Dear writers,

Last month, I wrote about my system for responding to peer-review reports. This month I want to talk about what to do next. You might be sitting on peer review reports, feedback from colleagues, or comments from your PhD supervisor. But how do you integrate that feedback into your writing?

Feedback differs wildly in kind and in quality but there are also different ways to respond to feedback. Think about how you respond to feedback. Are you reacting to it (trying to make the problems go away) or integrating it (using the ideas identified to expand or reorient your thinking)? If you’re lucky, the feedback-giver might offer a solution to the problem they have identified, but, more often than not, you’ll be left to figure out the fix on your own.

I can’t offer you a universal concrete fix here, but I can offer some suggestions for how to develop tangible actions you can take in response to common areas of feedback. Each of these prompts is designed to help you take on board feedback while reorienting you towards your own thinking and writing — in other words, to help you integrate the feedback rather than react to it.

Consider the following ideas for what to do when the reviewer…

💭 Agrees with you and has re-articulated your argument back to you in a different way.

❓ Ask yourself: does this reframing allow you to improve your statement of argument?

🛠️ Yes? Consider revising the presentation of your argument.

🤔 Write a revised statement of your argument in a new document. 

💭 Compliments an existing component (piece of evidence, analysis, or description) in the text.

❓ Ask yourself: does this comment highlight something that deserves more attention?🛠️ Yes? Assess the structure of the text.🤔 Decide whether the placement of this component in the text is commensurate with its centrality to your argument. 

💭 Identifies an intellectual question left unanswered (or unasked).

❓ Does this comment make you more interested in your subject?

🛠️ Yes? Step away from the manuscript to think.

🤔 Identify something that you could read, look at, listen to, or watch that would help you immerse yourself in this problem.

💭 Points out a factual error or commission.

❓ Ask yourself: are they right?

🛠️ Yes? Easy win. Fix it.

💭 Offers a reading recommendation.❓ Ask yourself: will reading this help you solve a problem identified elsewhere in the feedback?

🛠️ Yes? Something to read. Put it on the to-do list (and actually read it.)

Complete this exercise with a text that you’ve received feedback on. Generate a series of revision tasks and see where it takes you 🚀. 

Sincerely,

Emily