Reviewer, reviewee

It's an interesting process reviewing someone else's written work. This week I was asked to peer review a conference paper for the Australian Association of Environmental Education. This was a first for me, and I honestly enjoyed the process. I had to read and critique the twelve page article, then summarise my comments according to criteria in the Reviewer Assessment Form.

Without saying much about the article, because it's all an anonymous process, I will simply say that I particularly enjoyed seeing similarities to mistakes I've made in the past and sometimes still make. Things like active vs passive sentence structure, keeping sentences dynamic and trying not to overstate things or say things in a long-winded way. And defining the terms used to avoid ambiguity or confusion for the reader. I guess it's like being a teacher, you usually learn more through teaching and helping others improve their work than if you were the student getting those reviews. 

Oh, and for those interested I did finish that article I was working on two weeks ago. It's probably being reviewed right now :)