Even though the picture above doesn't exactly exemplify what I learned this week,it was so cute I just had to use it.The art of effectively editing the work of your peers can a hard one to master, taking the three step approach makes it much easier. This week's videos and lessons (What Is Peer Editing, Peer Edit With Perfection Tutorial, Writing Peer Review Top 10 Mistakes) were very helpful. Giving compliments, suggestions, and then corrections gives the editor a better opportunity to thoroughly evaluate the writing.
When reading through the first time you must look for something to compliment, addressing whats good in a piece of work makes it easier for the author to take criticism later. It also allows the author to see their strong points. Another thing to remember is to stay positive throughout the entire evaluation. Naturally criticism is hard to take, by presenting commentary in a positive, non-offensive way it can be more helpful than harmful.
After you compliment and pick out the whats exceptional in a piece of work its time to point out the areas that could use improvement. Suggestions about word choice, and sentence structure can be help the author convey their point with more clarity.Suggestions can also pertain to topic, how to organize, writing and the use of details.
Your peer evaluation should end with corrections. A good area to apply corrections to is grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. This is the time to be the most critical. The best writing, is writing that is correct and easy to read. Mistakes can take away from the main focus of the writing. Misspelled words, lack of punctuation, run-on sentences are all distractions.
After receiving a critique from one of peers I learned another important part of peer editing is to receive the review in a positive way.I am a "Defensive Dave" upon reading my first serious critique from a peer my first instinct was explain or defend my writing. Peer editing is only effective when positive criticism is taken and applied.
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