In a study at the University of Illinois, student written comments to four open-ended questions in end-of-semester student evaluations of 60 courses from ten different fields, taught by instructors of different ranks, were analyzed and classified into 22 categories. Nearly two-thirds were about the instructor, and one of four comments were on teaching skills, especially the ability to communicate effectively. The next most frequent comment was on knowledge of the field, followed by humanistic and personal characteristics of the instructor. The characteristics that students choose for evaluation differ from those faculty choose; the latter focuses more on course management than on teaching skills or personal qualities. Written comments and objective item responses were found to correlate, although more highly for comments about the instructor than for those about the course. It is suggested that open-ended evaluation questions be used regularly on these questionnaires. A list of references, a frequency distribution chart, and response groupings and correlations are appended. (MSE)