The Horror of Peer Editing

When it comes to peer editing, there can be times when it's great but other times when it's bad. In high school, I remember I would be so nervous for peer editing, especially when the teacher chose who was going to read my work. I was already overly critical in my writing, and I didn’t want them to judge me if it was bad. So when we got to choose our partner, I would of course choose my best friend. But even when I would write with her, I felt like she was a much better writer than I am, so while I had little critiques for her, she had many for me. But this helped me a lot when I grew as a writer. A downside to this was that I felt like I was lacking in the critical partner area. She was just so good! How could I find anything wrong? But as time went by, I learned what to look out for and even be able to give some feedback.

When I wrote with people I didn’t know, I remember being given a checklist. Having to score the other person on their paper. Of course in high school, you just wanted to get it done with so you would give the other person full marks without even critically reading their work. This was a horrible approach because I didn’t learn anything. That’s when I had to learn to be assigned to the honor students who would be able to give me clear instructions. Being accepted into Honors English, I was able to learn how to give real feedback.

My senior year I had a professor that was very critical. It was hard to even have confidence in his class when he was just tearing your paper to pieces. My self esteem in writing plummeted and my dream of writing was a goner. The sad part of this was that I took it so much to heart that my mental health spiralled too. But at the end of the term, when I had to write my reflection paper, I realized that while he was very harsh, my writing grew enormously as I fought to be a better writer. While I was very honest in my opinion of the class in my paper, I ended up getting a 98% and my teacher telling me that it was the best reflection letter he has read. Granted, it was only his second year teaching the course…

This being my first year at George Fox, I have been able to have people who give me amazing advice. Going to the ARC, they are always there to help and even pull apart and sew the paper back together with me. My peer editing experience hadn’t been great until I came here to George Fox and I’m looking forward to learning even more as I grow with my peers.