Supporting argumentative essay writing through an online supported peer-review script Saeed Latif a and Omid Noroozi b a Educational Technology, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran; b Education and Learning Sciences, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands ABSTRACT This study investigated the impact of an online peer-review script on students’ argumentative peer-review quality and argumentative essay writing. A pre- and post-test experimental design was used with 42 undergraduate students in the feld of educational science. Students were randomly divided over 21 dyads and assigned to two conditions (unscripted and scripted peer-review). Students were frst asked to write an original argumentative essay about the topic at hand. Then, students in the scripted condition had to review their peer’s argumentative essay based on a peer-review script while students in the unscripted condition reviewed their peer’s essay without the script. Finally, all students had to revise their original essay based on the comments of their peers. Students in the scripted peer-review condition outperformed students in the unscripted condition in terms of quality of their argumentative peer-review and argumentative essay writing. These results are discussed and implications are provided. KEYWORDS Argumentative essay writing; peer-review; online learning; scripting Introduction Meaningful learning requires deep engagement with concepts and learning materials. Students can build on argumentation and reasoning to critically refect on various aspects of the issue at hand and also to engage in deep cognitive processing of learning materials (Jonassen & Kim, 2010; Noroozi, Dehghanzadeh et al., 2020). That is why, higher education institutes have emphasised on teaching students the skills of argumentation, critical thinking, and logical reasoning as essential objectives in education (Noroozi et al., 2018). Learning to argue is seen as a core process both in learning to think and to new understandings (Billig, 1996; Kuhn, 1992). Theoretically, argumentation can be linked to social constructivist conception of meaning making, whereby students deal with con- troversial issues, take positions, negotiate meaning, and learn about the issues at stake in authentic tasks (Driver et al., 2000; Jonassen & Kim, 2010; Newton et al., 1999; Noroozi et al., 2018). Given the increasingly global nature of complex problems and controversial issues in today’s complex society, helping students learn to argue and collaborate together in learning groups for sharing their knowledge, expertise, and experiences from diferent perspectives is a priority for higher education (Noroozi et al., 2012). CONTACT Saeed Latifi saeed.latifi@gmail.com Educational Technology, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran INNOVATIONS IN EDUCATION AND TEACHING INTERNATIONAL https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2021.1961097 © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group