After you have written a first draft of your research paper, there remains some important steps before your paper is a finished product. In this topic, you learned about revising and editing your paper. Now that you have allowed your paper "to rest," you can return to it with fresh eyes and begin making corrections and revisions.

After you have revised and edited your research paper to the best of your ability, you will submit your revised edition to your instructor, who will then distribute it to a coursemate for a peer review. You will also receive a peer's research paper so that you can practice reading and giving constructive feedback. When you give comments, make sure that they are constructive in nature. In other words, your feedback should not only identify the strong and weak points in the paper but also offer suggestions for improving the paper. For example, you can say,

"The introduction has a really good hook that makes me want to read the rest of the paper. The thesis, though, does not tell me what your specific opinion is on the subject. Consider taking a firm stance on the topic and writing that into your thesis."

Do you see how that comment offers a compliment as well as a suggestion as to how to improve a part of the paper?

Before you begin, review the Revising and Editing Peer Review Checklist to make sure that you include all of the items required for full credit. Although this checklist will guide you through the revising and editing of your peer review, you can of course use the same checklist as you revise and edit your own research paper.

Once you have completed your peer review, please submit a copy of your suggested changes to the dropbox.