Handbook Index

Writing Tip: Making the Most of Peer Editing

Even if you don't belong to a writing class, you can use peer editing to help you sharpen your writing skills. Peer editing is when someone else reads your writing and provides you with useful feedback. Your friends, roommates, family members, fellow students--almost anyone--can be a good peer editor.

To get the most out of peer editing, give your editor(s) a short list of questions to answer about your writing. Below are some good questions to start with. It's also a good idea to use more than one peer editor if possible.

Good luck and good writing!

Some Peer Editing Questions

  1. What is the topic of the essay/paper?
  2. What is the thesis statement? Write it…
  3. Is every sentence clear?
  4. Does every sentence contain a subject and a verb?
  5. Are there any sentences that are not related to the main topic? Which ones?
  6. Etc….