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10

From Revising to Editing

Working with Peer Groups

A

cademic writing is a collaborative enterprise. By reading and com-

menting on your drafts, your peers can support your work as a writer.

And you can support the work of your peers by reading their drafts with a

critical but constructive eye.

In this chapter, we set out the differences between revising and edit-

ing, discuss the peer editing process in terms of the composition pyramid,

present a model peer editing session, and then explain the writer’s and

reader’s responsibilities through early drafts, later drafts, and final drafts,

providing opportunities for you to practice peer response on three drafts

of a student paper.

Revising veRsus editing

We make a distinction between revising and editing. By revising, we mean

making changes to a paper to reflect new thinking or conceptualizing. If a

reader finds that the real focus of your essay comes at the end of your draft,

you need to revise the paper with this new focus in mind. Revising differs

from editing, which involves minor changes to what will be the final draft

of a paper — replacing a word here and there, correcting misspellings, or

substituting dashes for commas to create emphasis, for example.

When you’re reading a first or second draft, the niceties of style, spell-

ing, and punctuation are not priorities. After all, if the writer had to change

the focus of his or her argument, significant changes to words, phrases,

and punctuation would be inevitable. Concentrating on editing errors

early on, when the writer is still trying to develop an argument with evi-

dence, organize information logically, and anticipate counterarguments, is

inefficient and even counterproductive.

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