5 C’s of Successful Peer Editing

1. Compliment your peers. Identify strong elements of their writing and encourage them to continue developing these areas. Providing positive feedback will increase your peers’ confidence in their writing.

• “Strong vocabulary”

• “Smooth transition”

• “Great wrap-up in your conclusion”

• “Interesting analysis.”

2. Critique, don’t criticize. Criticism involves passing judgment, which will only stifle your peer’s growth as a writer. Instead, give tactful advice with the goal of showing your peers how they can grow as writers.

• “Make sure you keep your commentary specific.”

• “Avoid repeating the word ________. Try using a thesaurus.”

• “In this introduction sentence, you should make the main point clear like you did in the first paragraph.”

• “Instead of retelling the story, explain the significance of this moment.”

3. Concrete suggestions – Make your comments and critiques specific. Rather than simply bracketing a portion of an essay and labeling it with a question mark, make a note of exactly what needs to be done to improve it.

• Instead of “What?” write, “How is this relevant? Tie back to thesis for clarity.”

• Instead of “Too short.” write, “Expand your analysis of this event’s impact on [insert character name].”

• Instead of “?” write, “Rework this section for clarity.”

4. Clarify. Ask leading questions to help your peers correct errors without doing the writing for them. Guiding questions can help writers to develop and improve their own work.

• “Why does the character react this way?”

• “What does this say about…?”

• “How does this relate to…?”

• “How is this related to the theme of _______?”

5. Contemplate. Give thoughtful suggestions. Take the time to think about an area that is unclear, underdeveloped or lacking. Carefully thought out comments will be the most helpful to your peers in improving their work.

• “Try to make this quote introduction more specific so it smoothly transitions to the next one.”

• “Replace this word with a synonym that has a more positive connotation.”

“This statement seems to contradict what you said earlier. Is that really what you meant?”