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Word Processors: How To
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Word Processors: How To Use the COMMENT Function for Peer Review

  • Making Comments
  • Reviewing Comments

    MAKING COMMENTS

    Using the COMMENT feature on your word processor is one less intrusive way to review a peer's draft. You can use this feature alone or with the TRACK CHANGES option, which allows character-by-character editing and lets the author accept or reject edits on a case-by-case basis. The COMMENT feature works best for early drafts, where broad suggestions are needed, while the TRACK CHANGES option is better suited for more in-depth editing of later drafts.

    To begin using the COMMENT feature, open the document in Word and read through it several times. The first time, read for the theme and general direction of the essay. The second time, look for:
      ideas that need support ideas that need more examples places where the paper gets off topic confusing sentence structure an unclear thesis paragraphs which are missing topic sentences paragraphs that have multiple main ideas
    If you come upon one of these trouble spots, place your cursor at the end of the section where you'd like to write the suggestion, go to the INSERT menu, and scroll down to COMMENT.


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    A box will pop up at the bottom of your screen. Type your suggestion or question and click CLOSE when you're finished to return to the main document.


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    Your comments will be highlighted in yellow, labeled with your initials, and numbered throughout the document.


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    REVIEWING COMMENTS

    If you submit a draft to your peers for review, there are several ways to view their comments. Yellow highlighting will mark places where reviewers have made comments. The easiest way to view their comments is by placing your cursor over the highlighting, bringing up a roll-over box labeled with the name of the reviewer.


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    If your draft is short, or if only one person reviewed it, it will be easy to scan the paper for these comments. If your draft is longer or contains tracked changes as well as comments, you might want to insert the REVIEWING toolbar at the top of your screen.


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    With the REVIEWING toolbar, you can move from one comment to another throughout the paper, track changes, edit changes that others have made, save multiple versions of a draft, and e-mail your document.

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