In this study, the author examined over 1,600 marginal and end comments written on 110 first drafts of papers by 47 advanced university ESL students, considering both the pragmatic goals for and the linguistic features of each comment. She then examined revised drafts of each paper to observe the influence of the first-draft commentary on the students' revisions and assess whether the changes made in response to the teacher's feedback actually improved the papers. A significant proportion of the comments appeared to lead to substantive student revision, and particular types and forms of commentary appeared to be more helpful than others. The results suggest several important implications for L2 writing instruction and for future studies on a vital but surprisingly neglected topic.
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