Peer Editing- Grammar and Mechanics

1. Find a partner, decide who is going first.2. Read the paper aloud to the person who wrote it.

1. Highlight any sentences that sound awkward. 2. Make note of anything that doesn’t make sense.

3. Check the paper for: 1. Contractions- unless in a quote, these should not be used2. Numbers- unless in a quote, these should be spelled out if they are less than 100 (even

percentages)3. Misspelled words4. I/You/One- get rid of this. It’s an argumentative research paper, not a narrative, or an

instructional paper. You should not be speaking to your reader in a conversational tone. This can usually be done by removing the “I can/You should/One might” part of the sentence.

5. References to author by first name.

4. Double check their quotes:1. In-text citations: generally in this format (Author 4).2. Punctuation goes INSIDE the quote, if it ends the sentence. Students often ask the

hypothetical question,“Do writers need editors?” Strunk says “Writers need to edit.” or “Writers need to edit” (Strunk 5).