Have students trade essays. These can either be essays they have written or any article from a newspaper or magazine.
Instruct students to highlight in yellow sentences they find particularly appealing. In the margin have the students write a comment about why the sentence or paragraph is particularly appealing. Things that they might comment on include "good diction," or "nice analogy."
Ask the students to mark all significantly complex, wordy or confusing sentences in blue. In the margin have the students write a comment that briefly explains why the sentence is confusing, followed by an example of the sentence rewritten correctly.
Get the students to mark, with the green highlighter, all grammar and style errors. These can include things from comma splices to MLA or AP style errors. With the red pen, have students correct the error using professional editing marks. A list of these marks is found in the references section.
Tell the students to return the papers and instruct each student to rewrite the paper or article fixing all the mistakes marked by the other student.
Have students pair up with the partner they had before who previously edited their paper or article. Instruct the students to take the rewritten final drafts and do a final edit. The students will keep their own papers but work closely with their partner.
Have each student read the final draft of the paper or article aloud to their peer. Here students are editing for style, grammar, punctuation, syntax, spelling and usage by hearing the mistakes as they say each word aloud. Often, students can skip words as they are reading and doing the initial edit, but as they read the final draft aloud they are forced to read every word and are more likely to catch confusing or overly complex sentences.
Have them mark trouble sentences or any errors they come across as they are reading the paper aloud by underlining or placing a check mark.
Swap papers again. This time, the students will read the other person's paper aloud, marking any confusing or troublesome areas as they go along. This gives the author of the paper insight into how an audience reads what they have rewritten.
Have the students return the papers to their owners. Instruct the students to again rewrite the final draft by making and final changes to the paper or article if any errors were found during the oral readings.