while the pack survives, the lone writer struggles while the critique circle thrives.

GENERAL CRITIQUE GROUPS

1. Critique Circle

Most of this list is in alphabetical order, but Critique Circle is so well-known it’s worth breaking the mold. This Iceland-based community has a no-frills aesthetic. But since it opened in 2003, it’s offered more than 700,000 critiques for over 140,000 stories. Members sign up for free and earn credits — needed to put their work up for review — by offering feedback to other users. Every 3 reviews earns you enough credits to “buy” an opportunity to post.

Freshly enrolled writers have their work scheduled in a Newbie Queue, which sends their writing out for feedback faster than the regular queue. Word to the wise: the quality of feedback can vary — especially if they come from newbie members still learning the art of constructive criticism. But experienced members stand by to help to newbies as they get comfortable with the process.

Perfect if: You want to check out the internet’s most famous critique group

2. Reedsy Writing Prompts Contest

Yes, this one is facilitated through our very site! Here at Reedsy, we host a weekly writing contest where writers are invited to submit a short story based on one of our writing prompts. Shortly after launching this contest, we noticed a cool thing happening: writers started leaving constructive criticism and feedback on one another's stories — completely un prompted. We decided we wanted to encourage this initiative, so we created a critique circle within the contest.

Here's how it works: sign up for a free Reedsy Prompts account , and submit a short story to one of our contests. Once the contest ends, you'll receive an email asking you to leave feedback on other participants' stories — and the other entrants will likewise be encouraged to leave feedback on  your story.

Perfect if: You want the opportunity to earn cash prizes as part of your critique circle experience

3. 10 Minute Novelists Facebook Group

This support group for time-crunched writers runs a weekly #BuddyDay thread every Tuesday, where members can post their work for review. Excerpts are fair game, as are blurbs , author bios, cover art, and the like. If you’d like to test drive a couple of different packages for your indie masterpiece, #BuddyDay might be a good place to start.

Even if it’s not Tuesday, 10 Minute Novelists is a great place to “hang out.” Members commiserate about how real life gets in the way of your literary dreams — and encourage each other to stick it out anyway.

Perfect if: You know you’ve got a novel inside you, but you can’t seem to carve out more than 10 minutes a day to actually write it

4. ABCTales

This free writing community lets members post their own work and comment on each others’ — think WattPad, with way less emphasis on One Direction fanfic. Discussion seems to revolve around how to write a poem to best effect, although some short story writers frequent the forums as well. The feedback tends to be earnest and encouraging. Members happily dole out congratulations at one another’s literary triumphs.

ABCTales emphasizes slow and steady writerly development more than hustling for bylines. The pieces posted on its forums likely won’t be eligible for publication at many mainstream outlets, so they tend to be exercises written for practice, or from sheer love of the craft. That said, there is a forum full of writers swapping tips for publication .

Perfect if: You want a wholesome community to help you hone your craft in a low-stakes way

5. Absolute Write Water Cooler

This sprawling writers’ forum can be a bit of a maze, but there’s a wealth of material to help you along on your writing journey. If you’re in search of critique, you’ll want to make your way to the Beta Readers, Mentors, and Writing Buddies board. It works a little like a craft-focused version of the old Craigslist Personals section. Just post a description of the piece you’re working on, and forum members who fancy giving it a beta read will get in touch.

While you’re waiting for your perfect beta reader to respond to your post, you can hang out on any of Absolute Write ’s other craft-focused message boards. Many are genre-specific: check out Now We’re Cookin’! if you’re into food writing, or Flash Fiction if you’re a fan of pith.

Perfect if: You harbor romantic fantasies of finding your One True Reader on a personals site

6. Christopher Fielden

Christopher Fielden’s website offers tons of free resources – ranging from how to do research, how to keep your creativity fresh, and advice about self-publishing. He also curates a list of writing competitions – whether you’re looking to submit a short story or a poem, there are tons of options to choose from. You can pay for a critique from his team as well and a seasoned writer like Dr. Lynda Nash or Allen Ashley will go over your short story, novel, or poem.

7. Beta Readers and Critique Partners Facebook Group

This Facebook group has been helping writers find beta readers for two years now, and it’s still going strong. Almost 500 new members joined in the last month, bringing the total up to over 7,000. Rest assured, the mods won’t tolerate any nonsense: scorched earth critiques are forbidden, and members are encouraged to be kind at all times.

The Beta Readers and Critique Partners group welcomes members of all skill levels. Participants do their best to keep in mind whether they’re reading a seasoned pro, or someone just getting started as a beta reader . Self-promotion is banned, so don’t worry about being spammed.

Perfect if: You want a group where newbies can freely mingle with seasoned pros

8. Critique It

This peer review tool works like Google Docs on steroids: a group of collaborators can work on the same project, leave each other feedback, and feel like they’re all gathered around the same desk even if they’re actually scattered across the globe. Unlike GDocs, Critique It makes it easy to drop in video and audio files as well. That way, critics can leave their feedback in whatever format they like.

It won’t actually help you find a critique group. But it will let you form one with whoever you choose — no matter where in the world they’re based.

Perfect if: You want to form a writing group with friends from afar

9. The Desk Drawer

Here’s a critique group with high standards: send out multiple submissions that haven’t been spell-checked, and the group just might kick you out. This ultra-active, email-based workshop is a perfect fit for the kind of scribblers who thrive off prompts —  and who want to use them to hone their craft in the (virtual) company of fifty-odd like-minded writers. Every week, The Desk Drawer sends out a writing exercise. Members can respond directly to the prompt with a SUB (submission) — or offer a CRIT (critique) of another writer’s response.

To stay on the mailing list, workshoppers have to send out at least three posts a month: 1 SUB and 2 CRITS, or 3 CRITS. And membership is selective: if you’d like to join, you’ll have to send in a short, 100- to 250-word writing sample based on a prompt.

Perfect if: You want some disciplined — but mutually encouraging — writing buddies to keep you honest as you build up a writing habit

10. Fiction Writers Global Facebook Group

Despite its name, this community welcomes writers of fiction and non-fiction alike, although those who work specialize in erotica are encouraged to find an alternative group. At 13 years old, it’s one of the longer-running writing communities on Facebook. The mods have laid down the law to ensure it continues to run smoothly: fundraising, self-promotion, and even memes are strictly banned.

If you’re still weighing the pros and cons of traditional versus self-publishing , Fiction Writers Global might be the perfect group for you. They have members going both these routes who are always happy to share their experiences.

Perfect if: You’re determined to go the indie route — or thinking seriously about it

11. Hatrack River Writers Workshop

This 18+, members-only workshop was founded by renowned speculative fiction writer Orson Scott Card, of Ender’s Game fame , and it’s now hosted by short fiction writer Kathleen Dalton Woodbury. Both these writers cut their teeth on genre fiction, but don’t feel limited to tales of magic and spacefaring — anything goes, except for fanfic.

At the Hatrack River Writers Workshop , members can submit the first 13 lines of a WIP for review — an exercise designed to make sure the story hooks the reader as efficiently as possible . A loosely structured Writing Class forum offers prompts, called “assignments,” designed to help blocked writers start (or finish) stalled works.

Perfect if: You want to polish your story’s opening to a mirror-shine

12. Inked Voices

Unlike the cozy, Web 1.0 vibes of older online critique groups, Inked Voices is as sleek as they come, with cloud-based functionality and an elegant visual brand. Its polished look and feel make sense considering this isn’t so much a writing group as a platform for finding — or creating — writing groups, complete with a shiny workshopping app that has version control and calendar notifications built in.

Each workshop is private, invite-only, and capped at 8 members. You can sign up for a two-week free trial, but after that, the service costs $10 per month, or $75 for the year. Membership also lets you tune in for free to lectures by industry pros.

Perfect if: You’re willing to pay for an intimate, yet high-tech, workshop experience

13. Litopia

This website calls itself the “oldest writers’ colony on the ‘net,” a description that probably proves its age. One of its main draws? The writing groups that allow members to post their WIPs for peer review. The community tends to be friendly and mutually encouraging — probably the reason Litopia has lasted so long.

There’s another major draw: every Sunday, literary agent Peter Cox reviews several 700-word excerpts from members work on-air, in a podcast called Pop-Up Submissions. Cox tackles this process with a rotating cast of industry professionals as his guests. They’ve even been known to ask for a synopsis from a writer who impresses.

Perfect if: You’ve always wanted to spend some time in a writer’s colony, but you can’t jet off to Eureka Springs just yet

14. My Writers Circle

This easy-going discussion forum is light on dues and regulations, but members seem to be friendly and respectful anyway. A stickied thread on the Welcome Board encourages new members to read and comment on at least 3 pieces of writing before posting their own work for review. But this isn’t the kind of hard-and-fast rule that’ll lead to banning if you fall short. Members go along with it because they genuinely care about one another’s writing progress.

My Writers Circle has three dedicated workshop boards that allow forum users to seek feedback on their writing. One, called Review My Work, accepts general fiction and nonfiction, while additional spaces allow poets and dramatists of all kinds to get their verse, plays, and TV scripts critiqued.

Perfect if: You want a community where people are nice because they want to be — not because they have to be

15. Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Nathan Bransford worked as an agent before he switched over to the other side of the submissions process. Now, he’s a published middle-grade novelist and the author of a well-rated, self-published craft book called How to Write a Novel . In the midst of all his success, Bransford gives back to the literary community by running his ultra-popular Forums.

A board called Connect With a Critique Partner functions as matchmaker central for writers seeking their perfect beta readers. And if you’re not looking for something long-term, there’s the Excerpts forum, where you can post a bit of your WIP for quick hit of feedback.

Perfect if: You want to be part of a writing community that’s uber-active, but low-key

16. The Next Big Writer

Since 2005, this cult-favorite workshop has provided thousands of writers with a friendly forum for exchanging critiques. The site boasts an innovative points system designed to guarantee substantive, actionable feedback. To gain access, you’ll have to pay: $8.95 a month, $21.95 a quarter, or $69.95 for the whole year. Fortunately, there’s an opportunity to try before you buy: a 7-day free trial lets you get a taste of what the site has to offer.

The Next Big Writer also hosts periodic contests : grand prize winners receive $600 and professional critiques, while runners-up stand to gain $150 and 3 months of free membership. Meanwhile, all entrants get feedback on their submissions.

Perfect if: You like the sound of a members’ only writing contest with big prizes — in both cash and critique

17. NovelPro

This fiction writing workshop is one of the more costly online communities to join. But it has the rigor of an MFA program, at a tiny fraction of the price. Members — their numbers are capped at 50 — pay $120 a year. And that’s after a stringent application process requiring the first and last chapters of a finished, 60,000-word fiction manuscript and a 250-word blurb. Think of it as a bootcamp for your novel.

Even if an applicant’s writing sample passes muster, they still might not make the cut — there’s also a critique exercise that asks them to pass judgment on a sample novel chapter, with a 2-day turnaround. No wonder prospective NovelPro members are urged to reconsider unless their prose is “accomplished” and their fiction skills “advanced.”

Perfect if: You want a critique group that’ll take your work as seriously as you do

Free course: Novel Revision

Finished with your first draft? Plan and execute a powerful rewrite with this online course from the editors behind #RevPit. Get started now.

18. Prolitfic

Launched by University of Texas students frustrated by the vagaries of the publishing process, this slick, Gen Z-friendly site encourages emerging writers to help each other out with thorough, actionable reviews. Members critique one another’s critiques — dare we call it metacritique? — to keep the quality of feedback high.

Prolitfic 's rating rubric, which assigns all submissions a star rating out of 5, insures that all reviewers are coming from the same place. Reviewers with higher levels of Spark, or site engagement, have their feedback weighted more heavily when the site calculates each submission’s overall rating.

Perfect if: You’re a serious, young writer hoping to find support in a tight-knit community built by your peers

19. Scribophile

One of the best-known writing communities on the web, Scribophile promises 3 insightful critiques for every piece of work you submit. Members earn the right to receive critiques by stocking up on karma points, which they can get by offering feedback on other works. You can get extra karma points by reacting to other users’ critiques — by clicking on Facebook-like buttons that say “thorough,” “constructive,” and the like — and by having your critiques showered with positive reactions.

A free membership lets you put two 3,000-word pieces up for critique, while premium memberships won’t throttle your output — but will cost you either $9 per month or $65 for the year.

Perfect if: You’d like to play with a critique system that has shades of Reddit — but far more civil!

20. SheWrites Groups

This long-standing community for writing women boasts a treasure trove of craft-focused articles. But the site also hosts a wealth of writing groups, split into genres and topics. Whether they work on screenplays, horror novels , or depictions of the environment, women writers can find a group to post their work for feedback — and commiserate on the travails of writing life.

In addition to their articles and writing groups, She Writes also operates a hybrid publishing company that distributes through Ingram and, naturally, brings women’s writing into the light.

Perfect if: You’re a woman writer in search of a friendly community full of like-minded, mutually encouraging folks

21. Sub It Club

Gearing up to submit finished work can be even more daunting than writing it in the first place. If you’d like to get some friendly eyes on your query letters or pitches — in a virtual walled garden away from any agents or publishers — this closed Facebook group might be the perfect place for you.

If you’re in need of more than a one-off review, Sub It Club runs a Critique Partner Matchup group to pair off writing buddies. The group moderators also run a blog with plenty of tips on crafting cover letters, dealing with rejection, and all other parts of the submission process .

Perfect if: You want a private, low-stress setting to get some feedback and vent about life as a yet-to-be-published writer

22. WritersCafe.org

This sizable — but friendly! — community boasts over 800,000 users, all of whom can access its critique forums for free. Members offer feedback to one another at all stages of the writing process: from proofing near-finished pieces to leaving more substantive feedback for still-marinating works.

For more quantitative-minded scribblers, WritersCafe ’s graphs make it easy to visualize how their work is being received. The site also allows members to host their own writing contests — and even courses to share their expertise with fellow Cafe patrons.

Perfect if: You’re a visual, data-driven writer who prefers to think in charts — even when it comes to writing!

23. Writer’s Digest Critique Central

Writer’s Digest is an institution in the literary world, and its critique forum is as popular as you’d expect: it’s collected more than 10,000 threads and nearly 90,000 individual posts over the years.

Critique Central boasts dedicated boards for a variety of genres — poetry is the most popular, with literary fiction next in line. You can also find spaces dedicated to polishing query letters and synopses, and a board that aggregates critique guidelines to make sure every member is giving — and getting — the best feedback possible.

Perfect if: You’d like a one-stop shop for critiquing your WIPs, queries, and synopses

24. The Writers Match

Founded by a veteran children’s book author, The Writers Match aims to, well, match writers with their comrades-in-craft from around the world. Think of it as okCupid for critique partners. Just fill out a profile and then shop for matches on the Members page, where writers will be sorted according to experience and genre.

If you find any promising would-be partners, shoot them a message and see if the literary sparks fly. And if it turns out you don’t quite vibe, there are plenty of other fish in the sea of critique.

Perfect if: You live somewhere without a robust writing community, and you’re tired of missing out

25. Writers World Facebook Group

Founded by veteran editor and sci-fi author Randall Andrews, this critique group welcomes serious writers of book-length prose. Members aim to shepherd each other’s manuscripts through all stages of the publication process, from the developmental edit to the query.

Andrews himself remains heavily involved in Writers World ’s day-to-day activity, pitching in with critiques informed by his 30 years of experience in the publishing industry. He’s also happy to explain his comments, and weighs in periodically with links to useful resources on craft.

Perfect if: You’ve got a book in the works, and you’re in the market for a critique group headed by a mentor who’s extremely generous with his time

26. Writing.Com

This sprawling community has been a meeting point for writers of all levels since 2000, whether their goals are to be published in a top-shelf literary magazine or to score an A in English Composition. Writing.Com users, who work in every genre under the sun, make use of the site’s portfolio system to post their writing and seek feedback from fellow community members.

Free memberships allow users to store up to 10 items in their personal portfolio, while the various tiers of paid membership gradually increase the limit — starting at the 50 items afforded by the $19.95 per year Basic Membership.

Perfect if: You want to be part of an enormous community where you’re sure to encounter a diversity of viewpoints

27. Writing, Prompts & Critiques Facebook Group

Writing, Prompts & Critiques is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. Members seek critique on posted threads and can also comment on one another’s responses to the group’s daily writing exercises.

Speaking of which: unlike conventional writing prompts, which encourage you to write new work, WPC’s daily challenges try to get you thinking more deeply about your existing projects. So come with a manuscript in hand, and see if the folks here can’t help you make it even better.

Perfect if: You’d like to get some feedback on a WIP — and experiment with some writing exercises to refine it

28. Writing to Publish

This 25-year-old critique group might have an American flag gif on its homepage, but its membership is worldwide. Writing to Publish members meet live in a chat room every other Monday at 7 PM Pacific time — which the website helpfully specifies is lunchtime on Tuesday for Australians.

New members have trial status until they’ve sat in on a handful of live-chat sessions, after which point they can start offering critiques themselves. Only after two critiques can they become full-fledged members, with the ability to submit their own work for review. Discussion tends to be lively and honest — but unfailingly polite.

Perfect if: You want your critique circle to operate in real-time — even if it includes folks from all over the world

29. YeahWrite

This writing community’s home page describes it as “part workshop, part competition, and all focused on getting from where you are to where you want to be as a writer.” Its biggest claim to fame? Free weekly writing challenges in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, where writers submit 750-word pieces in response to curated writing prompts.

If you fancy more concentrated feedback than the weekly challenges can give you, YeahWrite also offers paid editorial evaluations — one for $25 a year or two for $50. Send a 1,000-word piece of writing for review, and an editorial staff member will get back to you with a developmental edit or a line edit, depending on your manuscript’s needs.

Perfect if: You find that nothing sparks your creativity energies more than a good writing prompt

30. YouWriteOn

[update 4 Feb 2022: YouWriteOn seems to be temporarily inaccessible]

This free service boasts Bloomsbury and Penguin Random House reps among its members. So if you join and upload a story or chapter, you stand a chance of getting some very discerning eyes on your work. With such powerful people roaming the joint, it’s no wonder that some first-time authors have been discovered through YouWriteOn: historical fiction writer Doug Jackson, for instance, sold his Roman epic Caligula to Penguin through the forum.

Reviews come in one at a time and assign each piece a star rating in 8 different categories: characters, story, pace and structure, use of language, narrative voice, dialogue, settings, and themes and ideas.

Perfect if: You want some Big Five eyes on your work, in a supportive, low-stakes setting

GENRE-SPECIFIC CRITIQUE GROUPS

31. Allpoetry

This poetry site allows free members to join a writing group and post their verse for review, while premium members can use it to host their own private writing critique groups. A silver membership, for $5.95 a month, allows you to form a group, while a $14.95 gold membership provides analytics to track your visitors.

Allpoetry boasts 238 currently active groups — the biggest weighing in at 50 members while the smallest hover around 6 or 7 members. The site also offers free, self-paced poetry classes for beginners to the craft, on topics ranging from sonnets to beating writer’s block .

Perfect if: You’re a poet who wants the ability to choose between several critique groups of various sizes

32. Chronicles Science Fiction & Fantasy Community

This sleekly designed forum is primarily a fandom space — a thriving community for dissecting the works of your favorite speculative fiction authors. But Chronicles also operates a suite of craft-focused forums for sci-fi and fantasy fans who double as writers themselves.

The Chronicles Workshop forum hosts frequent, 100-word writing challenges that combine a theme and a genre, say “Crime & Punishment” and “Urban Fantasy.” Members tend to respond to these with enthusiasm, but they also have the option of posting their own, freestanding work for review in the writing circle.

Perfect if: You’re both a speculative fiction writer and a speculative fiction reader, and you want a community that can indulge both your inner creator and your inner fan

33. Critters Workshop

A passion project run by a former VP of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Critters has been helping authors polish their sci-fi, fantasy, and horror for almost a quarter century. The workshop is a space for serious writers, whether they’ve been showered with accolades or are still unpublished.

Critters stands out for treating critique itself as a craft deserving of careful attention. Participants learn to read with both acumen and empathy, offering substantive, yet tactfully framed criticisms of one another’s work. To remain in good standing, every “critter” writes an average of one critique a week.

Perfect if: You’re willing to learn the art of constructive criticism — and eager to get 15-20 thoughtful responses for each piece of writing they submit

34. Critique.org Workshops

The Critique.org workshops act as an expansion of Critters — including 16 furthers genres and media. The resulting spin-offs cover every form of writing you can think of, from thrillers to screenplays. Some are more highly trafficked than others, but all of them echo Critters’ dedication to the art of critique.

Multi-genre writers who work on, say, both romance and thrillers have to sign up separately for every workshop they’re interested in.

Perfect if: You like the sound of Critters but don’t like the idea of writing sci-fi, fantasy, or horror

35. Eratosphere

This online workshop might be named for the muse of love poetry, but versifiers working on all subjects are welcome to post. Eratosphere isn’t for the faint of heart: the site’s guidelines stress high standards of craft and emphasize that the forums might not be suitable for beginners or “those who mainly seek mutual support and praise.” But if you’re a practiced poet serious about refining your craft, you won’t find a more knowledgeable workshop.

The site is especially helpful for poets specializing in metrical verse forms. Poets who already produce polished, near-publishable work can make use of The Deep End, a forum tailor-made for metrical poetry gurus thick-skinned enough to deal with intense — but constructive — critique.

Perfect if: You’re an experienced poet eager for gimlet-eyed critique

36. FaithWriters

This online hub for writers of faith operates a Christian Writing Critique Circle. Unlike many groups with more stringent requirements, members only need to submit one critique for every piece of writing they put out for feedback. The FaithWriters moderators occasionally pay professional editors to come in and review pieces that haven’t gotten enough love from members-at-large. So there’s no fear that your work will remain forlorn and ignored.

Writers too pressed for time to offer critiques can pay in cash for the ability to receive feedback. FaithWriters limits submissions to 1,000 words each, and allows every member 4 per month.

Perfect if: You’re a Christian writer who’d appreciate a guarantee of feedback from your critique group

37. Fantasy & Science Fiction Writers in America Facebook Group

This group for serious, craft-focused speculative fiction writers actually welcomes members from all over the world, as long as they write in English. Members post small excerpts from their work for critique, but they also like to swap trade secrets — about both the craft and business sides of writing life.

Because Fantasy & Science Fiction Writers in America welcomes writers of all ages, members need to keep it PG-13. The four admins keep an eye on things to make sure the discussion stays civil and safe for work.

Perfect if: You’re an aspiring sci-fi or fantasy author not interested in smut or gore

38. Fiction Writing Facebook Group

This 90,000-member Facebook group is moderated by a triumvirate of published authors who’ve banded together to create a space where their fellow writers can swap WIPs. The moderators run a tight ship in terms of hate speech, bullying, and spam, and the resulting community is full of serious writers despite its daunting size.

Fiction Writing members can share the occasional bit of verse in the dedicated #poetry thread, but for the most part, the focus is on short stories and novel excerpts. The moderators also make occasional postings drawing the community’s attention to publishing opportunities, usually in the anthology series they help curate.

Perfect if: You want to dive into a community where you won’t be subjected to endless self-promotion or straight-up hate speech

39. Historical Novel Society Manuscript Facebook Group

This closed Facebook group provides dues-paying members of the Historical Novel Society with a private space to get into the weeds of mutual critique. Manuscript Facebook Group members can, of course, post their manuscripts for general review. They can also use the group to find long-term critique partners.

Membership in the Historical Novel Society costs $50 per year and nets you a free subscription to the Historical Novel Review , a listing in the group’s directory, and notification of the many conferences and colloquia it hosts every year. In addition to its manuscript critique group, the HNS also operates a more general Facebook group where members swap research tips and writing inspiration.

Perfect if: You’re serious about bringing the past to life by writing top-notch historical fiction

40. The Internet Writing Workshop

This site aggregates several genre-specific mailing lists that allow writers to submit their own work and critique one another’s. Dedicated lists for short fiction, book-length projects, romance, poetry, and YA ensure almost every author can find a place to get feedback. Another list dedicated to writing exercises encourages members to respond to weekly prompts — and critique each other’s responses.

To remain in good standing as an Internet Writing Workshop member, you’ll have to commit to a minimum participation requirement. But it’s a pretty modest one, coming down to only half an hour a week. The workshop also runs an active writing advice blog that dates back to 2007.

Perfect if: You want a free, email-based workshop with pretty light participation requirements

41. Kingdom Writers

This email-based critique list provides a home on the internet for Christian writers, both published and unpublished. While encouraged to post work explicitly aimed at their faith community, members can also share more secular writings — as long as they’re PG-13. Civility is a must: works criticizing other religions won’t be tolerated.

Thanks to their fellow Kingdom Writers ’ critiques, participants in this online fellowship have managed to publish a number of books, from devotional texts and Bible trivia to romance and historical fiction.

Perfect if: You’re a Christian writer hoping to join a tight-knit community where you won’t encounter anything NSFW

42. Mystery Writers Forum

This forum for latter-day Arthur Conan Doyles has been around since 1997. With nearly one thousand members roaming its 22 discussion boards, it’s nothing short of an institution.

Still, mystery writers of all kinds can patrol the Writing Advice forum in search of genre-savvy critique partners. There’s plenty more to explore. Whether you’re interested in nailing down the elements of a cozy mystery or confused about how courtroom procedure should work in your trial scene, the Mystery Writers Forum will have something to point you in the right direction.

Perfect if: You have some very specific burning questions that only a fellow mystery buff can answer

43. Online Writing Workshop for Science, Fantasy and Horror

This genre writers’ paradise has a modest price for entry. After a month-long free trial, members pay $49 a year for access to the site’s critique group. But the workshop also operates a scholarship fund for writers having trouble making ends meet. Both agents and publishers keep an eye on submissions through free professional memberships, so a discerning, influential eye just might fall on your manuscript.

Submissions are limited to 7,000 words each, and members of the Online Writing Workshop are required to review if they want to be reviewed. Plenty have found success through the workshop, winning Hugos and scoring Big Five contracts.

Perfect if: You don’t mind paying in exchange for access to a genre-savvy community where some agents and publishers tend to lurk

Speaking of scholarships, if you're a student scraping together tuition, why not apply to writing scholarships to supplement your funds?

44. The Poetry Free-for-All

This online workshop encourages poets to work seriously towards the refinement of their craft, by embracing constructive criticism and learning to offer it in turn. As is standard among critique groups, members have to provide 3 reviews for every piece they submit for feedback.

The Poetry Free-for-All is an offshoot of EveryPoet.com, an archive of poetry designed to instill a love of verse in all visitors. Whether your posting your own verse for critique or browsing through the classics — from Chaucer to Edna St. Vincent Millay — you can easily lose a couple of hours on this site.

Perfect if: You’re a poet who’s serious about your craft, but you want a workshop that’s less structured than some of the other options out there

45. Romance Critters Yahoo Group

This 18+ Yahoo group has been helping serious romance writers refine their craft since 1998. They’ll look at squeaky-clean teen romances, bona fide erotica, and anything in between , where’s it’s historical or set in outer space. However, you’ll have to apply to get access to the community.

Romance Critters members submit a chapter at a time for review — and only once they’ve submitted 2 critiques of other pieces. Ten full critiques can also earn you an in-depth beta read.

Perfect if: You want some well-trained eyes on your meet-cutes — or your sex scenes

46. Screech Poetry Magazine

Despite its name, this isn’t so much a publication as an open forum for posting and critiquing poetry. Think of it as a democratic, crowd-sourced compendium of contemporary verse.

Occasional writing contests tempt entrants with the promise of Amazon vouchers. But for the most part, Screech emphasizes open-hearted sharing over competition. The community has a collective soft spot for Japanese verse forms, from the humble haiku to the lesser-known renga. But poetry of all kinds is welcome, from the the kid-friendly to the NSFW.

Perfect if: You like to experiment with Japanese verse forms and want a critique group that takes them seriously

47. Seekerville

In 2004, 15 women writers with big dreams met at the American Christian Fiction Writers annual conference. Seven years later, all 15 of them had snagged book deals. Now, they run the Seekerville blog to pass their tips on to the next generation of Christian authors.

The Seekerville ladies host periodic Open Critique Days, where they offer feedback on short passages posted by their devoted readership. The most recent one yielded 105 comments.

Perfect if: You’re a Christian woman writer wanting mentorship from some warm-hearted authors who’ve been there before

48. SwoonReads

This YA-focused writing community is owned by Macmillan, one of the storied Big Five publishers. Still, its business model is far from traditional. For one thing, it’s also a publishing imprint. Aspiring authors upload unpublished manuscripts for community members to rate and review — all in the interest of helping Macmillan sniff out the next The Fault in Our Stars or To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before .

SwoonReads accepts YA manuscripts of all kinds, from contemporary romance to supernatural horror. Authors chosen for publication receive a $10,000 advance. Those who find their manuscripts passed over are welcome to revise and resubmit.

Perfect if: You’re a YA novelist dreaming of a Big Five book deal

49. Women’s Fiction Writers Association

This professional association caters to writers of women’s fiction — mostly, though not necessarily, women themselves. According to the group’s homepage, the important thing is that members’ work centers on a well-developed character’s transformative emotional journey. Membership costs $48 a year, but gives you access to a number of perks. In addition to an annual retreat and periodic online pitch sessions — where members can, well, pitch potential agents — the Women's Fiction Writers Association runs two critique programs.

The WFWA Critique Forum Facebook Page allows dues-paying members to swap loglines, query letters, and synopses for feedback, or find fellow writers to arrange manuscript swaps. There’s also the WFWA’s Critique Group Matching Service, where organization leaders break match up interested members based on their interests.

Perfect if: You write emotionally intricate, character-driven fiction

Do you have a go-to writing circle for helpful critiques? Tell us about it in the comments below!

5 responses

Robin Gaster says:

11/09/2019 – 16:39

fascinating that you found almost nothing on nonfiction

11/09/2019 – 22:28

A lot of forum and email based groups along with Facebook. If you only have the online ones that actually workshop the manuscript it will drop down to maybe a 16-17. That does include several closed/not for public groups.

Gregory A. De Feo says:

11/09/2019 – 23:26

Did you hear of www.writersvillage.com? What's your opinion of it, if so?

Ned Marcus says:

18/09/2019 – 00:19

Thanks for the list. It looks good. One other point. You don't need to live in a literary hub to find fellow writers—as long as you do live in a city, you'll probably find other writers. Starting your own critique/writers group can be very productive. It's worked very well for me, even though at the beginning I didn't know what I was doing. I asked an experienced writer and workshop regular (from another city), followed the advice, adjusted it, and now I have a great group with really talented writers as members. It took a few years, but it was worth it.

Bev Hanna says:

20/09/2019 – 18:02

Do you know of any critique forums for memoir and autobiography?

Comments are currently closed.

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Don’t be reviewer 2! Reflections on writing effective peer review comments

• The Writer’s Craft
• Open access
• Published: 11 June 2021
• Volume 10 , pages 299–303, ( 2021 )

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• Chris Watling   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9686-795X 1 ,
• Shiphra Ginsburg   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4595-6650 2 &
• Lorelei Lingard   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4150-3355 3  

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Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

In the Writer’s Craft section, we offer simple tips to improve your writing in one of three areas: Energy, Clarity and Persuasiveness. Each entry focuses on a key writing feature or strategy, illustrates how it commonly goes wrong, teaches the grammatical underpinnings necessary to understand it and offers suggestions to wield it effectively. We encourage readers to share comments on or suggestions for this section on Twitter, using the hashtag: #how’syourwriting?

We recently had a manuscript rejected from a journal following peer review. That in itself is an occurrence neither unusual nor tragic. We all experience rejection, and often the peer review process improves our work so that we can resubmit and contribute more convincingly to the scholarly conversation. But this time the experience felt different. This time it felt personal . We were left feeling deflated, belittled, and irritated—not exactly the optimal frame of mind for retooling a rejected paper.

Peer review can sting. It is intended as a collegial, respectful enterprise, but the popular “Reviewer 2” meme in social media suggests that it often feels otherwise [ 1 , 2 ]. Reviewer 2 symbolizes the peer reviewer who is rude, vague, smug, committed to pet issues, theories, and methodologies, and unwilling to treat the authors as peers. A recent linguistic analysis of such reviews found features such as attitude markers (e.g., verbs like “reject”, sentence adverbs like “absurdly”, and adjectives like “illogical”), self-mention (e.g., “I cannot possibly imagine”), and boosters (e.g., “the manuscript is utterly ridiculous”) [ 3 ].

Reviews exemplifying such characteristics are hard to take and can have a number of negative consequences for the authors, the journal, and the field. Reviewer 2 can push the imposter syndrome button for both novice and more experienced writers, causing them to doubt their scientific abilities. They can consign papers with good potential to a desk drawer for eternity. They can cost journals future submissions and the field future knowledge. And perhaps most disturbingly, they can disproportionately harm underrepresented groups. A 2019 study found that intersectional groups such as women of colour and non-binary people of colour were most likely to report direct negative impacts on scientific aptitude, productivity, and career advancement after receiving an unprofessional peer review [ 4 ]. In an effort to help us all avoid being Reviewer 2, this Writer’s Craft reflects on what makes constructive peer review comments so tricky to write and offers suggestions to make your next peer review clearer, more collegial, and more efficient.

Recognizing the challenge

Peer review is voluntary, unpaid, and often unrecognized and unrewarded work by busy academics and clinicians. We’re squeezing this work in on evenings and weekends, and perhaps feeling resentful as we do about the time stolen from our own writing projects [ 5 ]. But peer review is also a critical community service, and one with multiple aims: it serves the field, the journal, and the authors. In the service of the field, peer review intends to uphold shared standards to ensure that our combined knowledge progresses robustly. In the service of the journal, peer review assesses the paper’s potential to contribute originally to an ongoing conversation. In the service of the authors, peer review supports them to achieve both—the high standards of the field and the meaningful advancement of a journal’s scholarly conversation. Writing peer review comments with three aims in mind, however, is complicated, particularly when you are recommending major revision or rejection. And since outright acceptance is vanishingly rare, feedback to the authors about how to improve is almost always tangled up with assessment to the editor about how to proceed regarding acceptance. So the first step as a reviewer is to recognize the challenge of multiple aims and audiences, and to write each section of your review with a clear sense of which of these aims and audiences you’re prioritizing, and why.

Making it meaningful

The author and the journal’s editor need different things from your review, and so the risk that someone will be disappointed—or disheartened—is high. The author hopes for feedback that will strengthen their scholarship, while the journal wants an assessment of the paper’s quality and suitability for publication. How can we reconcile the sometimes-competing purposes of our reviews to ensure they are meaningful? Let’s consider some helpful writing strategies.

Your conversation with the author

Treat the feedback-forward parts of the review as a conversation, writing as though you were sitting down with the author(s) to talk about their work. The second person, used rarely in academic writing, works well here to build rapport and create a sense of intimacy. For example, notice how the third person approach creates distance and evokes a sense of a harsh judgment:

The authors do not sufficiently explain themselves in the Methods section, which is jargon-filled .

Perhaps you felt defensive just reading that line! In contrast, an approach that uses first- (“I”) and second-person (“you”) pronouns feels more like a conversation with a colleague:

I stumbled over some of the jargon in your Methods section; I’d suggest that you adopt more plain-language explanations to reduce the risk of losing your reader .

Remember that effective feedback should be specific and actionable [ 6 ]. Don’t leave the author in suspense. If an Introduction is suffering the absence of one or two key citations, name them if you can, rather than settling for a vague dismissal like “There is a vast literature on this topic that the authors have ignored.” If the Discussion fails to revisit one of the Introduction’s core concepts, call that out explicitly. Instead of “The Discussion is underwhelming and fails to show how the study has moved the needle in this domain” , try something more directive, such as “I’d suggest returning more clearly in the Discussion to the issue of patient-centred care and how this study challenges some of its core principles, given the prominence of that line of argument in the Introduction.”

Meaningful feedback also targets the task and not the person [ 7 ]. Steer clear of personal swipes at the researchers, even if you think their paper falls short. Perhaps you are tempted to write something like this:

The authors seem oblivious to the extensive existing literature on this subject in the field of higher education, and thus claim their discoveries as original when they are not .

Take a breath—and consider revising in a way that redirects the feedback away from the “oblivious” authors and toward a piece of work that could be strengthened. While the version below remains unmistakably critical, its critique is directed at the paper and not at the author(s):

The paper’s claim to originality is weakened by its lack of reference to similar work done in the field of higher education .

You’ll also notice that this comment deliberately deviates from the use of the second person to achieve this redirect.

Such redirection is a form of hedging, which refers to a toolbox of linguistic and rhetorical moves that allow us to express caution, uncertainty, and politeness. Hedging is necessary and abundant in scientific writing [ 8 , 9 ], and it also has a place in peer review. Hedging acts to save face [ 10 ], buffering the author whose work is being reviewed against threats to their self-esteem, and protecting the reviewer from being perceived as arrogant or dismissive. These impacts matter, because without them feedback is harder to accept and use. Hedging positions authors to be open to your suggestions. It doesn’t imply evading hard truths or avoiding critique. Rather, it recognizes that when feedback is baldly face-threatening or tramples on self-esteem, it is less likely to be effective in shaping real improvements in the work.

Your conversation with the editor

While it’s helpful to think of the review primarily as a conversation with the author, remember that the journal’s editors (chief and/or associate) will be listening in. Every line of your review need not be construed as feedback for the author. From time to time, you need to ensure that the editor will hear your concerns clearly, understand how much weight you assign to those concerns, and appreciate the rationale for your ultimate recommendation. Most journals ask reviewers to start with a few comments reflecting their overall impression of the paper, and these comments are as much for the editor as for the authors. Here’s your chance to say something like:

The authors have done a rigorous piece of work that addresses a pressing question in health professions education. While I have identified a number of opportunities for the paper to be strengthened, I find it a compelling piece of work that represents a novel contribution to the literature on this issue, and I look forward to seeing it in print .

This opening salvo lets the associate editor know that you think the paper is strong and that the journal would do well to publish it. With that context in mind, the associate editor need not try to read between the lines of your recommendation. They will understand—even if you suggest a significant revision—that any subsequent critiques are not fatal flaws, but rather opportunities for improvement. Many journals also include a confidential comments box that reviewers can use to flag up issues to the editor. Reviewers may use this box in a variety of situations, such as when they’re worried about ethical or methodological issues, uncertain about the decision they’ve recommended, or compelled to contextualize their review comments. Be careful, though, that you’re not contradicting your reviews in this space, or using it for critiques that your bland, uncritical reviews avoid mentioning. Editors are in a tough spot when the reviewer comments don’t support a final decision that was prompted by confidential comments.

The first few sentences of your review of each section of the paper might similarly contain messages for the associate editor that reflect your judgment and the intensity of your feeling. For example:

While this Introduction is well written, I struggle to identify the gap in the literature that this study seeks to fill. The literature review is comprehensive but rather uncritical, creating the impression that we already know everything there is to know about this problem. This issue contributes to my main concern about this paper: I’m just not persuaded that the work is sufficiently original to merit publication .

Here, the issues raised are clearly weighty and threaten the paper’s acceptability for publication. The associate editor will no doubt get the message. At the same time, hedging strategies soften the blow for the authors. The concerns are directed at the product (“the Introduction”, “this paper”) rather than at its producers. Positives (“well written” and “comprehensive”) balance the critiques, and modifiers allow for some uncertainty in the judgments that are offered (“ rather uncritical”, “not sufficiently original”). And the use of “I struggle” and “I’m not persuaded” reminds us that a review is, after all, opinion and not universal truth.

Think big picture

While it may be tempting to point out every single sentence or idea that you disagree with, don’t. Authors may feel like you are ‘piling on’ the critique, and it will be difficult for them to sift through to find what is essential. Instead, hit the high points and don’t nitpick. The high points include whether or not the researchers have tackled a problem that matters, have used appropriate and well-conducted methods, have written a story that is coherent, and have situated their work in the existing conversation. You are not a copy editor. Particularly when the decision is to reject, don’t drown the authors in all the typos, comma splices, and improperly formatted references that you noticed. If the language overall is difficult to navigate as a reader, make a summary comment about that with a few examples. Something like “ I notice that the authors use single and double quotation marks inconsistently in the manuscript, which can be distracting for readers. I’d suggest a careful proofread with this issue in mind before resubmitting ” may help the authors more than a detailed list of every instance of sloppy punctuation.

Reviews can consume several hours of the reviewer’s time. We think this should be reconsidered, as it may contribute to the resentment and reviewer burnout we highlighted above. One strategy is to take an hour to read the paper and make some notes, and then set it aside. Taking a pause like this is especially important if the paper has evoked an emotional response, which can lead to some of the nastier or more personal comments described above. Then take, at most, another hour to craft your review. In our combined experience, if it seems to be taking much longer than this, it may be a sign that the paper has too many flaws and will ultimately be rejected. If this is the case, it may be more helpful for you (and for the authors) to streamline your comments and focus on hitting the high points. If your reviews regularly take more than a couple of hours, it is possible that you are overstepping your role. You are not the authors’ supervisor or thesis advisor, and while it may feel instinctive to take an educational approach, it may not actually be helpful for the authors or editors.

Another strategy to help the authors and editors interpret your comments is to carefully distinguish between your reflections and your requests. Reflections are nice, as they show the authors that you are deeply engaging with their work. But keep these reflections brief. We have seen reviews that run longer than the paper they are commenting on, which in turn require similarly lengthy responses back from the authors: this can put both authors and editors in a difficult position, especially if word limits are an issue. In the end, what matters are your suggestions for revision: actionable requests for more, less, or different material in certain parts of the paper. It may be helpful to demarcate these two sections clearly, so the authors know specifically what to respond to.

Finally, we offer a few quick tips to help you avoid some of the pitfalls of peer review commentary.

Don’t police

You may wish the authors had conducted another study. They didn’t. So don’t request it. Certain peccadillos may bother you, but don’t fixate on them or allow yourself to view them as fatal flaws. Consider what can be fixed with clearer writing and what cannot—for example, poor study design or low response rates cannot be corrected at this stage. If these flaws are dealbreakers, point that out honestly to the authors and the editor. But there are relatively few fatal flaws, and things like an incomplete description of a coding process or insufficient explanation of a theory rarely count as such. Remember that the editors and readers will also cast a critical eye on the work; you needn’t see yourself as the last word on the study.

Beware your ego

As our discussion of hedging suggested, feedback is more effective if it isn’t personal. That goes for the feedback writer as well as the feedback recipient. Frustrated that your work didn’t make it onto the author’s citation list? Let it go. Self-citation requests abound in peer review and may be a questionable practice. One study reported that 44% of requests for additional citations were self-citations [ 11 ]. If the omission is truly a gaping hole in the literature review, make it clear why and provide the citation. Authors shouldn’t have to guess which of your papers you think is relevant. Surprised to find a completely different orientation to a problem you’ve studied? Or taken aback that your work is explicitly challenged by the paper? Set aside the instinct to protect your turf and engage with the ideas on their own terms. If you cannot, perhaps you should recuse yourself as a reviewer.

Identify yourself

Reviews can be blinded, meaning the reviewers do not know who the authors are, and anonymous, meaning authors don’t know who their reviewers are. Identifying yourself puts you in the rhetorical position of talking to the writer, which ought to trigger the same diplomacy skills you’d use when standing up to ask a question following a conference presentation. (If you lack such skills altogether, you probably have no business engaging in peer review.) In an effort to improve the quality and tone of reviews, some journals now offer “open peer review” in which reviewers can opt (or are required, depending on the journal) to sign their reviews. There are power issues to be considered here: reviewers earlier in their career may fear the consequences of unblinded reviewer comments, particularly for work written by senior members of the community.

Learn from others

Some journals now share with all reviewers both the editor’s decision and the full set of reviews. Not only does this make reviewers more publicly accountable for their remarks, but it also affords them the opportunity to read other reviewers’ comments. We have found this approach quite educational. We get to see when other reviewers respond differently than we did, which reminds us that interpretation is key. We note that other reviews have perceived different problems and strengths than the ones our review focused on. And sometimes we pick up turns of phrase that are particularly effective, and we unashamedly steal them for future application when we need to make difficult peer review feedback more digestible.

Peer review can be thankless work. But imagine that it wasn’t. Imagine that you are writing a review that the author will genuinely thank you for. Maybe not today … but someday. If the paper is accepted, you want to feel that you’ve played a small role in helping to strengthen it, and the author should feel a bit prouder of their work. And even if the paper is rejected, you’d like the authors to feel they have gained something of value. For some authors, the idea that a reviewer really engaged with and took their writing seriously is affirming, even if the decision is to reject. So don’t be a Reviewer 2 who leaves writers disillusioned and discouraged. Be that reviewer who engages and encourages. That reviewer who, a year hence, might get invited for coffee at a conference as gratitude for the role you played in strengthening the author’s manuscript.

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Watling, C., Ginsburg, S. & Lingard, L. Don’t be reviewer 2! Reflections on writing effective peer review comments. Perspect Med Educ 10 , 299–303 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40037-021-00670-z

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Home > Books > Higher Education - Reflections From the Field - Volume 2

Creative Writing in Higher Education: A Literature Review of the Marketplace Relationship

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Radical changes in digital technology represent a challenge to the marketplace-resistant discipline of creative writing. Prior to any research being conducted on this issue, one needs to obtain a solid understanding of the issues of those working, studying and teaching in the field. This literature review works within specific parameters to examine the relationship of creative writing in higher education to the marketplace as described in the current scholarship in the field. Although there have been no other studies on this subject, a significant body of research exists on the pedagogy and practices of the creative writer and creative writing in higher education. This examination considers stakeholders’ views, experiences, teaching goals and marketplace theories, along with some empirical investigations. The review draws from Australian, UK and US experiences and practices.

• creative writing
• marketplace
• digital age

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Susan taylor suchy *.

• University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia

*Address all correspondence to: [email protected]

1. Introduction

While a significant body of research exists on the pedagogy and practices of the creative writer and creative writing in higher education, this literature review is unique in focusing on the student’s relationship in creative writing to the marketplace as described in current scholarship by students and educators in the field of creative writing. These stakeholders’ views, experiences and teaching goals along with relevant empirical investigations are examined.

The importance of considering this specific context can be understood by considering the core debate of social science research and that is the struggle between agency and structure. Therefore, in the creative writing context, the student is not autonomous in their academic environment [ 1 ]. From this perspective, if context influences a student’s conception, the environment the student works within at the university therefore must inform the student’s relationship to the marketplace. This is of particular significance, as the digital world offers marketplace opportunities not previously available to the creative writer.

This review covers the past 30 years. The most significant reason for choosing this timeframe is that the digital age has had a visible effect on the field of creative writing during this period, and there has been a large amount of discussion around the issue of the marketplace. The establishment in 1996 of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs (AAWP) TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses as an online resource demonstrates one case of the impact on the field. By 2013, Kohler [ 2 ], in the United States, provided a view of the field in relationship to digital developments and suggests categories for organising the digital component of the field. Covid has also had a radical impact on teaching as well as digital publishing. Conducting the review during this timeframe creates a snapshot of the shift in the discussion about the marketplace relationship.

The review begins with a description of the methodology used to locate relevant works. The relevant literature is then examined and discussed.

2. Methodology

To find the literature, I systematically searched OneSearch and EBSCO host for peer-reviewed articles, journals and books in the field. I also searched JSTOR and Project Muse. Journals that focused on pedagogy were most useful. TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses and New Writing : The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing yielded the most significant amounts of relevant information in single locations. In addition, searches were performed through Google and Google Scholar. The ‘snowball’ method was also used to locate pertinent articles by drawing from citations in recent works. The key to managing the large amount of material was to keep the focus on the research question (i.e. What is the relationship of the student in creative writing to the marketplace?). Slight variations of words and phrases produced relevant literature. The situation was complicated to examine. For example, there are different expectations for different study levels, different countries have different approaches, as do different institutions, individual educators and students. Therefore, some literature and studies may have been missed or were not included.

In addition, I drew from a discussion in a private Facebook group that focused on pedagogy in the field. Occasionally, news articles were used. This method of searching may demonstrate a bias towards open-source journals and may also create a bias towards a particular country. The cases that emerged focus on the Australian, UK and US contexts.

After gathering the literature, I coded and sorted to create a conceptual schema. For more on this method, see [ 3 ]. What emerged is an overview of the relationship from a range of voices in the field. I recognise that pedagogical approaches change over time, and I have attempted to organise ideas in a time-linear fashion. However, I have made exceptions to emphasise points and because some studies occur over a period of years.

3. Students’ views

Although there is not a large body of empirical research on student expectations about, and conceptions of, creative writing in higher education [ 4 , 5 ], there are reports and surveys that demonstrate some of the views of students and their experiences of the marketplace and their training. In 1998, a report by Evans and Deller-Evans [ 6 ], on their survey of Australian undergraduate and postgraduate creative writing students, showed a difference between undergraduate and postgraduate goals. Postgraduate students had ‘more specific, craft related hopes such as developing their skills and improving their prospects for publication’ [ 6 ]. Postgraduate (MA) students expected that they would be ‘stretching themselves to the maximum, publishing their work, completing first full-length work within the course, boosting confidence, continuing on to a PhD when possible’ [ 6 ]. In assessing the study, Kroll [ 7 ] determines that some students expect to be paid for their passion. To learn about their reasons for enrolment, Kroll [ 8 ] canvassed a small group of students. Her findings show a publishing and a market-focused interest.

Some express concern about postgraduate-level students achieving marketplace outcomes. Hayes [ 9 ] indicates there is little discussion or concrete preparation provided to students about the marketplace. In searching for a writing career and publication outcomes, Hayes travelled from Australia to America on a Churchill Fellowship to discover what practical preparation was being offered to students. She found that none of the faculty anticipated writing careers or publication outcomes for their students, and there was little professional guidance. However, Jeremijenko [ 10 ] reports that when a student is offered a marketplace-focused experience, the opportunity is appreciated. Jeremijenko travelled from Australia to the United States to examine the MFA experience. She found that the training she received in market preparation to be the most valuable lesson. Neave [ 11 ] provides another view of the US situation. In her 2002–2003 student experience as an MFA student, Neave reports relishing the literary market-focused experience. She argues that US programmes do focus towards the publishing industry, with efforts made to support the student in building relationships with agents, publishers and publishing writers. However, Neave concludes that a market focus for creative writing programmes may never happen because their forte is theory and practice. The relationship of marketplace outcomes to assessment is a concern to McKenzie [ 12 ], an Australian postgraduate student, who questions if success in the marketplace is being used to determine creative ability. While recognising the liminal nature of the relationship, McKenzie emphasises that assessment sways the outcomes of work being produced within programmes. In the UK context, an MA student in 2007 offered a student’s view on the likelihood of making a living in the marketplace as a published writer stating that while some are dreamers aiming for big-fame writing careers, he was not willing to quit his main job [ 13 ]. Perhaps some hold both views. Wright [ 13 ] concludes from the interviews with students that they want success but know it comes from hard work. They want support and contacts and will pay for quality service.

A large 2009 survey [ 14 ] of Australian undergraduates in creative writing programmes sought to learn the reasons for student interest in creative writing, literary writing and literary publishing and concluded there is a lot of interest in reading, publishing and obtaining advice about publishing, but this did not apply to all students. The interpretation of the findings was that students value training and skills gained through study, apart from their interest in literary writing. In further discussion, Brook [ 15 ] cautions that the study was small, and therefore, conclusions are hard to draw. Neave’s [ 16 ] assessment of the report recognises the limitations of the research but finds that some students’ views of creative writing programmes are in conflict with what researchers and those in the field value.

The UK-based National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE) provides more insight from students in a collection of case studies that give students’ perspectives of their experiences and outcomes. The case studies are commissioned narratives by students of their experiences studying creative writing in the UK context. There are two components to the NAWE study: ‘Studying Writing’ [ 17 ] presents life as a creative writing student, while ‘Life after graduation’ [ 18 ] has the same contributors reflecting on the past and reporting on their post-graduation experiences. The students described a range of experiences. These graduates are now freelance writers, journalists and teachers. Some are pursuing advanced study. The advice from many of these graduates to aspiring writers is not to give up the day job and to be willing to make compromises. Others hold the belief that this is a realistic view of student experience that takes the focus off the star outcome that some universities and departments use for marketing and advertising publications [ 19 ].

In a qualitative study on student learning in creative writing courses in the United Kingdom, Light [ 5 ] examines both undergraduate and master’s level education. The study focused on 40 students’ perspectives of creative writing compared with other academic writing. Light refers to the work of Lea and Street [ 20 ] and concludes that student writing issues might be due to differences in academic versus student expectations. The final phase of Light’s study considers students’ general conceptions of their experience of writing in the higher education context. In addition to other questions, he asked for general views of creative writing, and some of the responses touched on marketplace and audience issues.

From these few studies and limited accounts, it seems that, regardless of other motivations for being in a creative writing programme, students at various levels do want to find a marketplace and publish. Some appear to become aware of the challenges to publish and adjust their expectations accordingly.

4. Teachers’ perspectives

The teachers’ perspectives of students’ views provide additional insight into the complex relationship. The teachers expressed concern that students had illusions regarding publishing and marketplace expectations. In 1994, Haake [ 21 ] argued that these marketplace misconceptions are encouraged by American creative writing programmes and are problematic, particularly at the postgraduate level. In 1998, in Australia, Kroll [ 8 ] expressed concern for students who want writing careers. She contends that, although most undergraduates do not expect to make money from writing, a few do expect to make money but have no plans on how to achieve this outcome.

Other researchers contend that students are undertaking creative writing courses for non-financial reasons. In a 2000 interview with Brien [ 22 ], Gutkind argued that students cannot explain why they are studying. In 2007, in the Australian context, Krauth and Webb [ 23 ] emphasised that more students are entering programmes to learn how to write, not to be published authors. Yet, in 2010, in the United Kingdom, Roe [ 24 ] contended that being published is the goal for students at the BA and MA level. They want to write and publish novels even if that outcome is a massive challenge. In the same year in the United States, Moxley [ 25 ] contended students want success, but most will fail to achieve that outcome.

The view of ambitious students fits with student expectations described by Chapman [ 26 ]. He argues that many students seek to publish and make money. However, Chapman does not conclude that the students will fail. Chapman claims that the relationship of creative writing in higher education and aiming for the mass market can work, and it’s what students want.

Chapman sees no reason why mass market and literary work cannot both be taught. This view challenges Haake’s [ 21 ] concern expressed 20 years earlier of false expectations. Chapman’s approach requires authors to examine their aesthetic and question their goals. He states that there still is no quick fix. Rather than perceiving the outcome as failure, this perspective has the student committing to the reality of a long journey to reach a marketplace outcome.

The only empirical study in which teachers’ views of students were included was conducted in the United Kingdom. Munden [ 27 ] investigates the changing nature of creative writing at 27 universities over the previous 10 years and considers the future of creative writing. Although the marketplace relationship is not the direct focus of his research, the study does offer some insights on this matter. For example, teachers report that student expectations do not align with what is being taught and what teachers can actually do offer to students. The study shows that publishing outcomes do ultimately matter to some in the university, but there is no clarification as to whether or in what way, students are supported to be entrepreneurial or supported in finding marketplace outcomes.

There are other findings in the report from which conclusions might be drawn. The view that students are keen for visiting and published writer interaction could indicate that students are seeking role models, both in creative and academic publishing. Additionally, the study reports that students believe a degree will lead to employment or a published work, but teachers say they do not imply such outcomes when they teach. This discrepancy raises the question as to whether it represents a failure of the programmes. However, it hardly seems a failure in that creative writing programmes continue to enrol and retain students. Alternatively, the issue may be that students’ expectations of reaching the marketplace (i.e. being published) are not the goals of the educators, as Munden’s [ 27 ] study might indicate. Arguably students should be more selective when choosing creative writing programmes. The issue of selectivity is significant enough to motivate Earnshaw [ 28 ] to develop The handbook of creative writing . Earnshaw argues that there is no one standard for creative writing programmes, and he aims to help students navigate the path. A few universities do offer publishing-focused programmes [ 29 ]. However, this is not common for most creative writing programmes.

More questions were raised in 2016 about students’ views of the marketplace relationship in Creative Writing Pedagogy [ 30 ], a private group on Facebook comprised primarily of creative writing instructors in higher education. Anna Leahy and Stephanie Vanderslice, both leaders in the field in the United States, manage the forum. The conversations offer a useful insight into current views and approaches to pedagogy. In this discussion of the marketplace relationship, Leahy, after reading that creative writing students felt tricked by their programmes and training, asked how teachers can talk to students about the marketplace issues without disheartening them. As a teacher in the field of poetry, Leahy’s experience was that neither she nor her students think they will make money from their writing. Vanderslice tells her students that they will need another source of income. This raised two questions from Leahy: Did students believe this? And, what were other instructors telling their students? A handful of educators responded with their own experiences of trying to teach students to be pragmatic. Anecdotally, Leahy found that today’s students do not have the skills, experience or understanding about the realities of publishing outcomes. In addition, Leahy wondered if things had changed and if so why students did not now understand the uphill challenge. She wondered if the university model of what a degree means had changed how students viewed their experience.

Some of the terms used by the field offer further insight into the complex nature of the marketplace relationship and the resistances that students must negotiate.

5. What is ‘publishable’?

Interestingly, the idea that students should be creating publishable work is one that is deeply held in the field. However, exactly what publishable means is contested, as can be observed in Munden’s [ 27 ] study. A key term of assessment used by educators in the field is that the work created by a student should be of publishable quality. In the US context, the aim of the MFA is to produce students who can create a publishable book-length submission for their final academic assessment [ 31 ]. This view is not unique to the United States. In 2000, the AAWP initiated a programme of state-based seminars, the first of which were held in Adelaide and Melbourne. These seminars involved many of the writing teachers in each state, from the TAFE and University sectors. Topics discussed included ‘publishability’ and ‘publishable standard’ [ 32 ]. In the United Kingdom in 2013, Cusk [ 33 ] reported that work should be ‘of publishable standard’. As the ‘Subject Association for Creative Writing’ in the United Kingdom, the NAWE [ 34 ], rather than providing an overall guideline like the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP), presents an outline of what various programmes offer. In this, some courses do state that they aim for publishing outcomes. Others do not indicate whether this is a focus.

Discussion about the term publishable often does not provide clarity as to whether the work will actually be published, and this is a concern to some in the field. In 1999, Dawson [ 35 ] argued that a creative component of publishable quality is a work that will withstand the same critical assessment applied to the cannon of literature. In 2005, Dawson [ 36 ] contended that the postgraduate student’s submission must hold to this standard. This approach does not indicate whether the work will be published. Bourke and Neilsen [ 37 ] expressed this concern about unpublished work being assessed and go on to demonstrate that few students at the time of submitting their final projects have achieved this standard or publication. Some seek to address the issue, but there is no one approach. Kroll [ 38 ] wrestled with what the term publishable means and challenges the resistance to marketplace preparation. She wants more transparency of the term and proposes either including an assessor from the industry (such as an editor or agent) on an examination committee or having a non-academic who looks for what sells to supply a report to examiners, particularly when the examiner is not well published. Harper [ 39 ] considers publishability an out-of-date standard for assessment.

The term continues to be the standard of evaluation, as Boyd [ 40 ] reveals when examining the issue of what publishable quality is in creative writing doctorate outcomes from 1993 to 2008 in Australia. Boyd concludes that publishable is still the main method used for evaluation. Her findings also reveal that universities focus on literary creative work that is not as publishable. This further demonstrates a resistance to commercial marketplace outcomes. Boyd seeks to negotiate an alternative in proposing that more popular genres should be given recognition within higher education, and this can be done by reframing the terms used. Krauth [ 41 ] notes that Boyd’s study demonstrates the publishable nature of creative work developed in programmes because nearly half of the creative works that Boyd assessed in her research did reach the marketplace in some fashion. This analysis indicates that publishing does matter.

Publishing is not just a measure of what students should aim for; publication is valued and is used as a measurement of programme success. Edmonds [ 42 ] considers a shelf of published books displayed at the University of Adelaide as a sign of a high standard of success. However, he is careful to point out that publishing is not the only outcome from the training and programme. Further, he advises, the current situation is very different to the 1970s when validation came from a few readers. Edmonds argues that in the modern marketplace validation may still be small and localised within academic publishing discourse. He does not want to see a shift to commercialisation for validation. Edmonds [ 43 ] also argues the importance of a certain type of narrow market print journal that can provide marketplace outcomes, but does not believe that outcome is necessary for every student. Negotiation of the marketplace can and does come in the form of developing and supporting outlets for publication such as small presses and literary journals and through efforts to recognise and value these publications in the field. Now that many journals are digitally published, this raises questions about the effect on a student’s relationship to the marketplace.

Some researchers demonstrate concern about focusing on the idea of publishing and valuing any commodity outcome over the creative act itself. Harper [ 44 ] proposes that whether the work is published or publishable is not more valuable than other undertakings in creative practice. Harper is not alone in this view. Others consider that despite the ‘publishable’ issue, creative writing education is about something else. There are more ways that the field demonstrates resistance to a focus on the marketplace, and these are found in other terms that are used.

6. What is ‘marketplace’ and what is ‘literature’?

Another term that requires consideration is marketplace. Related to this, the term economy often arises. First, what exactly is the marketplace to those working in higher education creative writing? A commonly held belief is that a creative writer in higher education will publish in the literary marketplace. The slippery nature of this term is recognised by Edmonds [ 43 ] when he examines ways to engage in the ‘so-called’ literary marketplace. According to Brier [ 45 ], who also recognises that the term is ‘elusive’, the literary marketplace produces literature and is the context for literature. When Brier [ 45 ] considers the term literature, he concludes that finding a definition for the term and a description of a discrete marketplace is difficult. He argues that one of the reasons the distinction arises is because of the post-World War II idea of a market economy which disseminates culture, an idea drawn from scholarly work including Bourdieu’s [ 46 ] ‘The field of cultural production, or: the economic world reversed’ and English’s [ 47 ] The economy of prestige . Both works position literature and cultural production in sociological accounts of marketplace and market economy at national and global levels. However, Brier [ 45 ] argues the discussion is ongoing. Bourdieu [ 46 ] offers a foundation for many theorists in creative writing, and the field also draws from the creative industries in its views of the relationship. Other theorists including the psychologist Csikszentmihalyi are considered useful in negotiating the relationship between author and audience [ 48 , 49 ]. There is recognition that engaging in the commercial or mass marketplace is a struggle for those in the field of creative writing, as Sheahan-Bright [ 50 ] finds when examining children’s literature. Mayers [ 51 ] refers to this contested relationship as the ‘tension between “literary” and “genre fiction”’ [ 50 ]. He argues that this issue has been increasing. Certainly, changes brought about by the digital marketplace must play a role in this.

Regarding practical pedagogical issues, Mayers [ 51 ] recognises that some programmes will still train MFA students for the literary marketplace to varying degrees, but he is opposed to training or producing writers for this end and argues that the aim should be ‘experience-based inquiry into the act of writing’ [ 51 ]. Hergenrader [ 52 ] also recognises the limitations in the digital age of the ‘literary marketplace lore’ [ 53 ], along with the issue of genre to which, he argues, students are often more alert than teachers.

Creative writing scholars have used other terms to explore the relationship to the marketplace. Hecq [ 54 ] in examining the relationship between the creative writer and ‘the creativity market’ positions creative work produced in the field within the global knowledge-based economy. Importantly, the concerns about being publishable while working within the university are closely examined [ 55 ]. In Hecq’s context of the ‘creativity market’, Webb [ 49 ] argues that the university can function in the same way as the Greek agora (a communal space for political, religious, economic, educational and social interaction) to balance marketplace and creative needs. Other terms used by the field include ‘the marketplace of ideas’ [ 56 ], ‘cultural capital’ [ 57 ] and the ‘public intellectual’ [ 36 ]. A more sustained discussion of the various terms is beyond the scope of this review. However, these examples demonstrate how it could be argued that the terms all represent an ongoing effort by the field to negotiate a relationship to a marketplace and a resistance to engagement with strictly commercial market outcomes.

7. Reasons for resistance

There appear to be good reasons for resistance in the contemporary context that include protecting students, teachers and the boundaries of the field from the vagaries of the marketplace and other external pressures. For example, the challenges of making an income as a writer in Australia due to a small population and a lack of grant support have been demonstrated [ 58 ] and discussed [ 59 ]. The discussion points to the need for grants; but many writers are unlikely to receive such funding [ 59 ]. The capricious marketplace’s influence on education and the limited amount of grants are not the only concerns. Government and political factors exert pressure on aesthetic practice [ 60 ]. There is a worry that government policy can apply unproductive influence upon academic outcomes. This useful warning is important when considering the publishing outcomes students should be prepared to achieve within the discipline and in ensuring that the terms of engagement are carefully negotiated. Perry [ 61 ] clarifies her preference for ‘creative ecologies’ over ‘creative economy’ to ensure that there is no confusion about economic imperative. To add to the complexity in this environment, over-extended educators must maintain their creative work as well as other demands [ 62 ]. Relating to and complicating this is the issue of the transient nature of being a part-time academic [ 63 ]. Another issue is that of maintaining disciplinary integrity [ 64 ]. In the US context, creative writing often seeks to differentiate itself from English literature and composition writing classes, although in many cases the development of creative writing as a field emerged from, or in relationship to, these areas [ 65 , 66 , 67 ]. The variable borders present challenges. As Kroll [ 64 ] argues, ongoing discussion is required ‘in the context of volatile institutional and research environments as well as variable student bodies’ [ 64 ].

Another example of the challenge of identifying where the boundaries lie is within the areas of creative writing and professional writing that are sometimes lumped into the one discipline. Williamson [ 68 ] argues that magazine study is an area that can bridge the gap between creative and professional if approached from a scholarly perspective, although it is a field that has traditionally been part of other disciplines. Not all would agree. Surma [ 69 ] explains the differences and warns of the danger of the marketplace to professional writing, seeking to locate professional writing away from any vocational or professional orientation and closer to her perspective of the unfettered relationship of creative writing. In addition to these resistances, the purposes of creative writing education demonstrate many goals that are not directly about marketplace preparation.

8. A variety of activities

The development of creative writing programmes in higher education has been well examined from an historical perspective [ 36 , 70 , 71 ]; and the goals for creative writing programmes and classes have been discussed extensively in the pedagogy and are identified by each university and instructor. In the contemporary context, as Myer [ 70 ] explains, creative writing in higher education in the United States reached maturity as a discipline in the late 1960s and early 1970s ‘when the purpose of its graduate programs (to produce serious writers) was uncoupled from the purpose of its undergraduate courses (to examine writing seriously from within)’ [ 70 ].

8.1 For undergraduates

In line with the ‘uncoupled’ approach that Myers [ 70 ] describes, the US-based AWP [ 72 ] differentiates undergraduate from graduate work and states that the graduate school’s goal is ‘to nurture and expedite the development of a literary artist’ [ 72 ]. Undergraduate programmes are ‘mainly to develop a well-rounded student in the liberal arts and humanities, a student who develops a general expertise in literature, in critical reading and in persuasive writing’ [ 72 ]. In a succinct summary of the developments, Bennett [ 73 ] clarifies that these were the goals of universities and governments, not of the students. In Australia and the United Kingdom, creative writing developed in different ways from the United States. However, in the current context, the idea that the undergraduate programme is not focused on training for a mass marketplace or even training serious literary writers has also been recognised and argued in many programmes in these three countries [ 74 ]. For example, for the UK undergraduate, the focus was on reading and writing, as well as developing communication skills for other jobs. The teaching is about learning to think and read [ 75 ].

That there is resistance to the marketplace in undergraduate training is clear. Freiman [ 76 ] argues that ‘Rather than claiming to teach students to write “publishable” writing (after all, published by whom?), we are teaching them about writing/reading and how language functions in its “worldly” contexts’ [ 76 ]. Krauth and Webb [ 23 ] note that writing course enrolment in Australia has increased, while the study of literature has decreased. They analyse this as a move away from a passive way of learning to an active way of learning, unique to creative writing classes. However, the idea of ‘learning to read as a writer’ [ 36 , 77 , 78 , 79 ] is also challenged. Jarvis [ 77 ] argues for a ‘more radical, liberated reading praxis, a “writerly reading” ’ [ 77 ]. He aims to help the field ‘transform from a place in which existing cultural codes are replicated and from which they are promulgated, to a space where the interrogation of cultural codes can take place and new, radical codes can be formed, a locus of dissent’ [ 77 ]. Regardless of the debates on approaches, the current strategy for undergraduate training seems to be fairly consistent in that the approach is about teaching reading and writing. According to Radia [ 80 ], training is not generally focused on the marketplace. However, at the advanced levels of education, what the training is about is more contested.

8.2 For postgraduates

In higher-level training, there are more expectations and discussion of writers becoming professional. There is concern that it is not possible to produce large numbers of professional writers and that there is a need for other jobs for these students. Hayes [ 9 ] considers the practicality of marketplace outcomes for students training as writers and believes that the Australian situation is similar to the US situation. She proposes publishing and journalism as alternatives and encourages student internships as being beneficial to the student, the university and potential employer organisations.

Although the discussion can turn to the idea of vocational training, this is carefully navigated. Edmonds [ 42 ] does not want to be trapped by publishing outcome expectations, but sees the teacher as ‘agent/editor’ [ 42 ]. He views the workshop as a mini version of the publishing market. Wandor [ 71 ] is also careful with the idea of vocational training, describing her approach as ‘professional’; yet she steers away from the Romantic muse [ 81 , 82 ] and the ideas of being a professional writer. Wander’s focus is on building knowledge through critical reading to learn about literary traditions and improve writing. Brook [ 83 ], in considering vocational outcomes in Australian creative writing programmes, argues that ‘Creative writing is not a failed form of vocational training for professional literary careers; rather, it is a form of general literary education in which the figure of “failure” has, at times, played a key pedagogic role in forming personalities’ [ 83 ]. Cowan [ 84 ] recognises the validity of Myers’ ideas about ‘examining literature from within’ [ 70 ], yet recognises a growing vocational focus towards creative industries and the training of research academics. The lack of clarity about the vocational nature complicates the environment the student must navigate.

Another purpose for creative writing arises with the idea of research in higher levels of study. By the end of the 1990s, there had been a move away from creative writing as training for writers and a move towards it being about ‘practice-oriented research’ [ 28 ]. In Australia in 2000, Krauth [ 85 ] argued for more higher degree research and creative writing PhDs. He wants to see creative writing working in the ‘higher echelons’ of academia where the focus is ‘on research excellence and which, to a significant extent, gives universities their “real” reason to exist’ [ 85 ]. Others recognise this direction and see the effort being made to acknowledge creative writing ‘as a form of research’ [ 86 ]. More recent discussion in Australia on training by Kroll and Brien [ 87 ] focuses on preparing students for ‘life’ in a way that may not be about making a living as a creative writer, even if writing and publishing are part of the outcome. They argue that practice-based research prepares graduates ‘to take part fully in the intellectual, creative, cultural and economic life of our nation’ [ 87 ]. The US context is different in this regard with the focus of the MFA being on the creative work, and there is rarely a research component, but there has been some change in this. Donnelly [ 88 ] argues that one of the more critical ambitions of creative writing studies is the training of its graduates in teacher preparation. Donnelly also sees the potential for creative writing studies to develop with a focus on research. The Creative Writing Studies Organisation held its first conference in 2016 and established The Journal of Creative Writing Studies to help fill this gap in the US context. Even with this new direction, there is a concern about publishing and the marketplace, about what constitutes research outcomes for the creative writer and about new challenges in publishing, both creative and critical [ 89 ].

The struggle between creative writing and scholarly expectations increases as more researchers in the field emerge. Programmes may need to recognise that students will piece together their careers. Williamson [ 90 ] introduces the idea of students in the creative arts as ‘future protean careerists’. She focuses on ‘the situated nature of writing’ and refers to Carter’s [ 91 ] ‘pedagogy of rhetorical dexterity’ in which students learn the ‘code of a community of practice new to them’. Williamson [ 90 ] also adopts Woods’ [ 92 ] framework for academic writing that does not differentiate between orientations (e.g. creative writing and professional writing). Williamson [ 90 ] argues this approach allows students to gain training that helps them make a cognisant transfer as writers to a workplace. A 2015 Curtin University final report [ 93 ] from a study of 4360 graduates that included creative writers cites Williamson’s work and argues for training across various areas of writing.

Many educators have contributed new literature and terms as writer-scholars of creative writing practice-led research. Some have focused on identifying new research methods to bring critical research and creative practice together [ 94 ]. The educators’ role is also discussed in this environment. Krauth [ 41 ] considers the role of supervisor as editor. The questions of whether this implies a preparation for the marketplace and, if so, what is that marketplace and what degree of editorial intervention is required are not easy to answer. Krauth [ 41 ] contends that for doctoral candidates, supervisors are the best editors. Manery’s [ 95 ] 2016 phenomenological study reveals five different pedagogical identities in educators in the field: ‘Expert Practitioner, Facilitator, Change Agent, Co-Constructor of Knowledge and Vocational Coach’. All these issues indicate the complex territory that the student negotiates if they are trying to write for the marketplace.

9. Other ideas about training

Additionally, there are many other ideas about what occurs in creative writing education, in which the focus shifts away from the marketplace. These include ideas about creativity, therapy and experience and other non–market-oriented outcomes. The creativity issue is widely debated. Pope [ 96 ] discusses creation v. production. Kuhl [ 97 ] is concerned about marketplace creativity and weighs up personal therapeutic writing v. literary writing. Freiman [ 98 ] discusses the ‘dangers of the myths of creativity’. Rodriguez [ 99 ] provides a summary of the many different approaches. Fenza [ 100 ] describes the wide range of approaches and goals creative writing covers—from the aesthetic, to the social and political roles the student takes and how students learn about ‘literature from inside their own work, rather than from outside a text; and this has motivated many to gain greater command of rhetoric and communication skills in general’ [ 99 ]. Fenza [ 100 ] also claims that students ‘analyse psychology and motives, the dynamics of social classes and individual, regional and national beliefs’ [ 100 ]. Additionally, students learn to ‘order their lives and their world’ while ‘advancing the art of literature’ and making stories and poems as ‘gifts for readers and listeners’ [ 100 ]. Importantly, this engagement is ‘a highly civilised and humane act; and appropriately, academe has accepted the practice and making of the literary arts along with study and scholarship in the literary arts’ [ 100 ]. This view is recognised by Harper and Kroll [ 100 ]. By including Fenza’s views in their work, they appear to value these goals and outcomes in Australia and the United Kingdom. However, the approaches do not have to preclude preparing for professional outcomes. Brophy [ 101 ] has broad experience as an educator and an AAWP attendee and is aware of the significance in Australia of ‘outcome-based education, of professional opportunities and the acquisition of transferable skills for students’ [ 101 ]. These, he argues, are ‘central imperatives’ in a large number of creative writing programmes [ 101 ]. However, the situation varies from programme to programme and from educator to educator and makes for a challenging space for the student to negotiate.

10. Educators in favour of being market-prepared

Despite these other focuses – or even resistances – there are educators who are concerned about students becoming market-prepared. Kroll [ 7 , 8 ] seeks to create a consciousness in her students about who will be their customers, about editing and publishing and about the economic concerns of the writer. Manhire [ 102 ] confronts the marketplace situation in the Australian context in an address to the 2001 AAWP Conference, in which he describes a course called ‘Creative Writing in the Marketplace’. He begins by giving apologies for his topic, providing an indication of the angst associated the marketplace discussion. Manhire [ 102 ] provides opportunities and methods for the discipline to help students become more market-prepared. Fisher [ 103 ] raises concerns about a lack of training for creative writers in a plenary address in 2005 at the AAWP 10th Annual Conference. Speaking on ‘The Professional Author; Researching Creativity and Reality’, Fisher argues that writer-artists will become ‘freaks’ without market engagement. He argues that there is more than the mass market to consider and that writing courses should ‘address fundamental issues related to writers making a living—contracts, copyright, legal issues’. Educators must help writers to envision themselves in the marketplace, as part of ‘an industry that survives on market forces’ [ 103 ]. Edmonds [ 43 ] warns of the dangers of a closed system and stresses the need to be talking about a broader marketplace.

In the United States, Vanderslice [ 104 ] is concerned about the concept of not training students to be teachers and publishing writers. Others also challenge those who do not recognise the professional writing outcome expectations of their students. In Australia, Fisher [ 105 ] provides insight on his perspective and that of Thebo [ 19 ] on the role of the university in preparing students for the marketplace. Fisher [ 105 ] finds Thebo’s position of not expecting undergraduate students to become professional writers erroneous. He questions the lack of ‘engagement with writing as a profession or publishing as the principal industry within which professional writers work’ [ 105 ]. Fisher [ 105 ] does not want to see universities turning out students unprepared to earn a living.

However, according to Vanderslice [ 104 ], Thebo has helped her students have more publishing know-how with the development of two courses at Bath Spa University. These are focused on undergraduates, and they initially met with resistance from both colleagues and students. The aim was to help students to develop a professional perspective. Vanderslice argues that such approaches are necessary.

A solution to these differences might be to provide more clarity about exactly what a programme does and where it fits in relationship to other programmes, as Cowan [ 106 ] proposes in his strategic plan for the peer review workshop. He argues for various models. One with a market focus might have ‘alternative axes’ that ‘calibrate the extent to which a program is publication- or research-oriented’ [ 106 ].

11. Digital future discussion: the effect of technology

Many in the field are aware that digital technology needs to be addressed. Krauth and Webb [ 23 ] signal their awareness of the effect of technological changes in making writing more public and expanding publication opportunities. In the United States, the AWP website now includes goals on new media technology and emphasises the need for research to enhance pedagogical understanding and improve practice [ 72 ].

There are many ways that creative writers are engaging with the digital world, one example being digital poetics. Yet, that focus does not consider the sociology of the relationship to the space as a marketplace. There are those in digital poetics looking at the relationship with the creative writing classroom and digital storytelling, but there is not much consideration of the student trying to write for the digital marketplace and what effect that may have on the field. Andrew [ 107 ] discusses the possibilities of online teaching and is encouraged by Healey’s [ 108 ] argument that the ‘opposition between cultivated humanism and vulgar marketplace, between impractical creativity and practical profitability, is rapidly disappearing’ [109 cited in 108]. Further, Andrew [ 107 ] argues for the need to nurture the market for online delivery by ‘better understanding the theories and pedagogies of online delivery and its potential for community-building and for workshops’ [ 107 ]. Others are engaging in this research. Rein [ 109 ] explores ways to improve the online classroom situation. Some researchers are focusing on the opportunities afforded by digital publishing. Williams [ 110 ] considers the creative writing pedagogy of the future and argues that students should be taught to ‘think strategically and rhetorically about where to publish and how to be read’ [ 110 ]. Williams argues that finding an online audience should be a part of what is taught, whether that is weighing up the quality of online journals and sites or using social media to connect and draw readers. But what are the implications for a student trying to work in this space? Barnard [ 111 ] considers her existing skills from previous training in other forms of technology that could also have value in the future. Further, she believes that this approach can be taught to others.

12. Conclusion

The study has examined the complex nature of the creative writing student’s relationship to the marketplace as described in current scholarship. The findings indicate that there are students who do want to reach the marketplace and publish and that there are resistances to this outcome, as well as support for achieving this goal. Although there has been resistance to the marketplace relationship for valid reasons that honour the traditions and protect the boundaries of the discipline, there are ongoing negotiations as to what the relationship to the marketplace means. There are many ways to interact with and define the marketplace, and there are educators who do seek to challenge resistance and argue for engaging and preparing students.

Digital technology and new marketplace opportunities raise questions about whether the values, goals and terms used in relation to the marketplace are still valid and if the resistances and areas of engagement can or should be re-negotiated. Further research will provide insight into best practices for teaching about and engaging with the marketplace.

Acknowledgments

The research for this review was funded in part by an Australian Government Research Training Scholarship (RTP). Support was also provided by the UWA Graduate Research School, the UWA School of Humanities and the UWA Institute of Advanced Studies.

Additional information

Susan Taylor Suchy is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia in the School of Humanities within Arts, Business, Law and Education.

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© 2022 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Creative Writing/Peer Review

Due to the overwhelming challenge of being pessimistic of one's own work, having peers constructively criticize will help you improve misunderstandings within your work. Sometimes it takes another pair of eyes to see what you missed in your own writing. Don't take it personally when people give negative criticism; not everyone can effectively suggest improvements, and you will eventually learn from your own mistakes to improve your next work. In a professional setting, this role is taken up by what is called an editor, and if you're one of the many people without one, you can often rely on friends and family instead.

• 1 Word Processors
• 2 Family or Friends
• 3 Professional Services
• 4.1 History of writing groups
• 4.2 How to find and join a writing group
• 4.3 As a university instruction method
• 4.4 Example online writing groups
• 5 Online Peer Review
• 6 References

Word Processors [ edit | edit source ]

Since the information age has been ushered in, the majority of writing has since been done in what is called a Word Processor. And creative writers are not the only ones who use these programs; one can also find them in schools and universities where it is the swiss army knife of documents, offline and online. The most common Word Processor is Microsoft Word for Windows and macOS, which is commonly bundled with Microsoft Office; if you can afford it, the program can do spelling and grammar checking automatically depending on what language packs you have installed. However, there are (and always will be) alternatives; LibreOffice Writer is the most prominent competitor on the desktop front, but if you don't mind using a limited set of features compared to Word and have an internet connection to spare, you can also use Google Docs.

While spellchecking and grammar checking isn't exactly peer review, it can still catch most errors better than humans. And while the old typewriters are great, a word processor is much better. If you like tactile keys, look into a keyboard with Cherry switches. Before another person checks your work, be sure to run a spell checker at least once.

Family or Friends [ edit | edit source ]

If you are married you could have your spouse peer review your work. This is something Stephen King does. [1] Other writers, such as Kristin Cashore, have family members who are knowledgeable in combat read over fighting scenes for accuracy.

Professional Services [ edit | edit source ]

Another option could be to hire a freelance editor for a web publication to peer review your writing and make suggestions. If you're in college, you can use the college resources to peer review college-related work.

Writing Groups [ edit | edit source ]

Writing groups normally consist of three to forty authors who share similar writing styles and genres, although a small percentage of writing groups do focus on helping authors adopt and adapt to new styles and genres. [2] These groups are formed to help writers overcome the daily obstacles authors face such as removing the solitary nature of writing, thwarting writers block, giving honest critiques of the authors work and helping define and structure the members works. [3]

History of writing groups [ edit | edit source ]

The exact origin of writing groups is not known. One of the earliest writing groups on records in the Americas was called The Spy Club, it was organized at Harvard in 1719. [2] The internet has allowed authors to increase the depth and breadth of writing groups available to them by eliminating geographical boundaries that traditionally made it difficult to form niche writing groups.

How to find and join a writing group [ edit | edit source ]

• Select a genre. The majority of writing groups focus specifically on one genre, so if you wish to work in multiple genre’s you should join multiple writing groups. Common genres include fiction, nonfiction, scriptwriting, playwriting, poetry and romance. [4]
• Local writing groups can be found on Craig's List under “writing” in the “gigs” section and “writers” in the “discussion forums” section.
• Online writing groups can be found by search for “Writing Group” with most search engines. ( Google , Yahoo )
• Select the group that matches closely with your areas of interest.
• Carefully read the rules of the group to ensure you can meet the demands the writing group will impose.
• Prepare your best work for the first meeting to make a good impression.
• Learn from the group and offer guidance. Writing groups are about learning and teaching. The more you put into a writing group the more you will get out.

As a university instruction method [ edit | edit source ]

Several notable universities including Harvard, University of Arkansas, Brigham Young University, Stanford and Yale use writing groups as the primary instruction method for advanced writing courses. These writing groups differ from traditional writing groups because of the professor-student relationship that exists in universities. Professors do not participate in the writing group by submitting their work, they instead offer guidance and structure as the class critiques each students work.

Example online writing groups [ edit | edit source ]

• Be a Better Writer
• Review Fuse
• Writing.com
• Writers Cafe
• DigitalPulp
• DigitalVerse

Online Peer Review [ edit | edit source ]

You can also check some wikis for writing help such as The Writing Wiki . After reading the articles, you can start writing in your sandbox user space and then ask to see how you can improve. Never start your own wiki articles until you understand the system, rules, and what type of writing and subjects they cover. Wiki farms like Wikia host a wide variety of projects on various subjects. The Wikia Writing Wiki will be of much help for peer reviews.

How to do a peer review will tell you more about the Peer Review process and what to expect.

References [ edit | edit source ]

• ↑ a b Gere, Anne Ruggles (1987). Writing groups: history, theory, and implications . Southern Illinois University Press.
• ↑ Reeves, Judy (2002). Writing Alone, Writing Together: A Guide for Writers and Writing Groups . New World Library.
• ↑ Moss, Beverly J. (2003). Writing Groups Inside and Outside the Classroom . Lawrence Erlbaum.

• Book:Creative Writing

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Rethinking Peer Review: Critical Reflections on a Pedagogical Practice

Edited by Phoebe Jackson and Christopher Weaver Copy edited by Caitlin Kahihikolo. Designed by Mike Palmquist.

Table of Contents

Front Matter

Introduction. Rethinking and Reframing Peer Review , Phoebe Jackson and Christopher Weaver DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2023.1961.1.3

Part One. Peer Review: Evaluating the Challenges

Chapter 1. Teachers’ Beliefs about the Language of Peer Review: Survey-Based Evidence , Ian G. Anson, Chris M. Anson, and Kendra L. Andrews DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2023.1961.2.01

Chapter 2. Resisting Theory: The Wisdom of the Creative Writing Workshop , Bob Mayberry DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2023.1961.2.02

Chapter 3. A Troubled Practice: Three Models of Peer Review and the Problems Underlying Them , Christopher Weaver DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2023.1961.2.03

Part Two. Peer Review: Rhetorically Situated

Chapter 4. Interrogating Peer Review as “Proxy:” Reframing Peer Response within Connective Practice , Kay Halasek DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2023.1961.2.04

Chapter 5. Peer Persuasion: An Ethos-Based Theory of Identification and Audience Awareness , Courtney Stanton DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2023.1961.2.05

Chapter 6. Positioning Peer Review for Transfer: Authentic Audiences for Career Readiness and Workplace Communication , Nora McCook DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2023.1961.2.06

Part Three. Peer Review: Cultivating Inclusiveness

Chapter 7. Peer Review and the Benefits of Anxiety in the Academic Writing Classroom , Ellen Turner DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2023.1961.2.07

Chapter 8. Multimodal Peer Review: Fostering Inclusion in Mixed Level College Classrooms with ELL Learners , Beth Kramer DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2023.1961.2.08

Part Four. Peer Review: The Promise of Technology

Chapter 9. Leveling the Playing Field for ELL Students: The Case for Moving Peer Review to an Online Environment , Vicki Pallo DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2023.1961.2.09

Chapter 10. Learning from Peer Review Online: Changing the Pedagogical Emphasis , Phoebe Jackson DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2023.1961.2.10

Chapter 11. The Potential of Peer Review Software that Focuses on the Review, Not the Draft , Nick Carbone DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2023.1961.2.11

Afterword. Accepting, Sharing, and Surrendering Control: Combining the Best of Old and New in Peer Review and Response , Steven J. Corbett DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2023.1961.3.2

Contributors

About the Editors

Phoebe Jackson is Professor Emerita at William Paterson University, where she served as English Department chair and Graduate Program Director. She has published work in composition studies and on American women writers including Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, Carolyn Chute, Elizabeth Strout, and Harriette Simpson Arnow. She is the co-editor with Christopher Weaver of Writing in Online Courses: How the Online Environment Shapes Writing Practices and co-editor with Emily Isaacs of Public Works: Student Writing as Public Text .

Christopher Weaver is Associate Professor of English and the Director of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at William Paterson University. His interests include composition pedagogy, writing and technology, and writing and popular culture. He is the co-editor with Phoebe Jackson of Writing in Online Courses: How the Online Environment Shapes Writing Practices and with Frances Zak of The Theory and Practice of Grading Writing: Problems and Possibilities which was chosen as the outstanding book of the year in the field of education by Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.

Publication Information: Jackson, Phoebe, & Christopher Weaver (Eds.). (2023). Rethinking Peer Review: Critical Reflections on a Pedagogical Practice . The WAC Clearinghouse; University Press of Colorado. https://doi.org/10.37514/PER-B.2023.1961 Web Publication Date: June 19, 2023 Print Publication Date: TBD

ISBN: 978-1-64215-196-1 (PDF) | 978-1-64215-197-8 (ePub) | 978-1-64642-503-7 (pbk.) DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2023.1961

Contact Information: Phoebe Jackson: [email protected] Christopher Weaver: [email protected]

Review Title Date

Perspectives on Writing

Series Editors: Rich Rice, Texas Tech University; Heather MacNeill Falconer, University of Maine; and J. Michael Rifenburg, University of North Georgia

Copyright © 2023 Phoebe Jackson, Christopher Weaver, and the authors of individual parts of this book. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License. 270 pages, with notes, illustrations, bibliographies, and index. This book is available in print from University Press of Colorado as well as from any online or brick-and-mortar bookstore. Available in digital format for no charge on this page at the WAC Clearinghouse. You may view this book. You may print personal copies of this book. You may link to this page. You may not reproduce this book on another website.

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Jason Roberts

Students, you are here because you have probably been assigned a peer review. You may also be looking at this title as an oxymoron. In this short video, however, I hope to give you some insight into what you can both give and receive in a peer review to make this a positive experience for your writing development. As you watch the short presentation, please keep an open mind and consider what you can use in your upcoming reviews that will allow you to change your perspective on getting and giving criticism.

[VIDEO TRANSCRIPT]

Ok, you have to do peer reviews. You know this is going to be a terrible waste of time, right? If your previous experiences with peer review were anything like mine, then it went something like this:

• I had to bring in three copies of my “polished” writing.
• I reluctantly moved into a small group and stared at the other members.
• The teacher made us trade our papers with the other members of my group.
• I was supposed to read them and find two things that were good and at least two that were bad.
• I quickly read the papers and marked some stuff that seemed wrong, then I got my papers back from all of the other students and they had given comments like “good introduction,” “I like your ideas,” “it’s great!” They marked a few spelling or grammar errors to fix.
• I went home and fixed those and then my stupid paper was done. ☺

Unfortunately, I hadn’t actually reconsidered how I had written anything. I wasn’t sure if it was important or meaningful, and my peers had not really commented on what I said, only what the teacher wanted. The feedback I had gotten from the other students and even the comments I made on my peers’ papers were meaningless and confused since I was just doing the requirement for the teacher, so I wasn’t interested in what they were saying and didn’t really know what I could possibly say. In fact, I didn’t feel like I even understood what we were supposed to be doing on the paper.

So frustrating!

But now, you have to do a peer review again. “Why?” you may ask. Well, as a long-time teacher of so many students at SLCC, I will try to explain the benefits of a peer review and then how you can actually have a positive experience with the review process.

• You can see other students’ work and how they interpreted the assignment.
• You can have another person see your work who has no authority to grade your work, so there is much less risk.
• You can use this opportunity to find questions and get them answered.
• You can learn valuable workforce skills of collaboration and learning to give effective feedback.

However, if you just give the same feedback that you always have before, then you will continue to find this to be a fruitless, frustrating, and time-wasting activity.

A lot of what makes any learning activity better is preparation. So before you begin reading their writing, there are some things to understand.

UNDERSTAND YOUR POSITION

As a peer:  A peer is a person in the same power position. You have no authority to demand that a person has to change. You probably have about the same knowledge and abilities as the person whose paper you will review. You don’t have any special skills that allow you to give special feedback aside from being a person with a brain and an opinion. Your position is only to offer suggestions and recommendations.

As a reader: As a student, you may feel inadequate to review another student’s work. If you were supposed to grade their paper, you would be correct; however, you already give evaluations on so many other things that you are not an expert in. You discuss movies, give evaluations on restaurants, assess professional sports teams and how they are run. The only qualification you have in those regards is that you as a person know what you enjoy and what bores you. You know if you are confused or inspired. As a reader, you are not grading on if they did the assignment but more if what they produced works for an audience.

As a safeguard: Often we are worried about giving criticism to another person because we don’t want to hurt their feelings . Imagine then that your friend is about to give a speech to a large audience. They ask you how they look. Imagine that they have missed a button on their shirt, or their hair is out of place, or their zipper is down. What kind of friend would not tell them that they needed to fix their appearance?! Now consider that they are going to be publishing their writing; it is going to a teacher to be graded. Wouldn’t you want to give that person all the advice you could, so they would be as successful as possible?

UNDERSTAND THE ASSIGNMENT

Now that you understand your position, you need to make sure you understand the writing situation.

Requirements:  What are the absolute requirements for the writing assignment? You should have them in front of you while you are reviewing the paper; also, if you don’t understand them yourself, make sure that you ask questions of the instructor.

Intentions: Besides understanding the specific requirements, you should have an idea of why the teacher is giving this assignment. What is the purpose of the writing and what is the instructor hoping for as a result? For example, is this supposed to be creative, or informative?

Learning outcomes: What is the assignment trying to teach? If you know what the purpose of the writing is, you can give better feedback, by helping your peer in their writing development. It happens often that we write to the requirements, but miss the point of the writing.

UNDERSTAND THE AUTHOR

Background : The better you understand who the author is, the better you will understand their writing.

Voice: When a person is writing, it is important to be able to hear their own style in the writing. If a person is faking a paper or if they are using terms or even copying texts, then being able to recognize their voice is important to make a paper more authentic and honest.

Purposes: Recognize what drives the author of the piece. It’s important as you give feedback to give it in a way that it will be received. If the person is just looking for some key points, then too much feedback can be overwhelming, but if they are lost, if you don’t give direction, they will be frustrated as well.

UNDERSTAND THE SITUATION OF THE PIECE

I know that we just discussed a lot of things that may seem like the situation of the writing, but in school the writing situation is often different than the assignment situation. The student is writing to the teacher, about a subject they don’t care about, to get a good grade, but the writing may be to write an opinion letter to a congressman on a recent law that was passed. Because school often puts us in hypothetical situations, it is important that you understand your peer’s writing situation.

Audience: Who is the writing supposed to be written for?

Purpose: What is the specific purpose of the writing: persuasive, informative, instructive, or entertaining?

Subject: What is the writing supposed to be about? Do they stay on that subject?

Context: Is it clear what, who, why, when, where, and how this writing is situated?

Ok, I know that’s a lot. It’s almost too much, you may say. I am not giving this to you as a list. These are just understandings. You have to remember that you are there to help. You can only give what you see, but if you realize how helpful you can be to your peer, you will be prepared to make a very positive impact on their writing.

Now that you have your own position firmly in your mind, you can read the paper. Make sure you have a place to write down ideas. If you can write on their paper or give online feedback or even if you are just discussing the ideas, if you have an idea or share a thought, but you don’t write it down, YOUR IDEA WILL BE FORGOTTEN!

PROVIDE FEEDBACK

Making positive comments:  It’s important that the person you are reviewing hears what is going well. Discuss parts specifically that you liked. Considering the purpose of the paper, what informed, instructed, persuaded or entertained you in the text? Use “because” in every sentence.

EXAMPLE: I liked the introduction because …

If you only say you liked something or didn’t like something, it doesn’t help the writer to know what worked for them.

Giving constructive criticism: Constructive criticism is identifiable because it doesn’t just point out what’s wrong, but it gives suggestions on how it could be better.

• Focus on requirements : First of all, did they meet the requirements? If they missed something, be sure to point it out. Those are points they will miss for sure if you don’t help.
• Focus on meaning : After you know that you have covered the requirements, look at what they are saying. Is it clear what they are saying? Did they give enough evidence to support their ideas? Were there parts that you wanted to hear more, were there parts that you still had questions? Put those comments in to give ideas of how to revise their paper.
• Look for “speed bumps”: Something I like to explain is to look for speed bumps in the writing. When you are reading something, was there anything that seemed to stop your reading, that confused you, that bored you, that distracted you, that tied your tongue? Pay attention to what your brain is doing. It will usually tell you when something could be revised. Remember that when you give feedback, you don’t have to be right, just point out your thoughts and let the author decide if they want to take your advice or not.

Peer reviews can be some of the most rewarding parts of writing. Sharing with others can make us feel vulnerable, but getting feedback that encourages and directs us to be able to have a stronger message helps us to feel more confident about what we are writing and more likely to be excited to publish.

Open English @ SLCC Copyright © 2016 by Jason Roberts is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Creative Writing

The department offers many opportunities to students interested in creative writing.  We treat the study of creative writing not as an alternative to rigorous scholarly engagement in the reading of and writing about literary and critical texts nor as an exercise in easy self-expression. Rather, it is a discipline whose students practice the techniques and strategies of close reading and whatever writing is appropriate to a given genre: poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and playwriting. The English Department offers electives in each of these genres, as well as one course that introduces students to the writing of nonfiction and another that introduces them to the writing of poetry, fiction, and plays.  Throughout the Creative Writing curriculum, students learn to see the crucial interrelationship of reading and writing practices, as they begin to note and to take part in the myriad choices a poet or essayist or novelist or playwright makes at the level of, for example, the word, the sentence, the poetic line, the line of dialogue, the scene, the stanza, the paragraph.

Over the past several years, undergraduate English majors have been admitted into seven of the top ten MFA Creative Writing programs in the U.S.; they have published novels and volumes of poetry; and their nonfiction has appeared in publications ranging from Rolling Stone to The New York Times .  These students attended equally to creative and scholarly studies, following the English Department’s curricular emphasis on the critical intersection of these disciplines. Many majors primarily interested not in creative writing but in literary criticism find that creative writing courses add a valuable dimension to their experience of and knowledge about literature, and many non-majors also take creative writing courses.

Undergraduate creative writing courses

As an English major , you may take as many as three creative writing courses among the six electives for the major. You may take more, and you may take any of the 300-level workshops more than once, but only three creative writing courses (and three different ones) may be applied to the major. Additional credits may be applied to the 120 needed for graduation. The courses, all of which feature reading and writing assignments in the strategies and techniques of a specific genre and the extensive use of peer review, are as follows:

English 200W: Essay Writing The writing and criticism of formal and informal essays, various types of articles, reviews, and reportage, with an emphasis on the fundamentals of style and structure and the development of effective expression. This course is recommended for majors and non-majors who wish more work in the basics of essay writing.

201W: Essay Writing for Special Fields Practice in writing appropriate to a particular field, such as medicine, law, business, music, or film.  The course is regularly offered as a BALA class on business writing, with enrollment limited to students in that program.  When it is offered on a different topic, it is open to all students who have completed 110.

English 210W: Introduction to Creative Writing An introduction to the writing of poetry, fiction, and plays, with related readings. This course is a prerequisite for English 301W, 302, and 304.

English 211W: Writing Nonfictional Prose An introduction to the writing of nonfiction an art form, in such modes as the personal essay, the review, new journalism, the memoir, and the postmodernist pastiche, with related readings. This course is the prerequisite for English 303W.

English 301W: Fiction Workshop Intensive practice in the writing of fiction, with related readings.

English 302: Playwriting Workshop Intensive practice in the writing of plays, with related readings.

English 303W: Nonfiction Workshop Intensive practice in the writing of nonfiction as an art form, with related readings. In some semesters, the course focuses on one mode of nonfiction, such as the memoir or environmental writing.

English 304: Poetry Workshop Intensive practice in the writing of poems, with related readings.

Note: The prerequisite for 301W, 302, and 304 is a grade of B in 210W or permission of the instructor and that the prerequisite for 303W is a grade of B in 211W or permission of the instructor.

Utopia PKWY

Utopia Parkway , the undergraduate literary journal, is an outlet for students to publish their own and each other’s work, and an opportunity for English majors and students from other disciplines to work together toward a community project that involves staff meetings, public readings, practice in the editorial demands and obligations of producing a literary journal, and interaction with faculty advisors.  The journal is published once a year, usually in the Fall semester, and while it takes submissions from all Queens College undergraduates, it is selective in deciding on what student work to publish.  Many students whose work was included in a recent edition of the journal were accepted into nationally known MFA Creative Writing programs, including the Queens College MFA .  Active engagement in the production of our literary journal provides students with the opportunity both to socialize with their classmates and to gain insight into the editorial processes and business concerns involved in publishing an annual literary journal.

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