This study sought to answer a number of questions. First, how do teachers respond to “successful” and “unsuccessful” writers? Also, how are these responses different? Furthermore, how did the distribution of the types of comments the teachers used affect student understanding of the comments? For instance, were certain types of comments understood more often than others, and what might be the results of such occurrences for student writers? Another objective of this research was to see how well the participating students understood the comments written on their essays, and to determine if there was any difference between how the “successful” and “unsuccessful” students understood their teachers’ commentary.