Comment Type Matters: Analysing the Implementation of Summary, Problem/Solution, and Praise Comments in Peer Feedback

Prior research has suggested that the receipt of peer comments and their subsequent implementation may help to improve student’s writing performance. However, comments may vary in terms of content and subsequent effects of their implementation on writing quality. Currently, there is a lack of research investigating how comments providing praise, summary, and information about problems and solutions are related to the subsequent text revision and writing improvement. Therefore, this study examines the online peer feedback session of 187 students taking academic writing classes at a Korean university. It aims to investigate the relationship between the receipt of comments providing praise, summary, and information about problems and solutions, as well as their implementation and student writing performance. The results showed that there is no relationship between the number of received comments and student writing performance. However, the more comments students implemented, the lower their writing performance was. With regards to the type of comments, summary comments, and comments detecting problems and/or solutions were more likely to be implemented when compared with praise comments. The receipt of comments about problems and/or solutions had a significantly negative relationship with student writing performance, whereas their implementation was positively related to this variable.