The greatest number of students said they prefer comments that help them improve. The majority also find most useful those comments that tell them what their papers do well, identify grammatical errors, address ideas or content, and caution against less-successful writing strategies. Unwelcome comments from the student's perspective include extensive comments, excessively brief remarks, and symbols. Students isolated this last category to express particular concern, reporting that they find such symbols esoteric because instructors often fail to provide any descrip- tion of them. Also distressing to students are statements directed at changing their writing styles.
Students expect and want more dialogue with their teacher.
Such commitment should compel faculty to initiate and sustain working partnerships with their students. The marginal comments represent not the end but the beginning of an exchange of ideas. When student writing can savor not just a grade but also the satisfaction of making a lasting impression on the instructor as a reader, the instructors positive response represents the highest form of praise. This dialogue between student writers and faculty also provides an opportunity for study into the nature and value of such discourse. More research needs to be done on how students relate to the messages in the margin.