a guide for students and for faculty

Helping other students to edit their papers can be a tremendous help to both parties. You will very likely find that your own writing improves as you notice strengths and weaknesses in other students’ writing. Here are some steps to help you give more effective feedback.

• When you begin the process, look over the requirements for the writing you will be editing and any specific feedback sheet your teacher may give you.
• Read the paper quickly once, making notes and marking spots you did not understand. It's very useful to retain these first impressions before you get into details. Note if you lose the thread of the paper at any particular points. Note places where more explanation or clarification is needed.
• Then go back and read in more detail, trying to understand what makes certain parts of the paper readable and clear, while other parts may need work.
• Go back again to the requirements and give feedback on how the paper meets each of the criteria.

• Be specific both in your praise and your criticism.
• Be positive.
• Focus on how the student can change the paper to improve it.

There are several levels to consider when editing a paper:

1) the overall flow and structure,
2) the specific content and its clarity,
3) how well it meets the objectives, and
4) technical issues, including

• grammar and punctuation,
• sentence structure,
• technical terms, and
• references.

2) Again with the specific content issues, pick out sentences and paragraphs to commend, if possible. In your criticisms, ask for explanation and clarification. For example, "I didn't understand what you meant about the function of the papillary muscle here." "What is the relationship of this sentence to the one before?"

3) How well does the writing meet the objectives of the assignment? Is it at the appropriate level of technicality? Does it include the right amount of detail?

4) Technical issues can be tricky; if you do not feel confident about grammar, spelling, punctuation and sentence structure, you may want to word your comments as questions, like, "Spelling correct?" "Should this be a comma or a semicolon?" Be especially alert to technical words and whether they are used correctly. Are there reference where appropriate, and are they using the correct form both in the text and the bibliography or "references cited?"

One grammatical detail that can greatly strengthen a paper is the use of strong topic sentences. For example, the sentence, "The authors go on to describe their methods" is weak because the sentence itself does not have content. A better topic sentence might be, "The principal technique used in this study was electron microscopy." The rest of the paragraph should then describe the details of the point raised in the topic sentence.

If you remember to be positive and focus on specific changes the other student can make, your feedback will likely be very helpful.

Ann McNeal
School of Natural Science
Hampshire College
Amherst MA 01002
amcneal@hampshire.edu

When students do intensive editing and rewriting, they learn a great deal about both content and written expression, but the process can take tremendous amounts of faculty time. Peer-editing is one way to engage students more actively in the editing process, but there can be a problem that beginning students don’t know enough to be able to offer good suggestions to one another. Beachy (1992) suggests the use of guideline sheets to aid students in their peer-editing.

This is one protocol that works for peer-editing:

1. Students are assigned to write a paper and bring two copies of it to class. They are given the criteria for a good paper, but not in exactly the form to be used in Step Two. It is best not to hand out in advance the guidelines in exactly the form you will use, because students may then write to the guidelines rather than writing to try to convey their ideas.

2. In class, students are paired by the instructor; they read and mark up one another’s papers, fill out the feedback sheets, and discuss the revisions needed (30 min.). They hand in the clean copy and use the marked-up copy for revisions.

3. Each student revises his/her own paper, which is handed in next period with the feedback sheet.

4. The faculty member evaluates both the revised paper and the quality of the editor’s suggestions.

Devising the guidelines (feedback sheets) can be very informative; you should spell out your real, underlying criteria for a good paper! For example, when students handed in the first draft of the introduction section of their final research papers, some of the guideline questions were:

• Does the introduction begin with a statement of broader interest, to draw the reader in?
• Is the previous literature summarized in some detail?
• Is the relationship of this experiment to previous work clear?
• Is the experimental design and the reasoning behind it explained
• (not all the details, but overall purpose and reasons for choices)?
• Is there an overall logical flow to the introduction?
• Comment on grammar, punctuation, topic sentences, etc.

Beachy, C.J. 1992. "Enhancing writing through cooperative peer editing" in N. Davidson and T. Worsham (eds.) Enhancing Thinking through Cooperative Learning. New York: Teachers’ College Press. pp. 209-220.

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