Resources for Instructors
UWP
Instructor's Guide
Evaluating and Grading Papers
Quick Tips: See
Teaching Assistant’s Handbook pp. 105-6
Evaluating
Papers
Balancing
Comments on Formal Errors (correctness) with Comments on Content
Noting formal errors
is easy (too easy!), so balance these micro comments with macro
evaluation of
content, organization, style, and tone.
If you find you tend to neglect one or the other of these
macro
issues, you might want to set up a structure for your comments to
ensure that
you cover all the salient aspects. For example, use subheadings such as
- strength of ideas
- clarity of evidence
- logic of development
- style
- tone
- diction
Select those that
“fit” your purpose and the goals of the particular assignment when you
grade.
Marginal Comments
When commenting in
the margins, try to be as specific as possible. If a point is unclear,
explain
why it is unclear. Be wary of over correcting: it is both
time-consuming
and
counterproductive to mark every error. When you do mark syntactical and
mechanical errors, do it in order to discern each student’s error
patterns.
Then you can work on getting the student to focus on manageable goals.
Summary Comments
Students appreciate
being addressed as individuals, and using their names can help set the
tone for
summary comments. Begin with praising the essay’s strong points before
noting
its weaknesses. In addition, moving from global to local concerns
emphasizes
areas of greatest importance (e.g. thesis and development/support of
thesis).
Again, you may want to break up your comments into short paragraphs
addressing
key areas (clarity and development of ideas, structure and
organization, and
grammar and style).
As with marginal
annotations, be careful of overdoing it here: students will only be
able to
absorb so much.
Setting
Acceptable Standards
- Remember that a
“C,” the necessary grade for Gordon Rule for ENC 1101 and ENC 1102,
denotes
that an essay is “average” or “competent.”
- Reserve a “B”
for “good” or “above-average” writing. Watch
out for the “B fallacy”—it’s a weak compromise. Ask yourself what
makes the
essay better than average (try to find a specific area, like expression
of
ideas, organization, style, word choice). It should excel in one of
them.
- Give an “A” to
an exceptional paper that exceeds the expectations for the assignments.
Sharing your grading
guidelines with your students before they begin drafting the paper will
help to
promote understanding of your grade assignments and minimize complaints
about
“subjective grading.”
Rubrics
You may wish to
generate a rubric (which can be descriptive and/or numeric) with your
students;
this can be an excellent opportunity to help them define their criteria
for
good writing. Hand out drafts from past students for similar
assignments; then
have the students read and assess them to establish assessment criteria.
Advantages
of Rubrics:
1) set
clear expectations for assignments
2) set
clear, comparatively objective standards for grading
3)
describe expected PERFORMANCE at grade level, not just assigning of
grade
4)
formative, not just summative
5)
anticipates and minimizes students’ objections
Handling the
Grading Load
1.
Grade
Selectively
Grade for
specific issues—stylistic or organizational—and grade and comment
solely on
this selected aspect. Make sure you let the students know you will be
doing
this, though, and explain your grading guidelines carefully.
Particularly if you have a very weak paper, grade the first page then stop. Explain to the student that he or she needs to rewrite (with help of the handbook, the OWL or the RWC) to hand in an acceptable assignment.
You may
find one of these techniques will speed your process:
- Create
a list of common errors and then simply point students to their
handbooks,
using the same basic format each time, for example "Check your handbook
for information on_______"; then simply list the errors and the page or
section
number (e.g., run-ons—32-1e).
- Create
a file of frequent comments that respond to common errors.
- Number
repetitive errors so you don’t have to keep repeating yourself (eg.
Comma
splice becomes #1 on a master list you generate and hand out.)
2.
Grade in
Batches
Break them up into
small batches then grade so many papers per day. This breaks the
monotony and
stops procrastination. If you grade too many papers at once, you will
become
tired and will increase your time per paper.
Other
Resources
You may also find it
helpful to consult the following sources on grading:
Chapter 6, “Grading
Student Writing” (100-111), and Chapter 12, “Growing and Learning as a
Teacher”
(195-200) in the Teaching Assistant’s Handbook
Chapter 10, in Teaching
in Progress
University of
Wisconsin-Madison: http://mendota.english.wisc.edu/~WAC/
