These instructions show you how to use Microsoft Word’s reviewing tools for your required self-evaluations and reviews of classmates’ drafts. You must use Microsoft Word because no other brand of word processing program contains the tools you will need to complete graded assignments. If you don’t have Word on your own computer, use a computer lab or a friend’s computer. Your classmates and I will respond to your drafts also using Word’s reviewing tools, so you will also need Word to view your comments.
Note: The instructions below apply to the 2007 version of Word for Windows, which has a completely new layout. For general help with using this new version of Word, download this PDF guide.
I don’t have Word for Windows 2007, so my instructions are based on my memory of the last time I used it. Please let me know if I missed any steps!
GETTING STARTED
1. Open your document in Word and make sure the document is in Print Layout on Windows (with the blue or grey background around the edges). If not, go to the Page Layout tab and choose the correct layout. Your document must be in this layout in order for comment bubbles to show up in the right margins.
2. Activate the Reviewing toolbar. With your document open in Print Layout, you should see a row of tabs along the top, one of which is for Reviewing. Click on that tab to access Word’s review tools.
3. You might find it useful to maximize the view of your document in order to review it more easily. To maximize the view, go to the View tab and choose Page Width. When I return your drafts, they will be zoomed to a rather large size, so you can use the View menu to decrease the percentage if you prefer.
INSERTING COMMENT BUBBLES
1. Locate a word or sentence in the document you have open, based on the evaluation instructions. Select it with your cursor and then click on the “New Comment” icon in the Reviewing toolbar, which looks like a little post-it note without a label (but the label will appear if you hover your cursor over it).
Once you click on the comment button, you’ll see a colored bubble appear in the right margin that looks like this (this screen shot was taken on a Mac; in Windows only your initials will appear at the top).
2. You can type text in the bubble, just as you might write comments in the margin of a printout. You can also format your text if necessary and use clickable links. If you write a comment and then want to delete it, right-click on the bubble and then select “delete.”
You will use the comment bubbles to make notes in the margin for a number of purposes, including evaluating your own drafts in light of the assignment’s objectives, asking questions for peer reviewers or for me, and making comments on your classmates’ drafts. Your classmates and I will also use comment bubbles to reply to your questions, make comments, and evaluate other aspects of your drafts.
NOTE: Please remove all comment bubbles from the final versions of your papers (unless you’re asked to use them for self-evaluation purposes).