Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE) software has been viewed as a promising tool for assisting writing. This study integrated AWE and its combination with peer review discussion into writing practice in a large college writing class in the Asian context. Adopting a mixed-method approach, this study employed a quantitative questionnaire to investigate how students perceived the integration at different writing stages and a qualitative interview to examine what prompted their quantitative decisions. The results show that the integration of AWE and peer review feedback significantly reinforced the perceived usefulness of AWE at the revision stage, and students with different proficiency levels had notably different attitudes toward AWE. Their writing anxieties intensified as they became increasingly aware of their own weaknesses during the writing process. Therefore, student writing challenges involve not only language proficiency and writing skills but also psychological variables.