The Effects of Peer Editing on the Writing Proficiency of Low-Achieving Tenth Grade Students

The investigators employed a quasi- experimental design to determine the effects of a highly- structured peer editing treatment on the essay-writing proficiency of low-achieving tenth grade students. With the effects of subject sex, pretreatment essay proficiency, and reading level controlled statistically, the peer edit group had significantly higher (p < .05) writing proficiency (as rated by trained independent judges) than did students whose essays were edited by teachers. The findings have implications, both for time spent by teachers grading essays as well as for use of peer editing as a potentially effective instructional technique in the teaching of writing proficiency.