Peer Review Groups provide writers with peer response to work in progress. Procedures for groups vary, but the following set of directives draws on Peter Elbow's Writing without Teachers. Class meets in small groups of three or four students. Each member is allocated an equal portion of the available time. Traditionally, each student brings one copy of their draft and reads that copy aloud to their peer group before each member of the group responds.
Groups designate a timekeeper and divide the time available by the number of people present.
It is the timekeeper's responsibility to be sure the group stays on schedule, allowing an equal amount of time for each member. Each member's allocated time is divided into half for reading and half for group response. The timekeeper stops the reading if it goes too long. If an individual has a total of thirty minutes, no more than fifteen minutes should be spent reading. Often, oral rather than written versions of work in progress are presented to writing groups because hearing rather than seeing work prevents fussing with small features on the page and keeps attention focused on the larger effects of writing.