INTRODUCTION

Peer editing is an important activity which allows writing teachers to help their

students receive more feedback on their papers. It also give students practice with a range of

skills important in the development of language and writing ability, such as meaningful

interaction with peers, a greater exposure to ideas, and new perspectives on the writing

process (Hansen & Liu, 2005; Mangelsdorf, 1992). As educators, we want to give students

more responsibility, accountability, and involvement in the learning process. Creating

independent learners is the goal, and one way to approach that goal is to have students

monitor their own progress through peer editing.

Peer editing involves students working together to evaluate and revise each other’s

writing. As students review the writing of their peers, they share ideas, create an atmosphere

of cooperation, develop independence and responsibility, identify strengths and weaknesses

in their writing and reinforce editing skills.

THE GUIDEILINESS OF PEER EDITING

1. Read the essay through without writing anything, just to get to know the essay.

2. Read the essay a second time, critically. Ask  “How would I improve this essay if it were

my own?”

3. As students think of improvements, they may worry about hurting the writer’s feelings.

Writing is an intensely personal activity and sometimes a great deal of ego gets tied up in

the end product. But the most important thing is to learn, and to learn we must, to some

extent, put ego aside. Therefore, although students should consider people’s feelings, good

peer editors will still suggest improvements. To avoid hurt feelings, phrase all of your

comments as positive “I” statements. For example, if the introduction is boring, a good

peer editor might say, “I think you could improve the introduction by making it more vivid

or adding more detail.”

4. Using the peer-editing guidelines below, it's a good idea to quote from the writer’s essay as

often as necessary and wherever the sheet asks for it. It is imperative that peer editors give

the writer something he or she can take home and use as a revising tool.

5. Look over the comments that made on the essay and talk briefly to the writer. Summarize

the comments for the writer and ask questions about anything that might be a problem.

THINGS TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY IN PEER EDITING

1. Is the introduction effective, that is, does it make you want to read on? If it is effective,

state what makes it effective. If it is not an effective introduction, suggest what the writer

might do to improve it. Could the writer use more details or tell a story? Should the writer

find a more general connection or start with something more specific?

2. What is the thesis statement of this essay? Is it manageable? Is it focused? Is it strong?

Does it give direction to the writer? Does it tell the reader what the essay is about?

Is this essay organized clearly? To make this judgment, carefully read each paragraph and

determine what each paragraph is about. Point out any problems and suggest how they

might be corrected.

3. Does the writer use effective topic sentences to begin each paragraph and develop that

topic throughout the paragraph? If yes, give one good example. If not, provide the writer

with a good example of the problem and suggest how the problem can be corrected.

4. Does the writer need more or better transitions to link the paragraphs? Quote from the

essay to show where transitions are effective. And quote from the essay to show where the

writer needs to use or change transitions.

5. Does the writer clearly follow the thesis of the essay? If not, point out places in the essay

where the writer loses focus and suggest what the writer might do to get back on track.

6. Does the writer use sufficient details and examples? If so, tell where the writer has used

detail effectively, quoting directly from the essay. If not, suggest where the writer could

incorporate more details and examples.

7. Are there any words, phrases, or sentences that are not clear? If so, give the writer some

examples.

8. Is the conclusion effective? If so, state why it is effective. Quote to show where the writer

has succeeded in closing with a strong restatement of purpose. If not, suggest ways that the

writer could improve the conclusion.

9. Now that you have read the essay carefully, does the title reflect the writer’s purpose?

Does it grab your attention? Could it be improved? How?

10. List at least three strengths of this essay. Quote where you can to show the writer exactly

where he or she succeeds.

11. List at least three things about this essay that could be improved. Quote where you can to

show the writer exactly what detracts from the content.

12. Do you see any problems with spelling, grammar, or punctuation? (Don’t fix their

mistakes. But indicate the problems they need to address. For example, they need to

look up the rules for comma use or watch for confusion with “their” and “there.”)

13. Provide the writer with your overall impression of his/her essay.

THE BENEFITS OF PEER EDITING

1. Peer editing decreases the amount of paperwork for teachers. It develops self-esteem and

encourages students to work more independently and produce a piece of standard-setting

work. It enables students to work cooperatively and reinforces writing skills. Peer editing

is a technique that results in active, motivated participants in the learning and writing

process.

2. Students must know what is wrong, often before they can get it right.  By having students

learn the steps of the writing process, the elements necessary for a good essay, and what

kinds of things are important to include (or leave out) of a well-written essay, they can

then apply that knowledge to their own writing.  By having students edit and evaluate

poor, mistake-ridden writing, they learn to train their eyes on what they don’t want to do

in their own essays.  The worse the essay is, the more students can “catch.”  The more

they do this, the more they realize that their own writing “isn’t so bad!” That does not

mean that students should be exposed to another student’s “bad” essay.  Instead, use non-

model essays, such as those from previous years’ classes as examples.

3. Students should take an active role in the community process of writing.  Too often,

teachers and students work in an isolated environment, where student writes essay and

teacher grades essay.  An opportunity is missed in this environment: the opportunity for

students to read more, have conversations about writing, and learn from each other.   By

having students participate in the peer editing process, students take an active interest in

each other’s writing, and root for them when their essay comes back from the teacher at

the end. By hearing from another student, they learn that they are not being “lectured to,”

but that another person who is someone their own age can grasp and use these

concepts and therefore, these goals don’t seem so far out of reach for their own writing. 

With only the teachers’ perspective, the student can unfortunately feel as if the writing

environment is a “me against her” scenario.

4. Students cannot write in a vacuum.  It is essential for students to get feedback from

someone other than an adult, often to really hear what they are doing right and wrong.  By

integrating peer editors into the process, students are hearing (in an ideal environment)

several points of view, which improve their communication about the writing process,

their engagement with the students (and therefore, the world) around them, and they are

able to garner different perspectives from students of varied ability levels and

backgrounds.  Once students feel confident in a classroom that promotes a

comfortable learning environment for making mistakes together, students can feel safe to

take more risks in their writing and sharing their ideas and personal perspectives with

others.  Your students have varied backgrounds and knowledge levels.  Use them! 

Encourage your students to use their own background knowledge and world perspectives

to offer insight into that student’s essay.

5. The more students are actively engaged in something, the better they learn it.  According to

the Learning Pyramid developed by the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioural Science in

Virginia, America, learners retain 90% of what they learn when they teach someone

else/use immediately, 75% of what they learn when they practice what they learned, and

50% of what they learn when engaged in a group discussion. By engaging in peer editing

(if done correctly) students are sure to learn!  Students must be taught what they are to

look for when peer editing, how to engage in relevant and sensitive discussion, and how to

constructively criticize.  This process must be taught after students learn what is actually

supposed to go into an essay, and you as the teacher must take an active role in making

sure students are trained to know what to look for, and that students are on task with the

editing and discussions. Should students be looking for the connection of overall ideas? 

Should students be looking for punctuation and spelling errors?  Should students be

commenting on the essay’s position or ideas?  What they look for is up to the teacher and

students need to have a clear goal in mind when they sit down with their editor’s pen.

THE CHALLENGES OF PEER EDITING PRACTISE.

Many teachers were aware of some problems when peer editing being carried out.

There are several challenges that they might face. These challenges if not being encountered

properly, will ruin their main goal. Teachers must establish certain things before they can

instruct their students to evaluate or criticize their friends’ works.

1. LACK OF EXPERIANCE

Most students tend to admit their mistakes in writing if the teacher corrected them.

This is due to their believe in their teacher’s experience and knowledge. But, when their

written work being edited or criticized by their friends, argumentation will occurred. Though

the instructions were cleared, the feeling of doubt will still be there.

2. BIAS

When it comes to giving or writing opinion, peer editing sometimes invites bias. This

is because one person may disagree of the writer’s point of views. Certain disagreements can

result of rejecting marks. This will cause argumentation. Teacher should aware of this matter

if he or she wanted to avoid such matter. Teacher should not give a writing title that can

oppose both the writer and the editor.

3. POOR GRAMMAR

Grammar is something the teacher and the students should seriously aware when

writing something. Poor grammar may results of bad writing and the text will be hardly

understandable. In peer editing, the editor should somehow know what he or she was doing.

Editing someone’s text without any knowledge of grammar will cause disaster. A lot of

things should be considered when editing a text. Students must know the tenses, the nouns,

the articles and so on. The text will be ruined. The editor will be mistakenly negating some

ideas in the sentences if he lacks of grammatical knowledge.

4. LACK OF KNOWLEDGE IN SENTENCE STRUCTURES

A text consists of several paragraphs. The paragraphs will be strong if the sentence

structures are good. Marking a text always need a person to be very careful. This is important

because when a person who has no knowledge in sentence structures will always lost in their

marking. Editing their friends’ text will be a disaster. Teacher must make sure that students

must have appropriate knowledge on how to construct good sentences before attending in

editing peer work.

CONLUSION.

As we know, when doing peer editing, there are lots of things to be aware in order to

get the goals from it. Teachers should know what kind of text to be given to the students. The

text must be relevant and at their level of knowledge.

The students should be given some briefing before editing their friends’ work. Editing

should be transparent. No bias should be applied. Students should know how to play their

role. Although there are several challenges when doing the peer editing, there are also some

benefits can be gained from the exercise.

With a good guidance, students can accept the critics came from their friends. All

criticize must be sincere. The markers should follow the guides which have been listed by the

teacher. In a glance, peer editing can be a nightmare to the students. But when this exercise

was correctly done, it benefits to both the teacher and the students.

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REFERENCES

1. Beachy, C. J., (1992) Enhancing Writing through cooperative peer editing; In N. Davidson

2. Brazil (2001) The Realm of The Red Pen: The Impact of Written Teacher Feedback on L2

Writing in REACT Vol. 20, No. 2.

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4. Edward, C. H., (2004) Classroom Discipline and Management; New York: John Wiley &

Sons Inc.

5. Gardner, H. (1993) Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice; New York: Basic Books.

6. Hillocks, G. Jr, (2002) The Testing Trap, New York and London: Teachers College Press.

7. Jacobs, G. M.; Power, M., A; and Loh, W. I., (2002) The Teacher’s Sourcebook for

Cooperative Learning. California: Corwin Press.

8. Magone, K., (1996) Peer editing benefits you and your students; University of Montana,

School of Law.

9. Maxwell, J., (1996) Qualitative Research Design, California: SAGE Publications, Inc.

10. Mills, G., E., (2003) Action Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, New Jersey:

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