ShmoopTube

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[Coop and Dino singing]

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Today's topic is peer editing.

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Uh, no. That’s a good way to get somebody to take a long walk of a short pier, [Man falls off a pier into the ocean]

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but…different kind of peer.

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To understand what the term means, let’s take a look at the meaning of each of the

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words on their own.

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First comes “peer,” which, when we're talking about school, simply refers to a classmate. [Students sitting in a classroom]

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Next comes “editing” which means to change, correct or improve something.

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So clearly, peer editing means editing your classmates in order to make them better! [Rubber erases mans hair and beard]

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Okay…maybe not.

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Peer editing is actually a process people use to make their writing even better.

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Let's say your friend wrote a narrative poem about her pet chicken, and she called the

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poem, “Mr. Clucker's Crazy Day.” [Girl holding poem]

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Sounds pretty good already, right?

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Well, sometimes, it's hard for the person who wrote the piece of writing to properly

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edit it, simply because they're the one that wrote it. [Girl sitting at a table and chicken walks past]

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Sometimes, it helps to have someone else, like a peer, edit it for them, to give feedback

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and advice. That's where you come in.

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There are a few steps a good peer editor must always follow – and trust us, it's important

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to follow these steps, because if you don't, you could end up really hurting the other

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person's feelings and destroying their drive and self-confidence…

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…which should really be more reserved for your enemies.

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Step one, compliment the author and tell them everything you liked about the writing. [Step 1 of peer editing steps]

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It's important to start with the good to make them feel comfortable and let them know you

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aren't there just to tell them where they went wrong.

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Step two, give specific suggestions about bigger picture stuff…overall structure, [Dino discussing big picture stuff]

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development of characters, and so on.

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Step three, identify any specific spelling and grammatical errors you might have found.

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Here’s your chance to play proofreader.

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Lastly, remember to be kind and honest, and always give critiques in the way that you [Girl looking at herself in a mirror]

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want to be critiqued yourself.

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People are often very close to their writing, so it's important to be sensitive.

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Now that we know the four steps of being a good peer editor, let's try them out.

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Take this poem about peanut butter.

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Now let's critique, starting with step one, saying what we like about it. For this step,

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we could say that we like how it rhymes…and that we think peanut butter is a funny thing [Rhyming words highlighted and jar of peanut butter appears]

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to write a poem about.

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Next, we could move on to step two, where we give specific helpful suggestions. Perhaps

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our suggestion would be to use a more interesting adjective than “good,” to describe the

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taste, since the word “good” kinda just…sticks to the roof of your mouth. [Man chewing peanut butter]

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So…maybe we suggest they change it to “yummy.”

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And then, because we need the poem to rhyme, we could change the last line to something

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like, “It would always fill my tummy.”

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Step three is to help with any spelling or grammatical mistakes we find, so we could

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help out there, too. “Every” is missing an “e.” There. Much better.

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Now, since we made sure to be nice throughout that entire process… we're done!

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And that's how easy it is to be a nice and helpful peer editor. [Girl escorts peer out of the door]

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Although…being a rude and unhelpful peer editor to your enemies has its upside as

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well…

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