Peer editing is a technique used in manuscript and scientific writing. People engaged in peer editing draft their manuscripts and provide each other with valuable suggestions for improvement.
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2. Peer editing is a technique used in manuscript and
scientific writing. People engaged in peer editing
draft their manuscripts and provide each other with
valuable suggestions for improvement.
The technique can be used at any point in the writing
process – formulation of ideas, constructing an
outline, draft revision, or copy editing of the final
draft.
3. How does the Peer Editing Process Work?
The instructors of peer editing ask all authors to bring in
their copies of a draft, distribute them for marking up,
and have editors sign and return them to the author right
away.
However, papers have the risk of getting lost sometimes,
especially the rough drafts which are full of errors
variously caught by the peers. In such a case, web-based
collaborative writing tools work better for some peer
editing situations.
4. Pros and Cons of Peer Editing
Peer editing has many benefits in scientific manuscript editing :
You gain confidence in your work by having others working
in your niche read it and provide comments prior to the
journal.
Editing by peers can help you identify problems in your own
writing. Plus, other authors get a firsthand experience as to
how it feels and what it takes to assess writing critically,
rather than just relying on the journal’s editing process to
find all the mistakes.
5. When you know that your manuscript will be read by
your peers, it gives you a chance to write for a broader
audience than just the journal. This encourages better
planning about providing context for the topic at hand.
Manuscript written with peers in mind stands a better
chance of being livelier and more engaging than papers
written solely for an authority figure.
Peer editing teaches each author to act as a teacher
reviewing other’s work and forces them to act expertly.
6. However, peer editing has some pitfalls too
Peers when asked to review other’s work often focus
more on grammatical improvements and other trivial
errors rather than on other aspects of the writing
process.
Peers are often too polite to offer constructive criticism
to each other. On the other hand, some peers may
occasionally go into an “attack dog” mode” and provide
comments out of frustration or jealousy. Thus, a
balanced approach to productive criticism should be
defined at the outset of a peer editing exercise.
7. As said earlier, an online peer editing environment
provides documents which are visible to the whole class
(rather than just the author and the editor). This may spur
an overly humble or aggressive tone.
Peers may sometimes identify with the ideas the author is
posing rather than comment on the clarity of the
argument.
Occasionally a peer may suggest a correction which
when followed actually weakens the quality of the paper.
8. Tips for Peer Editing Exercises
Create a separate schedule or consider blocking off time for
in-class peer editing. This is often required to bring
seriousness and concentration to the activity. It also allows
you to put good habits in place and manage all the tasks
of scientific manuscript writing well.
Provide your peers with a model of editing, or a set of codes
to use in the process. This allows them to steer attention
away from the trivial matters and focus on more significant
and critical engagement with your paper.
9. Additionally, ask your peers to submit short “editorial
notes” addendum to your final draft. This document
must incorporate high points from the peer editing
process and critique the feedback that they received.
If you have several papers to be published and opt for
peer editing sessions for each, make sure that you
submit different documents to different editors each
time.
10. Peer editing can be a boon to your scientific editing
process provided your peers know the set of codes or
the protocol you follow for the process.
Otherwise, it can be a sheer waste of time and can also
spoil the hard work you put in writing your manuscript.
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