Peer Editing (here is what people want you to do when you peer edit their work):

• When reading and editing someone's paper, talk to the person. Editor and writer should be working together (don't just hand your paper over to someone and leave!).
• Don't just skim it, read it.
• Read the whole paper, not just find one error and hand it back.
• Don't say "fine", "great", "okay" --- Give details.
• Comments (the author wants to know why her/his paper was good).
• Give ideas and suggestions, not criticism (no put downs - remain positive).
• Find spelling errors, no need to necessarily fix the errors, just point them out.
• The author wants to know what s/he did wrong, politely.
• Give critique first, then tell what is good (leave the author on a good note).

This document was created by students, 2001.