Samenvatting

This study examined whether instruction in genre
knowledge enriches students’ feedback on each other’s
writing, resulting in better writing quality. In total 140
sixth-grade students (age 11–13) participated in the study.
Two approaches to peer response with additional instruction
were compared. In one condition, students
were taught specific genre knowledge (SGK). In another
condition, students were taught general aspects of communicative
writing (GACW). Both groups were compared
with a baseline control group. Students were randomly
assigned to the conditions. Results showed strong
effects of the SGK condition outperforming the other
conditions on text quality of four posttest writing tasks.
Video recordings of students commenting on each
other’s first drafts showed that the students in the SGK
condition gave significantly more attention to the functions
taught than students in the GACW condition. This
finding supports the interpretation that knowledge
about the genre-specific functions was actually used to
improve texts.