Comment Cards for Academic Essays: Helping Students Give Quality Feedback

As English teachers, we ask our students to edit and revise their peers' essays. However, students do not always know how to give constructive feedback. It's important that students are able to give constructive feedback about targeted writing skills while also maintaining the dignity of the writer.

This product contains a handout with five tips for writing effective comments during peer revision and coaches students on how to go about giving thoughtful, quality feedback on academic essays in a supportive and encouraging manner.

Then, there are "Comment Cards" that are divided according to targeted writing skills that give students a menu of options for giving positive comments and constructive criticism. Students are given models for writing criticism in a way that gives student an editing and revision task instead of simply marking something as incorrect. Writing criticisms as actionable items gives students a clear direction for editing and revising the essay.

The Comment Cards are clustered according to the following targeted writing skills:

Thesis Statement
Introduction Paragraph
Conclusion Paragraph
Topic/ Concluding Sentences
Body Paragraphs
Organization
Grammar & Punctuation
Style & Word Choice
Credibility
MLA Format
Following Directions
Evidence
Commentary & Analysis

Students are also allowed to add their own comments to these cards in order to give themselves a bank of high-quality comment options. The Comment Cards are presented in two formats. The first format presents the comments clustered with their "sister" skills such as evidence and commentary. Following these pairings, each individual targeted writing skill is printed on a page of its own. You can decide how you want to give them to students as part of your writing workshop.

These comments can also be used by teachers to give students feedback when they turn in essays. They can be easily converted into a checklist to accompany the essay rubric.