Let it Bleed

I'm in a delicate situation here in Writing 122. The professor, a crafty teacher indeed, instructed us to pick four of our fellow students and edit their papers for content and grammar.

Now, I'm not a grammar and punctuation master. Anyone who has read my site will see that. However, I am schooled in this area; writing well is my mission. So, how do I go about editing, a task which will be accounted for in my grade, without driving my fellow students mad at the sight of their papers bleeding ink?

The professor, perhaps being sardonic, perhaps being earnest, suggested a smiley face every now and then. Like band aids. "Though I have excoriated your work, these little symbols :) will keep the trauma from becoming terminal."

Believe me when I say I know from bitter experience what it is like to see my work, which I invested with all the thought and skill I possessed, incised and eviscerated until writer and written bled into each other. Oh yeah, I know it smarts.

So now the wounded writer must become the surgeon bearing the bad news to the family. :) :0 :{