There are many places for instructors to leave comments, so you may want to check with your instructor for clarification as to which was used.
Prefer video? A video overview is available at the end of this article.
To retrieve them, head to the Grades menu item in your course. All graded assignments will be listed on this page.
The screen capture below illustrates the many areas where a comment can appear. (In this specific example, the assignment is called "Character Analysis Essay.") It is unlikely your instructor will use all of these, but the illustration below shows every possible place comments can appear. However, be sure to keep scrolling down for information on comments within the document, further down on this screen.
Check the five circled numbers in the screen capture below, as shown from the Grades screen; explanations for each are explained within the illustration:
Embedded Comments Within Document
Additionally, many instructors make comments directly within your submitted paper itself using the DocViewer program built into Canvas. To see those comments, click directly on the name of the assignment itself, as shown below:
On the resulting screen, you should see a link called View Feedback (circled below) that will lead to comments within the document itself in Canvas' DocViewer program:
The ensuing screen will open the Canvas DocViewer program, where you will see comments your instructor made. Additional details are provided in the PDF document at the end of this article.
Saving Your Instructor's Comments
It is important to realize that if you ever re-submit your assignment using the Re-submit Assignment button, Canvas will seemingly over-write your original submission with your new one. This will include any embedded commments that your instructor made on your original submission! Therefore, it is recommended that you SAVE the embedded instructor comments by clicking the download button within the DocViewer application, which is the arrow at the far left side of the screen in DocViewer:
Video Overview
Here is a video overview of the information above. Closed-captioning is available.
Guide for Students on Retrieving Instructor Comments