A Perspective Other Than Your Own

Peer editing is a common practice in high school classrooms, but I think many students take it for granted. I know that personally I didn't really think much about the process, but I have realized how helpful it can be for the writer. After having a fellow classmate edit my Junior Theme, I understood how she viewed the paper from her perspective in contrast to my perspective. Some ways in which I phrased a sentence was not clear enough for her, and she also gave me suggestions as to what I could do to make it clearer. You can use your editor's suggestions or combine their thoughts with your own to create something even better. 

I think that the core of peer editing is to understand different viewpoints that are different than your own. This is an important idea in America today because being able to look at something with different perspectives is a vital skill in the workplace as well as in general. Because technology and ideas are always transforming and improving, we have to be able to think out of our comfort zone. That is why articles and ideas go through a process of being reviewed by multiple editors and higher officials in companies. That is why I believe building a strong foundation on peer editing in middle and high schools would be beneficial to students. 

To read more, here is a great article that goes in depth about peer editing and its benefits.