Writing formal "journal-style" lab reports is often one of the requirements chemistry and biochemistry students encounter in the physical chemistry laboratory. Helping students improve their technical writing skills is the primary reason this type of writing is a requirement in the physical chemistry laboratory. Developing these skills is an important goal, yet sometimes students are not given enough time to review and revise their writing. Further, they seldom are taught "how" to review, and thus critical steps in the writing process are omitted. We have developed an approach with the goal of helping students improve their technical writing skills that employs the peer-review process and includes detailed guidance for writing reports in a progressive manner. We present these assignments, how student progress is assessed, and how the components fit to improve the technical writing abilities of the students. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)