Essay Peer Editing Workshop

Why Peer Workshops are Important

Over my years of teaching, I've discovered that students learn a lot from seeing the work of their peers. Writer's who work in isolation with only teacher lecturing or whole class instruction don't always get the feedback or examples they need to push to the next level of writing. Because peer workshops make all students get involved, they learn more. In addition, students are often more motivated by the approval or disapproval of peers to work harder on their papers.

Peer learning works in several ways. First, I hope students will get ideas from their peers for how to improve their paper. Because my students are working within the same basic topic area, they have read some of the same materials and may have information that will be he helpful. Second, students learn from the way other people have structured their papers. Sometimes, they simply get ideas for more effective structuring, or if they have not written a good outline, they will see how other students did the work and have a better chance of doing their draft correctly.

How I use Peer Workshops

Students work either in pairs or small groups for a workshop, except for writer's chair, which is done as a whole class activity. Sometimes the size of the group depends on how much class time I have for that workshop. Pairs go fastest. However, I prefer groups of about 4. Sometimes I allow students to form their own groups, and other times I number them off, or give them numbered cards which form them into groups. If they are working on a similar topic, I sometimes will group them by topic.

Example of Using Peer Editing for Exploratory Essays

So how do you use peer editing in a classroom? I will give you an example of how I use it for my Exploratory essay assignment. You can adapt this format to any essay type .I apply the same format to Argument Essays, Cause Effect Essays, Reading Response Essays, Position Essays, Research Essays, and Personal Experience Essays.

Exploratory essays are used to examine the different perspectives that people have on an arguable issue. In my college English Rhetoric class, which uses the textbook Perspectives on Argument by Nancy Woods, we begin with gathering sources and writing a Summary, Analysis and Response Paper. Next we take those sources and write up an Exploratory Paper which examines these issues. Before they write their paper, I have students make an outline, following my instructions in How to Write an Exploratory Paper. They bring the outline to class and use the first worksheet below to do a peer discussion about their outline.

Peer Workshop: Exploratory Essay Outline Group Work

Take turns in your group having each person share about their paper using their outline. Then the group can respond with questions, comments and suggestions. Some things to consider:

1. Is intro interesting? Do you feel you understand the issue and the question?
2. Does the question and the three positions match up? Is there a contrast in the positions? Are their other positions you think need to be considered?
3. Is the context/constraints of the question clear?
4. Is there other supporting evidence you can think of?
5. Is the response interesting? Does the author respond to the ideas and connect them with their own thoughts and/or experiences? How can they do that better?
6. Anything you think is missing or needs to be explained or expanded?

How to Teach a Peer Editing Draft Workshop

For a draft workshop, I ask the students to bring two typed copies of their essays to class. They first do the "Writer" section of the below worksheet on one copy of their own paper. Then they write an questions they have for me on the second copy (and give it to me--I read and answer these questions as students are doing the workshop). Next, I form them into groups of about 4-5 students. They pass their papers around and use the "Reader" section of the worksheet to edit. I ask them to do a thorough job of the first edit, and then to try to do at least one other edit which seeks to add to what the first editor said. After the workshop, students take the peer editing information home to help them re-write.

When the final papers are turned in, they bring the peer editing back and return it to the person who wrote it. I grade students on the quality of their editing responses. I believe editing is a different skill from writing and a very important one, so I encourage students to use and develop this skill over the course. In grading, I also take into account the comments students make in class during class discussion and Writer's Workshop (see below)

Peer Editing Draft Workshop Worksheet:Exploratory Essay

Writer:

1. Underline: your question, the three positions, your position
2. Wavy underline: author tags and citations.

Write (at top of draft or on a separate sheet of paper):

1. What is best about your paper
2. Questions you have for the peer editor.
3. What you want them to help you with.

Peer Editor (put your name at the top of the draft paper—editor #____________)

I. Read the paper and make marks on the draft about:

• grammar and spelling errors
• what you think is good
• where they need more support
• where they need better transitions
• where they need references, citations or author tags (or any problems with ones they have)
• where they need more explanation or description

II. On a separate sheet of paper write:

Intro:

1. Is the issue both defined and described?
2. Anything that needs to be added?
3. Was the opening interesting?
4. How could it be improved?

Body:

1. How well does the paper examine the rhetorical situation? (exigence [reason for this debate]
2. audience [who is interested in this issue]
3. constraints [situations and attitudes which affect the debate])
4. Is there any part missing? How can it be improved?
5. Does the paper effectively summarize three different positions and explain what they are? Who believes them? Why they believe it?
6. Does the paper give enough evidence for each position?

Conclusion:

1. Does the author respond to the issue and give an interesting perspective?
2. Does the author need to add anything?

III. Editing 2^nd and 3^rd papeer

When you finish peer editing your first paper, then do a second peer edit and a third if you have time. Put your name at the top of each paper as editor #2 etc. On a second edit, go ahead and read the other editor’s comments and add what you think would be helpful.

Writer's Workshop: Whole Class Listening and Responding

I started doing Writer's Workshop because I realized that some students often had excellent comments on student papers, but other students did not have very well developed editing skills. Writer's Workshop allows students to learn how to evaluate papers, along with allowing me to instruct students within the context of an actual student paper example.

Writer's Workshop happens on the day that we turn in Final Drafts. I have about 3-4 students sign up for Writer's Workshop on each essay. The advantage of signing up for Workshop is that they get not only additional editing help, but also another day before their paper is due.

On Writer's Workshop, the students stand up in front of the class and read their paper. Usually, I ask them to bring 10 copies or so for students to read and follow along. As the student reads, their peers write comments. Afterwards, we take oral comments and I have students each write an answer to two questions:

• What is well done on the draft?
• What could be improved?

These two simple questions are usually all that I need to get the class comments to both give positive and helpful feedback. I usually give my comments at the end, being sure to notice anyone whose peer editing ideas were very good. Sometimes, at the first Writer's Workshop, students are a bit reluctant to speak, but I've definitely noticed that everyone in the class gets better at editing as a result of this class instruction. I know that I've accomplished my goal when, after listening to the student's comments, I have to say I have nothing to add, because they've said everything I wanted to say!