The Effects of Written Comments on the Quality of Student Compositions and the Learning of Content

This study investigated the effects of two types of written comments on student compositions and learning of course content. One type of comment, the content comment, was designed to encourage students to view their papers as readers, to add and delete content, and to restructure content as needed. The other type of comment, the surface comment, focused on problems such as word choice, spelling, punctuation, and/or language usage. The comments occurred after students’ first drafts which they then revised. Significant differences among groups for holistic scores and for learning course content were revealed. The treatment group that received content comments wrote significantly better essays than the other treatment group or the control group. The treatment group that received content comments and the control group received significantly better scores on the course content test.