Jim Roth’s Website

PEER EDITING—the basics

Peer editing means exchanging essays, becoming the other student’s reader, and offering help and advice to make the other student’s essay even better.

For many reasons peer editing can be initially uncomfortable for both the peer editor and the writer. Perhaps we carry the false notion that writing is a measure of intelligence and, therefore, we are afraid of being judged by our writing. Or it may be that we feel uncomfortable being asked to trust a stranger to read our ideas and give us honest feedback. One thing to keep in mind that, as writers, our more important goal is to get it right rather than be right, so we need our reader’s input to “get it right.”

In addition, peer editing is also a part of the work world; I often rely on my peers (and many times my students) to tell me what needs fixing. Dr. Adams, my graduate school writing professor, often said that until you can honestly hand what you've written to others and hope they cut it up and make suggestions, you’ll never grow as a writer. That was 40 years ago, and so far he’s been right. So give it a try in the spirit of making every essay in your Writing Group better.

Here are some peer editing guidelines to follow:

Be honest but be kind: Be honest when you are confused or spot a part that you think needs more work.  And remember that the success of a message is often in the phrasing: Instead of writing “your first paragraph made absolutely no sense to me,” you might write, “I was a bit confused about your first paragraph—perhaps examine the flow of thought again.” Or instead of writing, “You use way too many commas for my taste,” you might write “you might check comma usage rules—there seemed like a lot of commas to me.” You get the idea.

Before you begin, please read Peer Editing Steps Checklist and the Guidelines for Peer Editing from the University of Victoria.  Though the University of Victoria advice is intended for students taking a "Writing for Government" course, it would be difficult to find a better description of the peer editing process.  Pay particular attention to the recommended approach suggested in the article. Also, please watch the video Peer Editing How-to.

Please DO NOT begin peer editing until you’ve read and understand the articles at the links above and watched the video Peer Editing How-to; it’s that important.

You might also find the Essay Grading Sheet useful as a basis for your thoughts and comments.