Legal Law

How to Effectively Review Other People’s Work

Being able to review someone else’s work is one of those extremely valuable skills that someone aspiring to any type of leadership position needs to master. It can be a very challenging and intimidating task, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are some basic tips to help you not only be up to the task, but also excel at it.

Bear in mind: The type of review that I will refer to for this article is what I call a In-depth review. That means it’s as much for the content as it is for your basic grammar and spelling.

  • Be familiar with the topic – This may seem like a no-brainer if you are doing a content review, however you might be surprised how often this is not the case. If you are not familiar enough with the subject to give a good review, please let them know. The last thing you want to do is make their work worse after they incorporate your comments. One of the worst results of this is that one of your comments could make your work really wrong, which can turn into a cascade of different problems.
  • Have a template for your comments – Many times someone has returned my work to me with their comments scattered throughout the document, making me search the document to find out what they said. This is a time-consuming process and also leaves room to miss a comment, especially if it is a large document. Don’t get me wrong, it’s okay to comment online, however you should also mark where these comments are in a predefined template. This template is usually pretty basic, a simple example would contain the reviewer’s name, the review date, the work being reviewed, and then for each comment there would be a reference number, location, and description.
  • Be descriptive – If you are going to comment, be sure to explain exactly what you are trying to get at. It does not have to be a thesis, but writing “Incorrect” is not enough and only leads you to have to explain each comment. Usually a few short sentences should be enough to explain yourself. They should contain what you are referencing and how you think it should be changed. If you need more than that, it’s probably best to write down their comment and talk to them about it.
  • Be constructive with your criticism – This goes hand in hand with the previous point. If you think there is something that needs a fix, don’t say “This sucks, ditch everything and play in traffic.” While it may be true that they need to do a lot of work, instead of pure negative criticism, suggest a way to improve it.
  • Be objective – This could be the most important advice I can give you. Many times at work we are asked to review the work of someone we do not necessarily like or do not respect. This should NOT come into play when you actually do your review. Remember, you are reviewing their work, not them personally. Even if you don’t like them, your work could be important to your project. Making it worse or not helping to improve that product won’t do you any good in the long run.
  • Make sure you have the latest version. – This is a two-way street. While it is the responsibility of other people to make sure they have the latest and greatest copy of your work to review, it will be your time that you will be wasting if you review the wrong copy. Before you start reviewing, do a final check with them to make sure you have the correct copy.
  • Reserve time for conferences – Make sure you are prepared to take time and answer questions about your review. I never had a review where they didn’t ask me questions or didn’t ask myself questions. Know that this is going to happen and try to plan accordingly. A good idea if you’re short on time during the day is to schedule a time to go over the review and make sure they have all of your questions ready for you when you meet.

I cannot stress this enough: to be able to effectively and minutely Reviewing someone else’s work is one of the most important skills you can develop in today’s workplace. Leading others is one of the major career milestones for most people, and to achieve it you need to be able to review what they produce.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *