Commenting on Writing

Written Communication Jul 2006

Kwangsu Cho ; Christian D. Schunn ; Davida Charney

Abstract

How do comments on student writing from peers compare to those from subject-matter experts? This study examined the types of comments that reviewers produce as well as their perceived helpfulness. Comments on classmates’ papers were collected from two undergraduate and one graduate-level psychology course. The undergraduate papers in one of the courses were also commented on by an independent psychology instructor experienced in providing feedback to students on similar writing tasks. The comments produced by students at both levels were shorter than the instructor’s. The instructor’s comments were predominantly directive and rarely summative. The undergraduate peers’ comments were more mixed in type; directive and praise comments were the most frequent. Consistently, undergraduate peers found directive and praise comments helpful. The helpfulness of the directive comments was also endorsed by a writing expert.

Journal: Written Communication
Published: 2006-07-01
DOI: 10.1177/0741088306289261
Topics: multilingual writers

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (11)

Li (2025)

Self-Regulated Strategy Development With and Without Peer Interaction: Improvin…

Written Communication
Finkenstaedt-Quinn et al. (2024)

Student Experiences With Peer Review and Revision for Writing-to-Learn in a Che…

Written Communication
Mitchum et al. (2024)

How Do We Know It Works? Feedback Loops to Raise the Messy Middle in Online For…

College Composition and Communication
Lam (2021)

A web-based feedback platform for peer and teacher feedback on writing: An Acti…

Computers and Composition
Baker et al. (2021)

Feature: Transforming the Feedback Paradigm: A Qualitative Study Examining a St…

Teaching English in the Two-Year College

Show all 11 →

Neumann et al. (2019)

Using Google Docs for Peer-then-Teacher Review on Middle School Students’ Writing

Computers and Composition
Pritchard et al. (2017)

Comparison of Online and Face-to-Face Peer Review of Writing

Computers and Composition
Leijen (2017)

A Novel Approach to Examine the Impact of Web-based Peer Review on the Revision…

Computers and Composition
Schreibersdorf (2014)

Literary Discipline in the Margins

Pedagogy
Rendahl et al. (2013)

Toward a Complexity of Online Learning: Learners in Online First-Year Writing

Computers and Composition
Still et al. (2010)

Listening to Students: A Usability Evaluation of Instructor Commentary

Journal of Business and Technical Communication

Cites in this index (5)

Haswell (2005)

NCTE/CCCC’s Recent War on Scholarship

Written Communication
Smith (2003)

The Role of Technical Expertise in Engineering and Writing Teachers’ Evaluation…

Written Communication
Straub (1997)

Students’ Reactions to Teacher Comments: An Exploratory Study

Research in the Teaching of English
Beason (1993)

Feedback and Revision in Writing across the Curriculum Classes

Research in the Teaching of English
Gee (1972)

Students’ Responses to Teacher Comments

Research in the Teaching of English

Also cites 20 works outside this index ↓

Artemeva, N. (2002)

10.37514/LLD-J.2003.6.1.04

Language and Learning across the Disciplines ↗
10.1111/j.1744-6570.2000.tb00202.x

↗
10.1080/0260293990240405

↗
10.1037/0022-0663.79.4.474

↗
10.3102/00028312026002143

↗
10.1080/0268051860010105

↗
10.2307/358238

↗
10.2307/359079

↗
10.1080/03075079312331382281

↗
10.1037/0022-0663.94.2.305

↗
10.1080/03075070120076264

↗
10.1080/1355800950320404

↗
10.1037/0033-2909.86.3.549

↗
10.2307/358669

↗
10.1080/0260293042000197609

↗
10.2307/356588

↗
10.1287/mnsc.32.11.1492

↗
10.1111/j.1464-0597.2004.00171.x

↗
10.1080/00220671.1966.10883440

↗
10.3102/00346543068003249

↗

CrossRef global citation count: 145 View in citation network →