This study investigates how middle school students and teachers in preservice and master of arts classes analyze writing samples. Three sets of participants analyzed and scored a common set of writings. Findings indicate that several intact classroom groups of eighth-graders, preservice teachers, and veteran teachers in a graduate reading program evaluated electronic literature discussion group writing sets similarly, in terms of both numeric assessments and rationales for why they assigned numeric values. Researchers concluded that there is general agreement about what constitutes good writing, that writing instruction that incorporates meaningful evaluation can support both developmental and struggling writers, and that an evaluation of writing may provide an instructional entry for teachers. All three groups were highly engaged in the small group evaluation, suggesting that peer-mediated writing activities are effective for teaching writing to diverse learners.