h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've heard, during my creative writing course, that professional editing is being squeezed in the publishing business because margins are so tight. So, the poor old writer is well advised to get as much as possible done by friends and fellow writers. Which is one of the times that peer review is so useful.

I'd raise three cheers for peer review - which is what, of course, happens in the case of Edited Guide articles. I've been involved with peer review in a number of ways and, at the best, it's very useful.

Your peers are unlikely to be devastating in their criticism, because they want some useful crits on their story/poem/article.

If they are at a similar level of competence to yourself, they can pick up the errors/weaknesses that you've missed and suggest alternative approaches. (You can get problems where a beginner is trying to crit an experienced writer or vice versa.)

Certainly in the case of Edited Guide entries, you are likely to find people who know the bits that you didn't.

There is, of course, a hazard in becoming known as a good, amateur, editor. You can spend so much time editing and coaching others that you don't get any writing done yourself.

Hear hear, Dmitri, and also to mvp. Editors and Peer Reviewers are the reason this site works. And also why I say things like "...please feel free to amend stuff as you see fit." to Dmitri if I ever submit something to The Post, because I would hope that he would catch me before I made a fool of myself.

As if you would, Vip.

Good point, both - we get such good copy because we are there for each other. And we learn as we go.