Arab Educational Information Network

This study aimed to upgrade the writing skills of the New Valley faculty of Education English majors. The problem of this study lies in that the New Valley faculty of Education English majors' performance in writing is neither satisfactory nor suitable for what a university English major is supposed to be. The researchers seek to promote their students' writing skills through the use of peer evaluation that is based on the exchange of e-mail messages. The researchers selected twenty five students of the second year English majors- 17 females and 8 males- to be the sample of the study. Participants were pre tested at the beginning of the experiment. Participants were fully acquainted with the objectives and procedures of e-mail- based peer evaluation. They were trained to be editors of the writing of other students. Topics for writing were assigned from the beginning of the first semester of the academic year 2008/9. Training lasted for ten weeks. Toward the turn of the semester, the participants were post tested. Results showed that the participants' writing skills improved to a good extent due to the use of e-mail based peer evaluation. Their performance in writing personal letters exceeded theirs in writing two- paragraph essays. (Published abstract)