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How do I enable peer reviews?

Assign peer reviews to allow students to review and leave feedback for their classmates

Heidi Perry avatar
Written by Heidi Perry
Updated over 2 months ago

Using Writable's Peer Review tool, students can support their classmates' revisions by reviewing and leaving feedback. In this article we'll share how to enable peer review, as well as tips for using peer review with your classes.

  • Student reviewers will score their peer's writing on the same rubric used for grading and self-review.

  • Students can use saved comment stems to provide helpful feedback.

  • Peer reviews are anonymous for students, while teachers can see who reviewed and all comments and feedback.

On this page


Enabling Peer Review

Follow these steps to enable peer review for an assignment. You can also enable peer review any time by editing the assignment settings.

  1. From the 'My Assignments' page in Writable, select the assignment.

    ❗️Don't have an assignment yet? Learn how to browse and choose an assignment from the Writable library, or create your own.

  2. Click 'Assign'.

  3. Check the box next to the class(es) you'd like to assign the activity and click 'Next'.

    ❗ Note: Students will only be able to peer review submitted writing from their own classmates.

  4. Check the box to add a peer review cycle and indicate how many peer reviews students should receive. This is also the number of peer reviews students will be asked to complete.

    Note: If your assignment has multiple sections, you can choose between having students review sections immediately or after all sections have been completed.

    Additionally, if your assignment has multiple sections, students will be prompted to complete the selected number of peer reviews for EACH section of the assignment. For example, if your assignment has two sections and you've required two peer reviews, then students will see they must complete four reviews in total.

  5. When you’re ready, click 'Assign'.


Peer Review Settings

  1. If your assignment has multiple sections, you can go to 'Peer Review Settings' to select which sections to include.

  2. You have the option to omit any section for the peer review. Once you have decided, make sure to hit 'Save'.


Best Practices & Tips for Using Peer Review

  • You can enable peer reviews when first assigning or go back into assignment settings and turn on peer reviews any time.

  • We strongly recommend that's students submit their writing first before starting on peer reviews.

  • Reviewers should complete a peer review immediately after clicking into the submission to help ensure all papers are reviewed adequately. In other words, finish each individual peer review submission in a single sitting.

  • Remind students not to skip reviewing a writing submission. This can disrupt the distribution of reviews and leave a paper with no reviews.

  • Encourage students to use the comment stems to leave thoughtful feedback. Peer reviews will help each other become better writers.

  • Students can complete more than the assigned number of reviews, but to ensure even distribution we recommend they take a break before reviewing additional submissions.

  • Read this article to learn more about making sure peer reviews are effective and monitoring peer review feedback.

  • Questions about peer reviews? Reach out to our team at support@writable.com or in the live chat.


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