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Peer Editor

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Editing Song of

Beginning the peer editing process:

• Songwriter stands and sings the song to peer editor. Peer editor listens closely, making notes of any general impressions.
• After listening to the song, editor receives copy of the lyric with accent marks for editing and a cassette tape of the writer singing the song.
• Songwriter and peer editor together describe and make notes musical setting including rhythmic emphases, tempo, melody, song form or genre, etc.

You, as the editor, are to write a critique of your partner’s song. You will be evaluated for the thoroughness of your editing. The critique needs to include the following:

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best), how effective is the title at enticing you to listen to the song? How well does it fit the content of the song? Defend your rating; if the title was not very effective, how could it be improved? If there is no title, suggest one.

2. What is the song about? Is it an example of what the author has identified as his/her passion to work on this quarter?

3. How does the author incorporate description and images into the song?

 

 

4. Is the song written from the point of view of the songwriter him/herself, or does it use a different "voice" for the singer? How effective is the point of view used by the songwriter?

5. On a scale of 1 to 10, how effective is the ending? Defend your rating; if the ending is not effective, suggest how the author might approach it.

6. How effective is the author at using structural techniques, such as verse, chorus, bridge, intro, or coda? Does the structure support the meaning of the song? For instance, does each verse build on the one before it and lead appropriately into the chorus? Does the bridge, if any, represent a new thought or side comment to the rest of the song? Make suggestions, if needed.

7. Do the rhythmic emphases fall on important words that carry the sense of the line, or does the rhythm seem to fall by accident on unimportant words like "the" or "of"? How could the songwriter change either the lyric or the rhythm to take advantage of rhythmic emphasis?

8. Write at least one specific point the songwriter did well. Cite an example.

9. Write at least one specific point the songwriter needs to work on. Cite an example.

10. "Many poems need to be cropped. Often I cut more than half of what I write," says author Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge in Poemcrazy, p. 159. Songwriters do that, too. Songs are very small stories, meant to be absorbed only by listening rather than reading. Many times songwriters try to fit too many words into a single line. See if you and your partner can cut up to half of each line of lyric in your partner’s song, making sure that you retain the sense of each line as well as a strong beginning and ending.