Peer editing is a vital part of the writing process. Getting a second, third, or even fourth set of eyes on your writing will ensure that you aren't missing any mistakes and will help you to put forth the most successful piece of writing possible. First we'll look at the two broad categories of concerns that you should be looking for when peer editing.
High Order Concerns (HOCs) are major aspects of your paper that could have the greatest impact on a future grade. They include things like the thesis, organization, and development, and these are what we really want to be focusing on during a peer review.
The first thing that you should always look at in any peer review is the thesis. When you find the thesis, underline it and ask a few questions to determine whether it is effective.
- Is the thesis a statement?
- Is the thesis specific?
- Is the thesis realistic?
- Does the thesis answer/address the prompt?
If the thesis is not effective in any way, write in the margins some suggestions for improvement, don't just write "Needs improvement." This is the most important part of the paper, so it's vital that before the author moves on to anything else, their thesis is in good shape. Also, remember that it's not a bad thesis just because you disagree with it. Peer editing is all about being objective, so regardless of your opinion on the prompt or the subject, make sure to look at the thesis without letting personal opinion impact you.
Another very important part of HOCs is organization. An essay should flow naturally between ideas, paragraphs, and sentences, so it's important to look at how the ideas in the essay are organized in top of what exactly the ideas are. A common problem for beginning writers is to have a lot of good things to say, but saying them in the wrong order, resulting in confusion for the reader. To avoid this within paragraphs, here's an easy formula often referred to as "Jane Schaffer format" that can help you look for structure in an essay.
- 1 topic sentence (TS) - kind of like a mini thesis that tells your reader what is going to be said in this paragraph
- 1 concrete detail (CD) - a quote, fact, etc. that you can use to anchor your topic sentence. Should be concrete and credible
- 2 commentary (CM) - let the reader know why your CD matters, and how it relates to your thesis
- Repeat the set of 1 CD and 2 CM
- 1 concluding sentence (CS) - this should restate the idea from your TS and transition into your next paragraph
If a paragraph has all of these components and in an order that is similar to this, then the organization within that paragraph is most likely doing well. Looking more broadly at paragraphs, a lot of that has to do with how reading the essay makes you feel; does a later paragraph seem like it would make more sense at the beginning to give context, or would an early paragraph read better toward the end of the paper when you have some more background knowledge? Let them know.
Finally, development is something that you can be looking for throughout the whole essay. Like we talked about with theses, you should be making sure that the author is developing their ideas as thoroughly as possible.
If you think that the author could do more with something they've already written, don't just tell them that, write a question that's answer would help them develop the essay further.
With all of these concerns covered, we can move on to other concerns that are of less importance, but peer editors tend to focus on a lot.
Low Order Concerns (LOCs) are things like spelling, grammar, and punctuation. While these are very important to any piece of writing, what we're really looking for mostly are the HOCs, and once we've got all of those covered we can move on to LOCs.
Now unlike HOCs where we really want you to be specific in letting the author know exactly what's wrong and even give them tips to fix it, with LOCs I suggest just simply circling any LOC issue that you see and leaving it be. The author should be able to tell what the issue is and fix it without you having to spell it out to them. This way you can spend more time on other, more important issues.
The video and link above are some good resources for common spelling and grammar mistakes that students make, but the most common rule is that if it doesn't sound right when read out loud, just go ahead and circle it. If it's grammatically correct and the author likes it that way, all they have to do is not change your suggestion and move on, so it's in your best interest to circle things even if you have doubts (though don't go overboard).
"What we're really looking for mostly are the HIgh order concerns"
Now, with these strategies in your pocket you should be able to edit a paper in an effective way that allows your classmates and you to make the most out of peer editing time.
Copyright: Editing Help With a College Term Paper - https://normajhill.com/2017/02/23/editing-help-with-a-college-term-paper/