Peer editing

Question

It's not directly concerning grammar, but it is about English.

I'd just like to know if peer editing is a common practice in English class here, and that if it's a effective method for the teacher to help, or the class to, improve writing skills. If the teachers/learners would share some opinions based on your experiences from 2 different point of views (teacher and students'), I would really really appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Raen

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

My daughters have had peer editing as part of their writing classes since second grade.

Raen · Answer

Yes, GG. I realized that now. I had never done it before, my first one came last week and I really sucked at it. I was at a complete loss, felt bad for the peers whoes papers I had to edit, they got nothing from me. I'm laden with guilt.

Any advice how to be good at it? I'll take anything. Next one is due to come 2 weeks from now, we are graded on that too. Thanks a lot.

Raen

BarbaraPA · Answer

How is the exercise structured? Are you given the paper, told to mark it up, and then hand it back? Or do you do face-to-face discussions?

The way may daughters' classes have done it is to spend a few minutes reading it, then they meet. You always start with something positive. I liked the story you told. You made this feel very personal. I was able to feel what you were feeling. Then you provide whole-essay comments like "Overall, the individual paragraphs flowed, but you could make better transitions between them." Try not to say "Your transitions sucked." Instead it's "You could have better transitions."

If there were multiple capitalization issues, don't correct each one, but say "Regarding the mechancis, there are a few issues with capitalization. That's something you'll need to really review carefully to fix before it's in its final form." or "I saw a number of subject/verb agreement errors."

If you're just supposed to mark it up without discussion, are you supposed to simple circle the errors and let the other person figure it out, or correct them?

Raen · Answer

Thank you so much for helping out, GG.

This is how it is done. We are to edit 2 papers in about 15 minutes, mark the paper as soon as you can I guess, since there are only 15 minutes (I felt really rushed). There is a one-page-long list of questions we have to fill out for each paper we edit, questions such as (as best as I can remember, for everything was kind of a blur when it happened): Does the topic paragraph make sense and complete? Is the thesis statement relevent to and supported by each paragraph? Does the topic sentence of each paragraph provide not only seamless transition but also a clear introduction (can't remember the exact term used here) to what's to come? What does the paper lack or need? What would you suggest if the paper needs to be more colorful, vivid...or something like that? and last but not least, point out any grammatical errors, sentence syntax problems.... We are allowed to mark errors ON the paper if we feel compelled to, I had used a pencil while others used pens. I don't know, I wasn't feeling confident.

First of all, I'm a woose (spelling? like a whimp?). In real life, when it comes to criticize, not to mention face to face, I just don't. I just can't do it. My brain would somehow find a way to justify any errors.....hmm, to give the writer the benefit of the doubt. The very first paper I got to edit (it's all random) threw me off. The first set (a long set) of problems was this repeated sentence structure that began with a participle phrase and ended with another, or, if the sentence was about 2 lines long, snuck in one more in the middle, and try as I might, I could not pick out a subject and its verb between the previous period and the next. And I had to retrack in search for them in the previous sentence and once I found them I then try to get rid of the period and turn it into a comma, so I could unite the orphans, the multiple participle phrases (or by golly, gerunds maybe, who could tell now) with their parent (subject) and have a complete sentence, however long and drawn-out. Such sentence structure was placed through out the paper, it's everywhere and ran on and on. First I thought maybe this was some kind of new generation writing style or some innovative creative writing pattern or **** like that, and I spent a lot of time changing the comma into a period until it didn't make sense to me any more, and then I thought maybe this person didn't know how to use participla phrases or use them without knowing he was using them. But how was I to know? So I felt really frustrated, was left with little time for the second paper whose general sentence structures were good but I didn't have time to do a thorough read and I felt really bad. That's just one part of my delimma I dealt with in the first peer editing experience, then I had to give criticism and opinions on the overall paper? My lord!

So it's like that, not fun, not fun at all. Do people enjoy this stuff at all? How? If you have any more advice, I would really appreciate it. I need them. Millions of thanks in advance.

Raen

BarbaraPA · Answer

Then just say that: Your sentence structure is so complex that the reader is left mystified as to the subject of the individual sentences, which makes the entire paragraph and essay just about incomprehensible. Use simpler sentence structures and don't make your reader work so hard to understand your meaning.

Raen · Answer

<img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/2.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/2.gif' alt='Emotion: big smile'/> I prayer to have you on my side when I do peer editing. You make things simple. I think I got it.

Carla.andres92 · Answer

It is an essential good writing practice, usually teachers have so much work to do that their eyes kind of just glaze over and they speed read, whereas a peer editor will be much more critical.

the key is, though, to do a peer-editing session AND THEN get it edited by the teacher.

Peer editing

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