Treading carefully: a genre analysis of “accept with revision” peer reviews of linguistic journal submissions using the appraisal system

Abstract Reviewing the work of other scholars is a critical part of being an academic. However, the practise of writing reviews is rarely made explicit nor taught. In order to make this practice visible in our own field of linguistics, this paper describes the structure and key language features of a small selection of “accept with revision” peer reviews. Unlike previous studies of peer reviews, the analysis draws on the system of appraisal to identify the key evaluative meanings that have enabled the mapping of the generic structure of these peer reviews. The analysis shows they comprise two stages: Overview and Recommendation for revisions, with each stage comprising a number of phases. The analysis also shows how in evaluative genres such as peer review texts, preserving the face of authors and engaging in many implicit evaluative resources is a key feature.