This document provides guidance for peer editing a research paper. It outlines several areas to focus on when reviewing a peer's paper, including the thesis statement, topic and transition sentences, word choice, numbers, citations, formatting, point of view, contractions, conjunctions, and general errors. The editor is instructed to highlight or mark specific issues in each section to provide feedback on improving the paper.

1. Highlight the thesis statement Does the thesis give you a clear picture of the situation and the argument that the paper will focus on? PEER EDITING

2. TOPIC/TRANSITION SENTENCES Highlight the topic sentence of each body paragraph sentence should be general – if sentence includes detail note on side of paper The second (and subsequent) body paragraphs should also include a transition (pull from prior paragraph)

3. WORD CHOICE Circle the word there if it begins a sentence. Circle the verbs “is” or “are You may make suggestions on rewording the above

4. NUMBERS Look for all numbers in the paper. If any are incorrect, highlight them. Spell out a number that begins a sentence. Spell out a number that expresses order (i.e. first, second, third, etc.) Spell out a number that tells how many if it is one or two words . If it is longer than two words, write it numerically. Use numerals to express numbers in conventional situations (like percentages, dates, addresses, times, etc.)

5. CITATIONS Highlight all parenthetical citations in your paper. Then check for… … the period. It should go only after the parentheses. Not before and after. Not just before. Just after. Like this  Mrs. Stewart is the weirdest teacher ever (“Weird Teachers”). … the titles. Titles must be capitalized! No, I don’t mean IN ALL CAPS. The major words should be capitalized like such  The Social Network . Notice that the title was italicized because it’s a major work. If it’s an article title, it should be in “quotation marks.”

6. FORMAT Check for MLA formatting—this should be the easiest part of your research paper grade! Make any corrections with a red pen. Margins should be 1” 4-line heading (Name, Teacher’s Name, English II-PreAP, Date [1 December 2011]) Double spaced (with no extra lines between paragraphs) Header (in same font—Last name and page #)

7. POINT OF VIEW Highlight ALL instances of first (I, me, my, we, our, us, etc.) or second (you, your, etc.) person. Eliminate these from your paper.

8. CONTRACTIONS Search for any contractions in your paper and highlight them when you spot ‘em. Uncontraction these. Okay, so that’s not a word, but you know what I mean.

9. CONJUNCTIONS There’s nothing wrong with conjunctions; you just don’t want to start a sentence with one. To refresh your memory, the coordinating conjuntions are: for, an, nor, but, or, yet, so (FANBOYS) . If you started any sentences with one of these words, highlight and fix it. Usually it can just be taken out of the sentence. If it doesn’t make sense that way, change the period before the conjunction to a comma. **Hint: the most common sentence-starting conjuctions are “and,” “but,” and “so.”

10. GENERAL TYPOS If you haven’t already, switch papers with someone else. Read carefully for general typos, spelling and punctuation errors, etc. Mark in red ink.