This study investigates the effect of error correction on middle school students’ development in English writing, specifically focusing on (1) which type of feedback, explicit provision of reformulated forms or implicit request for clarification, is more effective for improving their writing fluency and accuracy, and (2) to what extent and in what ways the two types of feedback influence their attitudes toward English learning. Participants were pre-intermediate level students who had never experienced corrective feedback before. They wrote short essays on familiar topics and received either explicit or implicit feedback in two separate groups. Their affective changes were observed by means of questionnaire surveys conducted in the beginning and the end of the instruction period. The study found that the two methods were both beneficial for the students’ development in English writing skills. Their effects were not significantly different in most fluency measures. In accuracy measures, however, explicit feedback was more effective than implicit feedback in immediate improvement, but not in sustained improvement. Explicit correction had a greater risk of demotivating students and implicit correction was preferred by more students.