Peer Editing

Peer editing or peer review is something that we have all taken part in throughout our years in school. Most of the peer reviews that I have taken part in have involved some one I knew and my self. Editing a paper from someone that I know makes it much easier for me to point out the discrepancies in the paper with out fear of backlash from the author of the paper. Peer editing can be intimidating especially if the peer that you are editing takes your corrections personally. Peer editing is also a group effort. Both parties, the editor and author, have to be willing to participate and eager to take constructive criticism. The editor must follow the three steps in editing and the author must listen and not take any criticism personally.

The Videos What is Peer Editing, Writing Peer Reviews Top 10 Mistakes, and the slide show Peer Editing With Perfection Tutorial are very useful for learning how to peer edit effectively. These videos taught me the three important steps to peer editing. These steps are Compliments, Suggestions, and Corrections. The first step, Compliments, is the most important. You never want to start a review with a bad tone. That could cause the author to completely ignore all of your suggestions and any other corrections you make. Another tool for editing that I learned from these videos and slideshow is that you always want to be positive when making suggestions or corrections. This will allow the author to take your corrections or suggestions openly. When editing you always want to word your suggestions in a light positive manner such as; I really liked how you worded that sentence but i think this may be better. While i am peer editing i will remember the three key components of peer editing, Compliments, Suggestions, and Corrections. Always lift some one up before you have to bring them back down.