Peer editing using web based instruction: a quantitative approach

The impact of web based peer editing is an under researched area in L2 writing. International literature in writing pedagogy suggested that such kind of study is not carried out before. To investigate this phenomenon third semester students N=14 were randomly chosen with a control group of N=7 and an experimental group of N=7.Both the groups were subject to pretest, posttest treatment. Both wrote an argumentative essay before the intervention. The control group was exposed to manual peer editing and the experimental group was subjected to the web based tool paper rater. Both the groups’ resubmitted their revised essays. A paired sample‘t’ test was employed to measure the performance levels of the revised scripts. The results revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in terms of conventions and style. Perhaps, a single online tool is sufficient and efficacious than hours spent on manual peer editing.