Types of reviews for technical writing

Reviewing technical documents? Whether it’s for a class, magazine, or industry publication, the procedure for writing a review is fundamentally similar and we’ve discussed them on this blog several times before (you can do a search if you’re interested). Yes, writing is also best done with review writing software, as we have insisted countless times in the past.

I like to classify reviews of technical material into three types: internal, friendly, and anonymous. All three share similarities, although their nature forces them to display several different characteristics.

Internal reviews, as the name suggests, are reviews of work done within the organization you came from. For example, before a research center allows submission of work from one of its districts to an industry magazine, it will most likely be scrutinized within the organization itself. After all, you don’t want to put your name behind writing whose quality is not representative of what you would like to be known for. These reviews can range from a single staff member writing a job evaluation that will be presented to superiors to an extremely rigorous inspection by a panel.

Friendly reviews refer to solicited criticism, such as the case where an author submits their work to colleagues (like you) to take advantage of their comments before going ahead with the attempt to publish it. Personally, I suggest being as severe as you would with an anonymous review; That kind of candor is rare in friendly reviews and will probably help your “friends” more than you can expect to be extremely discreet.

Anonymous reviews are the kind you read in industry magazines and are specifically requested by publishers for publication. If you are writing one, the focus should be on the material, rather than other things around it, such as the personality of the author.