Blog Post 3

Peer Editing

According to Tutorial Peer Editing  and Peer Editing, there are three steps to quality peer editing: compliments, suggestions, and corrections. Start out by complimenting the things that worked well in the paper. Was it interesting? Did it hold your attention? Did they explain things in a way that anyone could understand? What did you like most about it? After that, add your suggestions. Should they use more interesting words? Add more details? Explain something more thoroughly? Finally, make corrections. Use proofreading marks to show them things they make have forgotten to capitalize, words they may have misspelled, or punctuation they may have left out.

Think of the way you would react to someone criticizing your paper. Would you want them to focus only on the things that you did incorrectly, or would you want some positive feedback as well? (Watch this video for the top 10 peer editing mistakes.) It is important to let the person know the strengths of the paper as well as the weaknesses. Stay positive when giving feedback. Try to avoid negative statements, such as, "This paragraph doesn't make sense." Instead, say something like this, "If you add a few more sentences to this paragraph, it may make it easier to understand." Be specific. Tell the person exactly what they need to change to make the paper better. Mark grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors on the paper. If you suggest a change, tell them why the change would make the paper better. Remember that peer editing is to help the person to better develop their ideas and writing habits. Explaining why your suggestions would be beneficial to their work helps them improve on future assignments.