Review your narrative
- Nicole Mc Neilly
You’ve drafted your narrative, highlighted the key parts with the data and written a report. Now it’s time to get a fresh perspective.
Review: what does it mean and why do we do it?
Review (or peer review) is when others look at and provide a critique on your work. Peer review is conducted anonymously by someone external to your organisation. More generally, when we say review we mean that you get 'fresh eyes’ to help you finalise your report and sense check your impact narrative.
You might consider if there is someone or a group that is invested in your work, and therefore necessary to be involved, or willing to give their feedback or expertise, e.g. if this is a topic of interest to them. Your objective is to know if your narrative is effective, and if it makes sense to other people not involved in the activity you are assessing.
WHO?
Who could review your interpretation who hasn’t been involved in the programme or activity?
Can someone give the report a fresh pair of eyes, to help with editing and proof-reading?
Is there anyone that has to see the report before it's published?
Does a funder need to see the report?
WHY?
Check if the audience understands everything and that the style and language of the report is clear and error-free
If you are deep in the data and narrative, sometimes small mistakes are hard to see!