INTRODUCTION Peer editing is an important activity which allows writing teachers to help their students receive more feedback

on their papers. It also give students practice with a range of skills important in the development of language and writing ability, such as meaningful interaction with peers, a greater exposure to ideas, and new perspectives on the writing process (Hansen & Liu, 2005; Mangelsdorf, 1992). As educators, we want to give students more responsibility, accountability, and involvement in the learning process. Creating independent learners is the goal, and one way to approach that goal is to have students monitor their own progress through peer editing. Peer editing involves students working together to evaluate and revise each others writing. As students review the writing of their peers, they share ideas, create an atmosphere of cooperation, develop independence and responsibility, identify strengths and weaknesses in their writing and reinforce editing skills.

THE GUIDEILINESS OF PEER EDITING 1. Read the essay through without writing anything, just to get to know the essay. 2. Read the essay a second time, critically. Ask How would I improve this essay if it were my own? 3. As students think of improvements, they may worry about hurting the writers feelings. Writing is an intensely personal activity and sometimes a great deal of ego gets tied up in the end product. But the most important thing is to learn, and to learn we must, to some extent, put ego aside. Therefore, although students should consider peoples feelings, good peer editors will still suggest improvements. To avoid hurt feelings, phrase all of your comments as positive I statements. For example, if the introduction is boring, a good peer editor might say, I think you could improve the introduction by making it more vivid or adding more detail. 4. Using the peer-editing guidelines below, it's a good idea to quote from the writers essay as often as necessary and wherever the sheet asks for it. It is imperative that peer editors give the writer something he or she can take home and use as a revising tool. 5. Look over the comments that made on the essay and talk briefly to the writer. Summarize the comments for the writer and ask questions about anything that might be a problem.

THINGS TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY IN PEER EDITING 1. Is the introduction effective, that is, does it make you want to read on? If it is effective, state what makes it effective. If it is not an effective introduction, suggest what the writer might do to improve it. Could the writer use more details or tell a story? Should the writer find a more general connection or start with something more specific? 2. What is the thesis statement of this essay? Is it manageable? Is it focused? Is it strong? Does it give direction to the writer? Does it tell the reader what the essay is about? Is this essay organized clearly? To make this judgment, carefully read each paragraph and determine what each paragraph is about. Point out any problems and suggest how they might be corrected. 3. Does the writer use effective topic sentences to begin each paragraph and develop that topic throughout the paragraph? If yes, give one good example. If not, provide the writer with a good example of the problem and suggest how the problem can be corrected. 4. Does the writer need more or better transitions to link the paragraphs? Quote from the essay to show where transitions are effective. And quote from the essay to show where the writer needs to use or change transitions. 5. Does the writer clearly follow the thesis of the essay? If not, point out places in the essay where the writer loses focus and suggest what the writer might do to get back on track. 6. Does the writer use sufficient details and examples? If so, tell where the writer has used detail effectively, quoting directly from the essay. If not, suggest where the writer could incorporate more details and examples. 7. Are there any words, phrases, or sentences that are not clear? If so, give the writer some examples. 8. Is the conclusion effective? If so, state why it is effective. Quote to show where the writer has succeeded in closing with a strong restatement of purpose. If not, suggest ways that the writer could improve the conclusion. 9. Now that you have read the essay carefully, does the title reflect the writers purpose? Does it grab your attention? Could it be improved? How? 10. List at least three strengths of this essay. Quote where you can to show the writer exactly where he or she succeeds. 11. List at least three things about this essay that could be improved. Quote where you can to show the writer exactly what detracts from the content.

12. Do you see any problems with spelling, grammar, or punctuation? (Dont fix their mistakes. But indicate the problems they need to address. For example, they need to look up the rules for comma use or watch for confusion with their and there.) 13. Provide the writer with your overall impression of his/her essay.

THE BENEFITS OF PEER EDITING 1. Peer editing decreases the amount of paperwork for teachers. It develops self-esteem and encourages students to work more independently and produce a piece of standard-setting work. It enables students to work cooperatively and reinforces writing skills. Peer editing is a technique that results in active, motivated participants in the learning and writing process.

2. Students must know what is wrong, often before they can get it right. By having students learn the steps of the writing process, the elements necessary for a good essay, and what kinds of things are important to include (or leave out) of a well-written essay, they can then apply that knowledge to their own writing. By having students edit and evaluate poor, mistake-ridden writing, they learn to train their eyes on what they dont want to do in their own essays. The worse the essay is, the more students can catch. The more they do this, the more they realize that their own writing isnt so bad! That does not mean that students should be exposed to another students bad essay. Instead, use nonmodel essays, such as those from previous years classes as examples.

3. Students should take an active role in the community process of writing. Too often, teachers and students work in an isolated environment, where student writes essay and teacher grades essay. An opportunity is missed in this environment: the opportunity for students to read more, have conversations about writing, and learn from each other. By having students participate in the peer editing process, students take an active interest in each others writing, and root for them when their essay comes back from the teacher at the end. By hearing from another student, they learn that they are not being lectured to, but that another person who is someone their own age can grasp and use these concepts and therefore, these goals dont seem so far out of reach for their own writing. With only the teachers perspective, the student can unfortunately feel as if the writing environment is a me against her scenario.

4. Students cannot write in a vacuum. It is essential for students to get feedback from someone other than an adult, often to really hear what they are doing right and wrong. By integrating peer editors into the process, students are hearing (in an ideal environment) several points of view, which improve their communication about the writing process, their engagement with the students (and therefore, the world) around them, and they are able to garner different perspectives from students of varied ability levels and backgrounds. Once students feel confident in a classroom that promotes a

comfortable learning environment for making mistakes together, students can feel safe to take more risks in their writing and sharing their ideas and personal perspectives with others. Your students have varied backgrounds and knowledge levels. Use them! Encourage your students to use their own background knowledge and world perspectives to offer insight into that students essay.

5. The more students are actively engaged in something, the better they learn it. According to the Learning Pyramid developed by the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioural Science in Virginia, America, learners retain 90% of what they learn when they teach someone else/use immediately, 75% of what they learn when they practice what they learned, and 50% of what they learn when engaged in a group discussion. By engaging in peer editing (if done correctly) students are sure to learn! Students must be taught what they are to look for when peer editing, how to engage in relevant and sensitive discussion, and how to constructively criticize. This process must be taught after students learn what is actually supposed to go into an essay, and you as the teacher must take an active role in making sure students are trained to know what to look for, and that students are on task with the editing and discussions. Should students be looking for the connection of overall ideas? Should students be looking for punctuation and spelling errors? Should students be commenting on the essays position or ideas? What they look for is up to the teacher and students need to have a clear goal in mind when they sit down with their editors pen.

THE CHALLENGES OF PEER EDITING PRACTISE. Many teachers were aware of some problems when peer editing being carried out. There are several challenges that they might face. These challenges if not being encountered properly, will ruin their main goal. Teachers must establish certain things before they can instruct their students to evaluate or criticize their friends works.

1. LACK OF EXPERIANCE Most students tend to admit their mistakes in writing if the teacher corrected them. This is due to their believe in their teachers experience and knowledge. But, when their written work being edited or criticized by their friends, argumentation will occurred. Though the instructions were cleared, the feeling of doubt will still be there.

2. BIAS When it comes to giving or writing opinion, peer editing sometimes invites bias. This is because one person may disagree of the writers point of views. Certain disagreements can result of rejecting marks. This will cause argumentation. Teacher should aware of this matter if he or she wanted to avoid such matter. Teacher should not give a writing title that can oppose both the writer and the editor.

3. POOR GRAMMAR Grammar is something the teacher and the students should seriously aware when writing something. Poor grammar may results of bad writing and the text will be hardly understandable. In peer editing, the editor should somehow know what he or she was doing. Editing someones text without any knowledge of grammar will cause disaster. A lot of things should be considered when editing a text. Students must know the tenses, the nouns, the articles and so on. The text will be ruined. The editor will be mistakenly negating some ideas in the sentences if he lacks of grammatical knowledge.

4. LACK OF KNOWLEDGE IN SENTENCE STRUCTURES A text consists of several paragraphs. The paragraphs will be strong if the sentence structures are good. Marking a text always need a person to be very careful. This is important because when a person who has no knowledge in sentence structures will always lost in their marking. Editing their friends text will be a disaster. Teacher must make sure that students must have appropriate knowledge on how to construct good sentences before attending in editing peer work.

CONLUSION. As we know, when doing peer editing, there are lots of things to be aware in order to get the goals from it. Teachers should know what kind of text to be given to the students. The text must be relevant and at their level of knowledge. The students should be given some briefing before editing their friends work. Editing should be transparent. No bias should be applied. Students should know how to play their role. Although there are several challenges when doing the peer editing, there are also some benefits can be gained from the exercise.

With a good guidance, students can accept the critics came from their friends. All criticize must be sincere. The markers should follow the guides which have been listed by the teacher. In a glance, peer editing can be a nightmare to the students. But when this exercise was correctly done, it benefits to both the teacher and the students.

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REFERENCES 1. Beachy, C. J., (1992) Enhancing Writing through cooperative peer editing; In N. Davidson 2. Brazil (2001) The Realm of The Red Pen: The Impact of Written Teacher Feedback on L2 Writing in REACT Vol. 20, No. 2. 3. Brooks, M., G., (1993) The Case For Constructivist Classrooms; Alexandria, VA: ASCD. 4. Edward, C. H., (2004) Classroom Discipline and Management; New York: John Wiley & Sons Inc. 5. Gardner, H. (1993) Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice; New York: Basic Books. 6. Hillocks, G. Jr, (2002) The Testing Trap, New York and London: Teachers College Press. 7. Jacobs, G. M.; Power, M., A; and Loh, W. I., (2002) The Teachers Sourcebook for Cooperative Learning. California: Corwin Press. 8. Magone, K., (1996) Peer editing benefits you and your students; University of Montana, School of Law. 9. Maxwell, J., (1996) Qualitative Research Design, California: SAGE Publications, Inc. 10. Mills, G., E., (2003) Action Research: A Guide for the Teacher Researcher, New Jersey: Pearson Education