Wonders & Woes of Writing: Peer Editing

            Whenever I edit my peers’ papers, I go a bit overboard marking things that can be clarified or expounded upon, grammar errors, etc.  I don’t do it to be mean, I do it because I want to help them write the best paper possible, and I want them to reciprocate with my writings.  Sadly, I am almost always disappointed. 
            My editing has two results.  Either they’re offended or they start considering me as some sort of writing guru!  Neither of which is desirable.  Over time, I’ve stopped using red pen when editing, for obvious reasons.  That has helped prevent some offense, but it does nothing to address the other extreme.
            Recently, I was writing a thesis paper for an English course.  I am, by my standards, terrible at writing thesis papers.  This probably stems from the fact that I am extremely apathetic about most things.  (When I say I don’t care, I seriously don’t care.)  Being apathetic makes it difficult to take a stance on assigned topics, so it’s very arduous to write an effective thesis paper.  The day our rough draft was due, I finally sat down and threw some thoughts onto paper, a large portion of which was quotes, as I couldn’t be bothered to form my own opinion on the matter.  (Don’t worry: I cited everything properly.)  When it came time to peer edit, only one out of the three people who read my paper gave me any useful feedback!  It was about having more original content, instead of relying on so many quotes.  I was already aware of that though, so even then the value of her suggestion was not that great.  Of the other two, one didn’t even mark anything on my paper and told me when returning it that she had learned from it, while the other only wrote, “This was awesome!” followed by a smiley face.  When I returned her paper, she informed me, in a not entirely joking manner, that her strategy was to follow all my edits and suggestions when revising her work for submission.  I was not amused. 
I should not be the one giving the most thorough critiques on my work!  I don’t mind people thinking I’m proficient at writing, but I am not perfect!  I’m sure there are plenty of areas in which I could improve drastically, but I need outside help to perceive most of them.  Peer editing is sorely lacking in this regard. 
Recently, I was expressing this frustration to my father and he said, “Sounds to me like you need a writing mentor.”  I realized, “Yes, that is exactly what I need!”  However, how does one go about obtaining such a thing?  Is there some sort or Writer’s Guild I should join?  Should I take out a personal ad? Is there an online market for writing mentors?  I don’t know!  So now I have advanced to the new frustration of not knowing how to get what I need. 

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