grading an essay criteria

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Evaluation Criteria for Formal Essays

Katherine milligan.

Please note that these four categories are interdependent. For example, if your evidence is weak, this will almost certainly affect the quality of your argument and organization. Likewise, if you have difficulty with syntax, it is to be expected that your transitions will suffer. In revision, therefore, take a holistic approach to improving your essay, rather than focussing exclusively on one aspect.

An excellent paper:

Argument: The paper knows what it wants to say and why it wants to say it. It goes beyond pointing out comparisons to using them to change the reader?s vision. Organization: Every paragraph supports the main argument in a coherent way, and clear transitions point out why each new paragraph follows the previous one. Evidence: Concrete examples from texts support general points about how those texts work. The paper provides the source and significance of each piece of evidence. Mechanics: The paper uses correct spelling and punctuation. In short, it generally exhibits a good command of academic prose.

A mediocre paper:

Argument: The paper replaces an argument with a topic, giving a series of related observations without suggesting a logic for their presentation or a reason for presenting them. Organization: The observations of the paper are listed rather than organized. Often, this is a symptom of a problem in argument, as the framing of the paper has not provided a path for evidence to follow. Evidence: The paper offers very little concrete evidence, instead relying on plot summary or generalities to talk about a text. If concrete evidence is present, its origin or significance is not clear. Mechanics: The paper contains frequent errors in syntax, agreement, pronoun reference, and/or punctuation.

An appallingly bad paper:

Argument: The paper lacks even a consistent topic, providing a series of largely unrelated observations. Organization: The observations are listed rather than organized, and some of them do not appear to belong in the paper at all. Both paper and paragraphs lack coherence. Evidence: The paper offers no concrete evidence from the texts or misuses a little evidence. Mechanics: The paper contains constant and glaring errors in syntax, agreement, reference, spelling, and/or punctuation.

What Is an Essay Grading Rubric & 11 Tools to Streamline Your Grading

Mastering essay writing is a crucial skill, and grading these essays can be challenging for teachers. That's where essay grading rubrics come into play. These tools for teachers provide a clear framework for assessing student work, making the process more efficient and fair. This blog explores the ins and outs of essay grading rubrics, how they benefit both teachers and students, and how they improve the overall learning process. Dive into this essential aspect of learning assessment if you're looking to streamline your grading process and provide valuable feedback to your students.

What Is an Essay Grading Rubric?

In simple terms, an Essay Grading Rubric is an assessment tool used by educators to evaluate and grade students' essays. A rubric breaks down the essay into various components or criteria that the student needs to fulfill to achieve a certain score. These criteria usually cover aspects like organization, content, language use, and mechanics. The rubric typically includes four performance levels - excellent, good, fair, and poor - to categorize the quality of the student's work. Each performance level comes with a set of descriptors that clearly define what is expected at that level. 

Components of an Essay Grading Rubric

1. criteria.

The criteria in an essay grading rubric outline the specific areas that a student's essay will be assessed on. These criteria vary depending on the teacher's goals for the assignment. They may include elements like thesis statement, organization, supporting evidence, analysis, language use, and mechanics. Each criterion is usually given a numerical value that corresponds to a specific performance level.

2. Performance Levels

Performance levels, or grading scales , provide a framework for evaluating student work in a rubric. These levels are often labeled with phrases like "excellent," "good," "fair," and "poor." By associating these levels with numerical scores, educators can assign a grade to a student's essay based on where their performance falls on the scale.

3. Descriptors

Descriptors are the detailed explanations that accompany each performance level. They give students a clear understanding of what is expected at each level of performance. For example, a rubric might state that an "excellent" analysis has a clear and insightful interpretation of the text, while a "fair" analysis may lack depth or be unclear. Essay grading rubrics help teachers evaluate student work objectively and transparently. They break down the grading process into manageable components and provide students with clear expectations for their assignments.

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Types of Essay Grading Rubrics

An analytic rubric breaks down all the components of a project, presentation, or essay into different criteria. Each criterion is scored individually, which can be helpful for providing detailed feedback on specific areas of strength or weakness. While it may be more time-consuming to create and use than a holistic rubric, an analytic rubric allows for each criterion to be weighted to reflect its relative importance. It may require more work for instructors to write feedback for each criterion, but it can help provide students with specific areas for improvement.  On the other hand, a holistic rubric includes all the criteria to be considered together and included in a single evaluation. With a holistic rubric, the rater or grader assigns a single score based on an overall judgment of the student’s work, using descriptions of each performance level to assign the score. Holistic rubrics may save grader time by minimizing the number of evaluations to be made for each student, but they provide less specific feedback than analytic rubrics.

General vs. Task-Specific Essay Grading Rubric

The use of general versus task-specific rubrics depends on the learning objectives and the assessment task. General rubrics are typically used for broad assessments where the criteria can be applied to a wide variety of tasks. In contrast, task-specific rubrics are tailored to the requirements of a particular performance task or an outcome. General rubrics can be used efficiently across a wide range of assignments, providing consistency in evaluation.  They can serve as a guide for what is expected of students without overwhelming them with overly specific criteria. On the other hand, task-specific rubrics are designed to assess a particular task or performance outcome, providing detailed guidelines and expectations for the students. Task-specific rubrics can provide targeted feedback that helps students understand their strengths and areas for improvement in relation to a specific task or learning objective.

6 Benefits of Using an Essay Grading Rubric

Rubrics are essential tools for grading essays. They bring a level of objectivity and fairness that is hard to achieve with other grading methods. Rubrics serve as a guide for what teachers are looking for in the student’s work. This eliminates potential bias from teachers, creating a standard that every student’s work is measured against.  The rubric can also help teachers move quicker through grading essays as they can simply refer to the guide when grading and awarding points. Rubrics can provide a level of transparency for students. This means they understand why they received the grade they did and what could have been done better. In the end, rubrics can save time and ensure more accurate grading for teachers while providing a clear roadmap for students to follow to help them achieve a better grade. 

1. Students know what is expected.

Rubrics outline what students are expected to learn from a particular assignment. They highlight the knowledge, skills, and attitudes students should gain from their work. This means that students know what they need to do to get the grade they desire. They can check off each item as they demonstrate their understanding of the concepts across the rubric.

2. Students see that learning is about gaining specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes

Rubrics can be an essential tool in helping students to understand concepts. Instead of seeing the grade as an endpoint, rubrics can be an opportunity for students to see what they have learned and accomplished. This can be a motivating factor for students to do better in school.

3. Students may self-assess to reflect on their learning

Rubrics can be an essential tool for students , not just teachers. Students can use the rubric to assess themselves and get an idea of what they need to work on. This can help students work on the areas where they need improvement and can be a powerful tool for self-improvement.

4. Teachers and students are clear on what is being assessed

Rubrics are an essential tool for teachers as well. Teachers can use the rubric to let students know what is expected of them. Rubrics make it clear what the teacher is looking for in the student’s work, making it easier for teachers to assess work. 

5. Teachers may consistently assess student work without having to re-write similar comments

Rubrics make it easier for teachers to assess student work. Instead of having to write the same comments over and over, teachers can use the rubric to quickly assess students’ work. This can save teachers time and frustration and make it easier to provide feedback to students.

6. Teachers with high marking loads save considerable time

Rubrics can be a powerful tool for saving teachers time. Instead of having to spend hours grading individual assignments, teachers can use the rubric to quickly assess student work. This can save teachers hours of work and frustration and can make it easier for teachers to assess student work.

Essay Grading Efficiency with EssayGrader's AI Platform

EssayGrader is the most accurate AI grading platform trusted by 30,000+ educators worldwide. On average it takes a teacher 10 minutes to grade a single essay, with EssayGrader that time is cut down to 30 seconds That's a 95% reduction in the time it takes to grade an essay, with the same results.  With EssayGrader, Teachers can:

• Replicate their grading rubrics (so AI doesn't have to do the guesswork to set the grading criteria)
• Setup fully custom rubrics
• Grade essays by class
• Bulk upload of essays
• Use our AI detector to catch essays written by AI
• Summarize essays with our Essay summarizer 

Primary school, high school, and even college professors grade their students' essays with the help of our AI tool. Over half a million essays were graded by 30,000+ teachers on our platform. Save 95% of your time for grading school work with our tool to get high-quality, specific and accurate writing feedback for essays in seconds.  ‍ Get started for free today!

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How to Design a Grading Rubric

1. Analyze the assignment

When creating a rubric from scratch, the first step is to thoroughly analyze the assignment you are grading. What are the main objectives of the assignment? What do you want your students to demonstrate through their work? Are there different smaller tasks within the assignment that need to be evaluated separately? By considering these questions, you can better determine the criteria and performance levels to include in your rubric.

2. Decide what kind of rubric you will use

There are various types of rubrics to choose from, including holistic, analytic/descriptive, and single-point rubrics. Deciding which type best suits your assessment will help you structure your grading criteria effectively. Holistic rubrics assess overall performance, analytic/descriptive rubrics break down performance into specific criteria, and single-point rubrics focus on proficiency levels.

3. Look for templates and examples 

Before creating your rubric from scratch, it can be helpful to look for templates or examples online. These resources can give you a starting point and help you align your rubric with the assignment's expectations and learning objectives. Collaborating with colleagues or asking students for input can also provide valuable insights.

4. Define the assignment criteria

Next, define the specific criteria you will use to evaluate the assignment. These criteria should align with the learning objectives and expectations of the assignment. Collaborating with colleagues, teaching assistants, and students can help you brainstorm effective grading criteria and ensure they are precise and unambiguous.

5. Design the rating scale

Consider the number of levels you want to include in your rating scale and whether you will use numbers or descriptive labels. The rating scale should provide a clear assessment of student performance and align with the assignment requirements. Ensure the rubric is organized logically and comprehensible to students.

6. Write descriptions for each level of the rating scale

For each level of the rating scale, provide clear descriptions of what constitutes performance at that level. These descriptions should be observable and measurable, using parallel language across the scale. Consider what distinguishes each level of performance and how it aligns with the assignment's expectations.

7. Create your rubric

Once you have established the criteria and rating scale, create your rubric in a table or spreadsheet format. Online tools can assist in creating a rubric, but you will likely need to transfer the details to your grading platform manually. Ensure the rubric is clear and accessible to students.

8. Pilot-test your rubric

Before using your rubric to grade actual student work, pilot-test it with colleagues, teaching assistants, and students. Collect feedback on the rubric's effectiveness and make necessary revisions based on the results. Piloting the rubric can help ensure it aligns with the assignment objectives and provides valuable feedback to students.

11 Best AI Essay Grading Rubrics Platforms

1. EssayGrader

EssayGrader is an exceptional tool that streamlines the grading process for educators. Through AI technology, this platform significantly reduces the time taken to grade essays while maintaining high accuracy. It allows teachers to replicate their grading rubrics and provides the flexibility of setting custom rubrics. Educators can:

• Upload essays in bulk
• Detect AI-written essays
• Summarize essays efficiently

With over half a million essays graded by 30,000+ teachers, EssayGrader is a reliable tool for grading essays across different educational levels.

2. Gradescope

Gradescope stands out as one of the best AI graders, offering a sophisticated platform for automated essay evaluation. It allows for quick and accurate grading , customizable rubrics, and insightful analytics to identify common misconceptions among students. This tool enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of the grading process.

3. Turnitin

Renowned for its plagiarism detection capabilities, Turnitin extends its functionality to include AI essay grading. By leveraging AI technology, Turnitin ensures academic integrity, enhances originality, and offers in-depth feedback on writing quality. This tool supports the automated grading of various writing formats, making the assessment process more efficient.

4. PaperRater

PaperRater utilizes AI for consistent and unbiased grading across various subjects. It provides immediate feedback essential for large-scale online courses and improves scalability. With this tool, educators can ensure fair and efficient grading processes.

5. AI For Teachers

Known for offering free AI graders and tools for teachers, AI For Teachers provides an opportunity to leverage AI technology effortlessly. It comes with personalized rubrics, easy-to-use AI graders, and reliable customer support. This tool enhances the grading experience for educators.

6. Canvas SpeedGrader

Integrated within the Canvas Learning Management System, SpeedGrader utilizes AI for efficient and seamless essay grading. It offers a streamlined workflow, multimedia feedback options, and collaborative grading among educators. This tool enhances the grading experience within the Canvas platform.

7. CoGrader

CoGrader simplifies grading by integrating seamlessly with Google Classroom for easy import and export of assignments. It provides instant feedback on assignments, automates grading, reduces time spent, and ensures fairness by removing biases. This tool enhances the efficiency and accuracy of the grading process.

8. AI For Teachers

For ChatGPT Plus users, AI For Teachers offers free access to exceptional value without additional cost. By integrating ChatGPT capabilities, educators can create interactive learning experiences and tailor AI bots for specific classroom needs. This tool enhances student engagement and learning outcomes.

Smodin offers AI-powered writing assistance tools for rewriting, plagiarism detection, summarizing, and AI writing. With multilingual support and integration with various useful tools, Smodin caters to students, teachers, and content creators. This tool enhances writing and grading processes across different languages.

10. GradeCam

GradeCam facilitates quick scanning and grading of paper tests, providing timely feedback crucial for students' learning adjustments. It offers analytics tools that give insights into student progress and areas for improvement, supporting data-driven instructional decisions. This tool enhances the grading process and student feedback.

11. SnapGrader

SnapGrader enables teachers to quickly digitize paper tests and quizzes, eliminating manual data entry. It provides instant feedback to students, offers insights into grading accuracy and consistency, and supports various question formats. With SnapGrader, educators can efficiently assess student performance and provide timely feedback to enhance learning.

How to Choose the Best Essay Grading Rubric

Adaptability

When choosing a rubric for grading essays, it's vital to consider its adaptability. You want a rubric that can easily cater to different types of assignments and essays. Flexibility is key, especially if you assess an array of genres or topics. Being able to customize the rubric to suit the specific needs of your students and course objectives is imperative .

Accuracy and Specificity

The rubric you choose must accurately assess the essays. It should provide specific feedback on grammar, coherence, clarity, and writing style errors. Detailed error reports should be generated, highlighting the mistakes made by students. This specific feedback is crucial as it allows you to provide targeted feedback to help students improve their writing skills.

Ease of Use

You need a rubric that is not only accurate but also user-friendly. The rubric should be intuitive and easy to navigate. A clutter-free interface ensures that grading is efficient and that you can focus on providing valuable feedback to your students.

Bulk Uploading

If you are handling numerous essays, consider a rubric that allows for bulk uploading. This feature streamlines the grading process by enabling you to evaluate an entire class's worth of essays at once. This can be a huge time-saver and helps maintain consistency in grading.

Improvement Suggestions

Look for a rubric that does not just identify errors but also offers suggestions for improvement. Constructive feedback is crucial in helping students enhance their writing skills. A rubric that not only points out mistakes but also provides insights on how to rectify those mistakes can be incredibly beneficial.

Alignment with Traditional Rubrics

If you have been using traditional rubrics, ensure that the AI rubric aligns with your existing grading practices. You should have the flexibility to create custom rubrics based on your preferred criteria. This ensures that the rubric meets the specific needs of your course and students.

Integration

Select AI grading tools that seamlessly integrate with existing Learning Management Systems. This integration fosters efficiency in your overall workflow and helps streamline the grading process. A rubric that easily integrates with your existing systems can save you time and effort in managing assignments and grading student work.

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Save Time While Grading Schoolwork — Join 30,000+ Educators Worldwide & Use EssayGrader AI, The Original AI Essay Grader

EssayGrader is an innovative AI grading platform designed to transform the way educators grade essays. By leveraging cutting-edge technology, we help teachers save time and provide accurate and effective feedback to students. With the power of AI, EssayGrader offers several key features that make the grading process more efficient and precise.

Replication of Grading Rubrics

Our platform allows educators to replicate their grading rubrics, ensuring that AI accurately assesses essays based on the established criteria. This feature eliminates guesswork and guarantees consistent and fair grading for all students.

Custom Rubrics

EssayGrader enables teachers to create fully customized rubrics tailored to their specific requirements. This flexibility allows educators to adapt the grading criteria to the unique needs of their classes and assignments.

Bulk Upload and Class-based Grading

Teachers can streamline the grading process by uploading multiple essays in bulk and grading them by class. This functionality simplifies the workflow for educators who need to assess numerous essays efficiently.

AI Detector

EssayGrader includes an AI detector that can identify essays generated by AI programs. This feature helps maintain academic integrity by flagging essays that may not reflect authentic student work.

Essay Summarizer

Our platform offers an essay summarizer tool that condenses essays into concise summaries. This feature enables educators to quickly grasp the main points of an essay and provide targeted feedback to students. Educators around the world trust EssayGrader to enhance their grading processes and provide valuable feedback to students. By leveraging AI technology, our platform empowers teachers to save time, improve grading accuracy, and deliver high-quality feedback to support student learning and growth. Join the thousands of educators who have already embraced this innovative tool and experience the benefits of efficient and effective essay grading with EssayGrader .

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• Basics for GSIs
• Advancing Your Skills

Grading Essays

Grade for Learning Objectives Response to Writing Errors Commenting on Student Papers Plagiarism and Grading

Information about grading student writing also appears in the Grading Student Work section of the Teaching Guide. Here are some general guidelines to keep in mind when grading student writing.

Grade for Learning Objectives

Know what the objective of the assignment is and grade according to a standard (a rubric) that assesses precisely that. If the purpose of the assignment is to analyze a process, focus on the analysis in the essay. If the paper is unreadable, however, consult with the professor and other GSIs about how to proceed. It may be wise to have a shared policy about the level of readiness or comprehensibility expected and what is unacceptable.

Response to Writing Errors

The research is clear: do not even attempt to mark every error in students’ papers. There are several reasons for this. Teachers do not agree about what constitutes an error (so there is an unavoidable element of subjectivity); students do not learn when confronted by too many markings; and exhaustive marking takes way too much of the instructor’s time. Resist the urge to edit or proofread your students’ papers for superficial errors. At most, mark errors on one page or errors of only two or three types. One approach to avoid the temptation of marking every error is to read or skim the whole essay quickly once without marking anything on the page – or at least, with very minimal marks. Some instructors find this a useful method in order to get a general sense of the essay’s organization and argument, thus enabling them to better identify the major areas of concern. Your second pass can then focus more in-depth on a few select areas that require improvement.

Commenting on Student Papers

The scholarly literature in this area distinguishes formative from summative comments. Summative comments are the more traditional approach. They render judgment about an essay after it has been completed. They explain the instructor’s judgment of a student’s performance. If the instructor’s comments contain several critical statements, the student often becomes protective of his or her ego by filtering them out; learning from mistakes becomes more difficult. If the assignment is over with, the student may see no reason to revisit it to learn from the comments.

Formative comments, on the other hand, give the student feedback in an ongoing process of learning and skill building. Through formative comments, particularly in the draft stage of a writing assignment, instructors guide students on a strategic selection of the most important aspects of the essay. These include both what to keep because it is (at least relatively) well done and what requires revision. Formative comments let the student know clearly how to revise and why.

For the purposes of this guide, we have distinguished commenting on student writing (which is treated here) from grading student writing (which is treated in the Teaching Guide section on grading ). While it is true that instructors’ comments on student writing should give reasons for the grade assigned to it, we want to emphasize here that the comments on a student’s paper can function as instruction , not simply as justification. Here are ten tips.

• Use your comments on a student’s paper to highlight things the paper accomplishes well and a few major things that would most improve the paper.
• Always observe at least one or two strengths in the student’s paper, even if they seem to you to be low-level accomplishments — but avoid condescension. Writing is a complex activity, and students really do need to know they’re doing something right.
• Don’t make exhaustive comments. They take up too much of your time and leave the student with no sense of priority among them.
• Don’t proofread. If the paper is painfully replete with errors and you want to emphasize writing mechanics, count the first ten errors on the page, draw a line at that point, and ask the student to identify them and to show their corrections to you in office hours. Students do not learn much from instructors’ proofreading marks. Direct students to a writing reference guide such as the Random House Handbook.
• Notice patterns or repeated errors (in content or form). Choose the three or four most disabling ones and direct your comments toward helping the students understand what they need to learn to do differently to correct this kind of error.
• Use marginal notes to locate and comment on specific passages in the paper (for example “Interesting idea — develop it more” or “I lost the thread of the argument in this section” or “Very useful summary here before you transition to the next point”). Use final or end comments to discuss more global issues (e.g., “Work on paragraph structure” or “The argument from analogy is ineffective. A better way to make the point would be…”)
• Use questions to help the student unpack areas  that are unclear or require more explanation and analysis. E.g.: “Can you explain more about what you mean by “x”?”; “What in the text shows this statement?”; “Is “y” consistent with what you’ve argued about “z”?” This approach can help the student recognize your comments less as a form of judgment than a form of dialogue with their work. As well, it can help you avoid “telling” the student how they should revise certain areas that remain undeveloped. Often, students just need a little more encouragement to focus on an area they haven’t considered in-depth or that they might have envisioned clearly in their head but did not translate to the page.
• Maintain a catalogue of positive end comments: “Good beginning for a 1B course.” “Very perceptive reading.” “Good engagement with the material.” “Gets at the most relevant material/issues/passages.” Anything that connects specific aspects of the student’s product with the grading rubric is useful. (For more on grading rubrics , see the Grading section of the Teaching Guide.)
• Diplomatic but firm suggestions for improvement: Here you must be specific and concrete. Global negative statements tend to enter students’ self-image (“I’m a bad writer”). This creates an attitudinal barrier to learning and makes your job harder and less satisfying. Instead, try “The most strategic improvement you could make is…” Again, don’t try to comment on everything. Select only the most essential areas for improvement, and watch the student’s progress on the next draft or paper.
• Typical in-text marks: Provide your students with a legend of your reading marks. Does a straight underline indicate “good stuff”? Does a wavy underline mean something different? Do you use abbreviations in the margins? You can find examples of standard editing marks in many writing guides, such as the Random House Handbook.
• The tone of your comments on student writing is important to students. Avoid sarcasm and jokes — students who take offense are less disposed to learn. Address the student by name before your end-comments, and sign your name after your remarks. Be professional, and bear in mind the sorts of comments that help you with your work.

Plagiarism and Grading

Students can be genuinely uninformed or misinformed about what constitutes plagiarism. In some instances students will knowingly resort to cutting and pasting from unacknowledged sources; a few may even pay for a paper written by someone else; more recently, students may attempt to pass off AI-generated essays as their own work. Your section syllabus should include a clear policy notice about plagiarism and AI so that students cannot miss it, and instructors should work with students to be sure they understand how to incorporate outside sources appropriately.

Plagiarism can be largely prevented by stipulating that larger writing assignments be completed in steps that the students must turn in for instructor review, or that students visit the instructor periodically for a brief but substantive chat about how their projects are developing, or that students turn in their research log and notes at intermediate points in the research process.

All of these strategies also deter students from using AI to substitute for their own critical thinking and writing. In addition, you may want to craft prompts that are specific to the course materials rather than overly-general ones; and you may also require students to provide detailed analysis about specific texts or cases. AI tools like ChatGPT tend to struggle significantly in both of these areas.

For further guidance on preventing academic misconduct, please see Academic Misconduct — Preventing Plagiarism .

You can also find more information and advice about AI technology like ChatGPT at the Berkeley Center for Teaching & Learning.

UC Berkeley has a campus license to use Turnitin to check the originality of students’ papers and to generate feedback to students about their integration of written sources into their papers. The tool is available in bCourses as an add-on to the Grading tool, and in the Assignments tool SpeedGrader. Even with the results of the originality check, instructors are obligated to exercise judgment in determining the degree to which a given use of source material was fair or unfair.

If a GSI does find a very likely instance of plagiarism, the faculty member in charge of the course must be notified and provided with the evidence. The faculty member is responsible for any sanctions against the student. Some faculty members give an automatic failing grade for the assignment or for the course, according to their own course policy. Instances of plagiarism should be reported to the Center for Student Conduct; please see If You Encounter Academic Misconduct .

Princeton Writing Program

Grading Writing

Grades are seen by many students as random and subjective, a belief that rampant grade inflation at the college level has helped to reinforce. Yet grades have the potential to be among the most powerful of teaching tools. When standards are announced and consistently applied, grades provide a reasonably objective measure of achievement (and distance to improvement), signaling to students the extent to which they need to challenge familiar ways of thinking and writing. Grades also give written comments an edge they might not otherwise have.

Grading with clear criteria in mind helps to ensure fairness and objectivity. So does another principle of grading: Grade the paper and nothing but the paper — not the person who wrote it, the effort that went into it, or the improvement it shows. This principle dramatically simplifies the task of evaluation by eliminating second guessing; it also guarantees that students are judged on an equal basis. “Grade the paper and nothing but the paper” means grading the entire paper, not just a part of it. Papers bend and swoop and turn, and grades need to be responsive to their sometimes erratic flight patterns. It means grading the actual paper as well. Rather than assigning a grade based on what a paper seems at first glance to be, or what in hindsight it might have been, it’s more fair—and more objective—to grade the paper as it actually is.

You might also consider complementing letter grades for high-stakes assignments with contract grades for class participation or “spec” grades for low-stakes assignments, helping to incentivize students to meet critical benchmarks and to take intellectual risks during the writing process.

In the Spotlight: Writing Program Grading Standards for Revisions (used across all the Writing Seminars to grade the three major essays) 

Three Steps to Determine a Grade

If you wait to decide on the grade until after you’ve written your final comment, the grade you assign is likely to be more accurate and fair than would otherwise be true, and the decision-making process will be less agonizing. To determine the grade, try these three steps:

• Re-read your final comment. As you do this, think about the extent to which the paper has met your grading criteria. You might even compose, in your notes or in your mind, a brief description of the paper in terms of these criteria—for example, “Good research question, obvious enthusiasm for the topic, and clear writing, but driven by an observation, not a thesis; use of a listing structure; lack of evidence to ground generalizations; overreliance on the opinions of secondary sources.”
• Determine whether a paper falls above or below “the line.” It’s useful to think of papers as falling above or below an imaginary line in the grading scale—for example, B-/C+. A line set higher on the grading scale (say, at A-/B+) will result in higher grades. Whether a paper falls above or below the line most often depends on how effective the paper’s source use and thesis are: a readable paper with a clear argument grounded in specific sources will usually receive an above-the-line grade; a paper that’s difficult to read, stuck in generalities, and lacking clear argument will usually receive a below-the-line grade. The paper described above would most certainly fall below the line, no matter where the line is set.
• Make fine distinctions. Having determined whether a paper is above or be- low the line, consider why it should receive a particular grade, not something slightly higher or slightly lower. If the line is set at B-/C+, then the paper described above would probably earn a C, because its weaknesses make a C+ too generous, and its strengths in the making suggest a C- or lower would be too harsh. If the line is set at A-/B+, the paper would probably get a B. As you can infer, disagreements over grades are often actually disagreements over where the line is set.

Although grading a piece of writing will never be an exact science, implementing the simple techniques discussed above can make the process less subjective and even less agonizing. 

• Teaching Tips

The Ultimate Guide to Grading Student Work

Strategies, best practices and practical examples to make your grading process more efficient, effective and meaningful

Top Hat Staff

This ultimate guide to grading student work offers strategies, tips and examples to help you make the grading process more efficient and effective for you and your students. The right approach can save time for other teaching tasks, like lecture preparation and student mentoring. 

Grading is one of the most painstaking responsibilities of postsecondary teaching. It’s also one of the most crucial elements of the educational process. Even with an efficient system, grading requires a great deal of time—and even the best-laid grading systems are not entirely immune to student complaints and appeals. This guide explores some of the common challenges in grading student work along with proven grading techniques and helpful tips to communicate expectations and set you and your students up for success, especially those who are fresh out of high school and adjusting to new expectations in college or university. 

What is grading?

Grading is only one of several indicators of a student’s comprehension and mastery, but understanding what grading entails is essential to succeeding as an educator. It allows instructors to provide standardized measures to evaluate varying levels of academic performance while providing students valuable feedback to help them gauge their own understanding of course material and skill development. Done well, effective grading techniques show learners where they performed well and in what areas they need improvement. Grading student work also gives instructors insights into how they can improve the student learning experience.

Grading challenges: Clarity, consistency and fairness

No matter how experienced the instructor is, grading student work can be tricky. No such grade exists that perfectly reflects a student’s overall comprehension or learning. In other words, some grades end up being inaccurate representations of actual comprehension and mastery. This is often the case when instructors use an inappropriate grading scale, such as a pass/fail structure for an exam, when a 100-point system gives a more accurate or nuanced picture.

Grading students’ work fairly but consistently presents other challenges. For example, grades for creative projects or essays might suffer from instructor bias, even with a consistent rubric in place. Instructors can employ every strategy they know to ensure fairness, accessibility, accuracy and consistency, and even so, some students will still complain about their grades. Handling grade point appeals can pull instructors away from other tasks that need their attention.

Many of these issues can be avoided by breaking things down into logical steps. First, get clear on the learning outcomes you seek to achieve, then ensure the coursework students will engage in is well suited to evaluating those outcomes and last, identify the criteria you will use to assess student performance. 

What are some grading strategies for educators?

There are a number of grading techniques that can alleviate many problems associated with grading, including the perception of inconsistent, unfair or arbitrary practices. Grading can use up a large portion of educators’ time. However, the results may not improve even if the time you spend on it does. Grading, particularly in large class sizes, can leave instructors feeling burnt out. Those who are new to higher education can fall into a grading trap, where far too much of their allocated teaching time is spent on grading. As well, after the graded assignments have been handed back, there may be a rush of students wanting either to contest the grade, or understand why they got a particular grade, which takes up even more of the instructor’s time. With some dedicated preparation time, careful planning and thoughtful strategies, grading student work can be smooth and efficient. It can also provide effective learning opportunities for the students and good information for the instructor about the student learning (or lack of) taking place in the course. These grading strategies can help instructors improve their accuracy in capturing student performance . 

Establishing clear grading criteria

Setting grading criteria helps reduce the time instructors spend on actual grading later on. Such standards add consistency and fairness to the grading process, making it easier for students to understand how grading works. Students also have a clearer understanding of what they need to do to reach certain grade levels.

Establishing clear grading criteria also helps instructors communicate their performance expectations to students. Furthermore, clear grading strategies give educators a clearer picture of content to focus on and how to assess subject mastery. This can help avoid so-called ‘busywork’ by ensuring each activity aligns clearly to the desired learning outcome. 

Step 1: Determine the learning outcomes and the outputs to measure performance. Does assessing comprehension require quizzes and/or exams, or will written papers better capture what the instructor wants to see from students’ performance? Perhaps lab reports or presentations are an ideal way of capturing specific learning objectives, such as behavioral mastery.

Step 2: Establish criteria to determine how you will evaluate assigned work. Is it precision in performing steps, accuracy in information recall, or thoroughness in expression? To what extent will creativity factor in the assessment?

Step 3: Determine the grade weight or value for each assignment. These weights represent the relative importance of each assignment toward the final grade and a student’s GPA. For example, how much will the final exam count relative to a research paper or essay? Once the weights are in place, it’s essential to stratify grades that distinguish performance levels. For example:

• A grade = excellent
• B grade = very good
• C grade = adequate
• D grade = poor but passing
• F grade = unacceptable

Making grading efficient

Grading efficiency depends a great deal on devoting appropriate amounts of time to certain grading tasks. For instance, some assignments deserve less attention than others. That’s why some outcomes, like attendance or participation work, can help save time by getting a simple pass/fail grade or acknowledgment of completion using a check/check-plus/check-minus scale.

However, other assignments like tests or papers need to show more in-depth comprehension of the course material. These items need more intricate scoring schemes and require more time to evaluate, especially if student responses warrant feedback.

When appropriate, multiple-choice questions can provide a quick grading technique. They also provide the added benefit of grading consistency among all students completing the questions. However, multiple-choice questions are more difficult to write than most people realize. These questions are most useful when information recall and conceptual understanding are the primary learning outcomes.

Instructors can maximize their time for more critical educational tasks by creating scheduled grading strategies and sticking to it. A spreadsheet is also essential for calculating many students’ grades quickly and exporting data to other platforms.

Making grading more meaningful in higher education

Grading student work is more than just routine, despite what some students believe. The better students understand what instructors expect them to take away from the course, the more meaningful the grading structure will be. Meaningful grading strategies reflect effective assignments, which have distinct goals and evaluation criteria. It also helps avoid letting the grading process take priority over teaching and mentoring.

Leaving thoughtful and thorough comments does more than rationalize a grade. Providing feedback is another form of teaching and helps students better understand the nuances behind the grade. Suppose a student earns a ‘C’ on a paper. If the introduction was outstanding, but the body needed improvement, comments explaining this distinction will give a clearer picture of what the ‘C’ grade represents as opposed to ‘A-level’ work.

Instructors should limit comments to elements of their work that students can actually improve or build upon. Above all, comments should pertain to the original goal of the assignment. Excessive comments that knit-pick a student’s work are often discouraging and overwhelming, leaving the student less able or willing to improve their effort on future projects. Instead, instructors should provide comments that point to patterns of strengths and areas needing improvement. It’s also helpful to leave a summary comment at the end of the assignment or paper.

Maintaining a complaint-free grading system

In many instances, an appropriate response to a grade complaint might simply be, “It’s in the syllabus.” Nevertheless, one of the best strategies to curtail grade complaints is to limit or prohibit discussions of grades during class time. Inform students that they can discuss grades outside of class or during office hours.

Instructors can do many things before the semester or term begins to reduce grade complaints. This includes detailed explanations in the grading system’s syllabus, the criteria for earning a particular letter grade, policies on late work, and other standards that inform grading. It also doesn’t hurt to remind students of each assignment’s specific grading criteria before it comes due. Instructors should avoid changing their grading policies; doing so will likely lead to grade complaints.

Assigning student grades

Since not all assignments may count equally toward a final course grade, instructors should figure out which grading scales are appropriate for each assignment. They should also consider that various assignments assess student work differently; therefore, their grading structure should reflect those differences. For example, some exams might warrant a 100-point scale rather than a pass/fail grade. Requirements like attendance or class participation might be used to reward effort; therefore, merely completing that day’s requirement is sufficient.

Grading essays and open-ended writing

Some writing projects might seem like they require more subjective grading standards than multiple-choice tests. However, instructors can implement objective standards to maintain consistency while acknowledging students’ individual approaches to the project.

Instructors should create a rubric or chart against which they evaluate each assignment. A rubric contains specific grading criteria and the point value for each. For example, out of 100 points, a rubric specifies that a maximum of 10 points are given to the introduction. Furthermore, an instructor can include even more detailed elements that an introduction should include, such as a thesis statement, attention-getter, and preview of the paper’s main points.

Grading creative work

While exams, research papers, and math problems tend to have more finite grading criteria, creative works like short films, poetry, or sculptures can seem more difficult to grade. Instructors might apply technical evaluations that adhere to disciplinary standards. However, there is the challenge of grading how students apply their subject talent and judgment to a finished product.

For creative projects that are more visual, instructors might ask students to submit a written statement along with their assignment. This statement can provide a reflection or analysis of the finished product, or describe the theory or concept the student used. This supplement can add insight that informs the grade.

Grading for multi-section courses

Professors or course coordinators who oversee several sections of a course have the added responsibility of managing other instructors or graduate student teaching assistants (TAs) in addition to their own grading. Course directors need to communicate regularly and consistently with all teaching staff about the grading standards and criteria to ensure they are applied consistently across all sections.

If possible, the course director should address students from all sections in one gathering to explain the criteria, expectations, assignments, and other policies. TAs should continue to communicate grading-related information to the students in their classes. They also should maintain contact with each other and the course director to address inconsistencies, stay on top of any changes and bring attention to problems.

To maintain consistency and objectivity across all sections, the course director might consider assigning TAs to grade other sections besides their own. Another strategy that can save time and maintain consistency is to have each TA grade only one exam portion. It’s also vital to compare average grades and test scores across sections to see if certain groups of students are falling behind or if some classes need changes in their teaching strategies.

Types of grading

• Absolute grading : A grading system where instructors explain performance standards before the assignment is completed. grades are given based on predetermined cutoff levels. Here, each point value is assigned a letter grade. Most schools adopt this system, where it’s possible for all students to receive an A.
• Relative grading : An assessment system where higher education instructors determine student grades by comparing them against those of their peers. 
• Weighted grades : A method ussed in higher education to determine how different assessments should count towards the final grade. An instructor may choose to make the results of an exam worth 50 percent of a student’s total class grade, while assignments account for 25 percent and participation marks are worth another 25 percent.
• Grading on a curve : This system adjusts student grades to ensure that a test or assignment has the proper distribution throughout the class (for example, only 20% of students receive As, 30% receive Bs, and so on), as well as a desired total average (for example, a C grade average for a given test). We’ve covered this type of grading in more detail in the blog post The Ultimate Guide to Grading on A Curve .

Ungrading is an education model that prioritizes giving feedback and encouraging learning through self-reflection rather than a letter grade. Some instructors argue that grades cannot objectively assess a student’s work. Even when calculated down to the hundredth of a percentage point, a “B+” on an English paper doesn’t paint a complete picture about what a student can do, what they understand or where they need help. Alfie Kohn, lecturer on human behavior, education, and parenting, says that the basis for grades is often subjective and uninformative. Even the final grade on a STEM assignment is more of a reflection of how the assignment was written, rather than the student’s mastery of the subject matter. So what are educators who have adopted ungrading actually doing? Here are some practices and strategies that decentralize the role of assessments in the higher ed classroom.

• Frequent feedback: Rather than a final paper or exam, encourage students to write letters to reflect on their progress and learning throughout the term. Students are encouraged to reflect on and learn from both their successes and their failures, both individually and with their peers. In this way, conversations and commentary become the primary form of feedback, rather than a letter grade. 
• Opportunities for self-reflection: Open-ended questions help students to think critically about their learning experiences. Which course concepts have you mastered? What have you learned that you are most excited about? Simple questions like these help guide students towards a more insightful understanding of themselves and their progress in the course.
• Increasing transparency: Consider informal drop-in sessions or office hours to answer student questions about navigating a new style of teaching and learning.  The ungrading process has to begin from a place of transparency and openness in order to build trust. Listening to and responding to student concerns is vital to getting students on board. But just as important is the quality of feedback provided, ensuring both instructors and students remain on the same page.

Grading on a curve

Instructors will grade on a curve to allow for a specific distribution of scores, often referred to as “normal distribution.” To ensure there is a specific percentage of students receiving As, Bs, Cs and so forth, the instructor can manually adjust grades. 

When displayed visually, the distribution of grades ideally forms the shape of a bell. A small number of students will do poorly, another small group will excel and most will fall somewhere in the middle. Students whose grades settle in the middle will receive a C-average. Students with the highest and the lowest grades fall on either side.

Some instructors will only grade assignments and tests on a curve if it is clear that the entire class struggled with the exam. Others use the bell curve to grade for the duration of the term, combining every score and putting the whole class (or all of their classes, if they have more than one) on a curve once the raw scores are tallied.

How to make your grading techniques easier

Grading is a time-consuming exercise for most educators. Here are some tips to help you become more efficient and to lighten your load.

• Schedule time for grading: Pay attention to your rhythms and create a grading schedule that works for you. Break the work down into chunks and eliminate distractions so you can stay focused.
• Don’t assign ‘busy work’: Each student assignment should map clearly to an important learning outcome. Planning up front ensures each assignment is meaningful and will avoid adding too much to your plate.
• Use rubrics to your advantage: Clear grading criteria for student assignments will help reduce the cognitive load and second guessing that can happen when these tools aren’t in place. Having clear standards for different levels of performance will also help ensure fairness.
• Prioritize feedback: It’s not always necessary to provide feedback on every assignment. Also consider bucketing feedback into what was done well, areas for improvement and ways to improve. Clear, pointed feedback is less time-consuming to provide and often more helpful to students. 
• Reward yourself: Grading is taxing work. Be realistic about how much you can do and in what time period. Stick to your plan and make sure to reward yourself with breaks, a walk outside or anything else that will help you refresh. 

How Top Hat streamlines grading

There are many tools available to college educators to make grading student work more consistent and efficient. Top Hat’s all-in-one teaching platform allows you to automate a number of grading processes, including tests and quizzes using a variety of different question types. Attendance, participation, assignments and tests are all automatically captured in the Top Hat Gradebook , a sophisticated data management tool that maintains multiple student records.

In the Top Hat Gradebook, you can access individual and aggregate grades at a glance while taking advantage of many different reporting options. You can also sync grades and other reporting directly to your learning management system (LMS). 

Grading is one of the most essential components of the teaching and learning experience. It requires a great deal of strategy and thought to be executed well. While it certainly isn’t without its fair share of challenges, clear expectations and transparent practice ensure that students feel included as part of the process and can benefit from the feedback they receive. This way, they are able to track their own progress towards learning goals and course objectives.

Click here to learn more about Gradebook, Top Hat’s all-in-one solution designed to help you monitor student progress with immediate, real-time feedback.

Recommended Readings

The Ultimate Guide to Metacognition for Post-Secondary Courses

25 Effective Instructional Strategies For Educators

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STUDENT:                                                               ESSAY:                                                                    

  There is one clear, well-focused thesis. Excellent command of subject matter. Evidence of independent thought. Supporting arguments relate to main claim & are well organized. Thesis stands out and is supported by details. Relevant, telling, quality details give important information, going beyond the obvious or predictable. Thesis is clear but supporting information is general. A reasonable command of subject matter. A capacity for independent thought, though not fully realized. Sufficent substantiation of claim. Supporting details are relevant, but one or more key issues is unsupported. Vague or unclear thesis. Inadequate command of subject matter. Unexamined, cliched thinking. Inadequate substantiation of claims. Supporting details are a seemingly random collection of information, unclear, or not related to the topic.

Clear Organization. Introduction is inviting, states the thesis, and previews the structure of the paper. Details are in logical order. Conclusion is strong and states the point of the paper. Significant lapses in organization. Introduction states thesis but does not adequately preview the structure, nor is it particularly inviting.  Some details not in logical or expected order and this is distracting. Conclusion is recognizable, but does not tie up all loose ends. Poor, hard-to-follow organization. There is no clear introduction of the main topic or structure of the paper.  There is no clear conclusion, the paper just ends. Little or no employment of supporting evidence - reader left to fill in gaps; thesis meagerly (if at all) established and introduction vague or too brief + weak or non-existent conclusion = seeming total disregard for progression of ideas

Extremely fluent and articulate relation of ideas; effective, powerful tone and language use; quotes, paraphrases and summaries expertly woven into own writing; structural design versatile and complex. Reasonably fluent relation of ideas attempt at tone and language use somewhat effective; quotes, paraphrases and summaries left wholly or partially disconnected, and/or repetitiously or formulaically set up; structure lacks variety and/or complexity. Transitions clearly show how ideas are connected, but there is little variety. Pacing is well-controlled, but there is a lack of elaboration in some areas.  Problematic written voice (possibly halting, blunt, confusing, nonacademic) - ideas unclear; inappropriate and/or mundane tone & language use; quotes, paraphrases and summaries few and not employed properly ("stranded"); no attempt at sentence variability; generally repetitious tone and language. Some transitions work well; connections between other ideas are fuzzy. Pacing is well-controlled, but sometimes the same point is repeated.

 Few errors in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, sentence stucture and grammar. Occasional errors in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, sentence structure and grammar, but meaning is not obscured. 

Essay Rubric

About this printout

This rubric delineates specific expectations about an essay assignment to students and provides a means of assessing completed student essays.

Teaching with this printout

More ideas to try.

Grading rubrics can be of great benefit to both you and your students. For you, a rubric saves time and decreases subjectivity. Specific criteria are explicitly stated, facilitating the grading process and increasing your objectivity. For students, the use of grading rubrics helps them to meet or exceed expectations, to view the grading process as being “fair,” and to set goals for future learning. In order to help your students meet or exceed expectations of the assignment, be sure to discuss the rubric with your students when you assign an essay. It is helpful to show them examples of written pieces that meet and do not meet the expectations. As an added benefit, because the criteria are explicitly stated, the use of the rubric decreases the likelihood that students will argue about the grade they receive. The explicitness of the expectations helps students know exactly why they lost points on the assignment and aids them in setting goals for future improvement.

• Routinely have students score peers’ essays using the rubric as the assessment tool. This increases their level of awareness of the traits that distinguish successful essays from those that fail to meet the criteria. Have peer editors use the Reviewer’s Comments section to add any praise, constructive criticism, or questions.
• Alter some expectations or add additional traits on the rubric as needed. Students’ needs may necessitate making more rigorous criteria for advanced learners or less stringent guidelines for younger or special needs students. Furthermore, the content area for which the essay is written may require some alterations to the rubric. In social studies, for example, an essay about geographical landforms and their effect on the culture of a region might necessitate additional criteria about the use of specific terminology.
• After you and your students have used the rubric, have them work in groups to make suggested alterations to the rubric to more precisely match their needs or the parameters of a particular writing assignment.
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How to Grade Essays Faster | My Top 10 Grading Tips and Tricks

Are you looking for ways to grade essays faster? I get it. Grading essays can be a daunting task for ELA teachers. Following these essay grading tips and tricks can save you time and energy on grading without giving up quality feedback to your students.

Are you Googling “How to Grade Essays Faster” because that never-ending pile of essays is starting to haunt you? (Yup. I’ve been there.) Teachers of all disciplines understand the work-life struggle of the profession. Throw in 60, 80, 100, or more essays, and you’re likely giving up evenings and weekends until that pile is gone.

Truthfully, while there are many aspects of being an ELA teacher I love , grading essays doesn’t quite make the list. However, it’s a necessary aspect of the ELA classroom to hold students accountable and help them improve. But what if I told you there were some tips and tricks you could use to make grading much easier and faster? Because there are. That means saying goodbye to spending your weekends lost in a sea of student essays. It means no more living at school the weeks following students turning in an essay. Instead, prepare to celebrate getting your time (and sanity) back.

Start By Reframing Your Definition of Grading an Essay

Before you can implement my time-saving grading tips and tricks, you need to be willing to shift your mindset regarding grading. Afterall, where does it say we have to give up hours upon hours of our time to get it done? It’s time to start redefining and reframing what it even means to grade an essay.

The key to reframing your definition (and, therefore, expectations) about grading student essays is thinking about helping your students, not correcting them. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with pointing out grammatical and structural errors. However, it’s essential to focus on leaving constructive feedback that can help students improve their craft. Now, how can that be done without spending hours filling the margins with comments?

I’m glad you asked.

Grade Essays Faster with These Tips and Tricks

Since we can’t avoid grading altogether, I hope these tips and tricks can help you grade essays faster and increase student performance. And while I love rubrics, and they can certainly save time grading, they aren’t your only option. So here are eight other tips and tricks to try.

Tip 1: Get Focused.

This has been one of my biggest grading time-savers. And I’m not just talking about limiting your distractions while you grade (more on that in a minute), but I mean narrow your focus on what it is you’re grading. Often, we spend so much time correcting every single grammatical mistake that we miss opportunities to give feedback on the skills we’re currently teaching. Try to focus your feedback on the specific skills your students just learned, like writing a strong thesis, embedding quotations, providing supporting evidence, or transitioning from paragraph to paragraph.

Taking this approach to grading will lead to less overwhelm for both you and your students. In fact, your students will have a clearer understanding of what they need to continue working on. Just be sure to make the specific skill (or skills) that you’re looking for (and grading) clear at the start of the assignment.

Tip 2: Give Student Choice.

Let’s say you’ve been working on a particular skill for a few weeks and have had your students practice using various writing prompts. Instead of feeling forced to provide feedback on every written response, let your students choose their best work for you to grade. I find that this grading technique works best on shorter assignments.

However, that doesn’t mean you can’t apply this to longer essays. If you’ve been working on a certain aspect of essay writing, you can let your students pick the paragraph from their essay they want you to grade. Either way, encourage your students to select the writing they believe best represents their skills and knowledge for the task at hand. Not only will this cut down on your grading time, but it will also encourage a sense of ownership over students’ grades.

Tip 3: Check Mark Revisions.

The checkmark revision approach is a great way to put more ownership and accountability on your students. Instead of grading a student essay by telling them exactly what to fix, turn it into a learning opportunity! As you review the student essay, simply use check marks to note areas that need to be corrected or could be improved. Then, give students time in class to work through their essays, identifying what the check mark indicates and making proper adjustments.

However, make sure your students have a clear list (or rubric) outlining the expectations for the essay. They can use this list to refer to when trying to figure out what revisions they need to make to improve their work. Alternatively, if you’re not ready to jump straight to checkmarks, you can create a comment code that provides a bit more guidance for students without taking up a lot of your time.

Tip 4: Use Conferences.

Have you ever thought about holding student-teacher conferences in lieu of providing written feedback? If not, you totally should! Students are so used to teachers doing the heavy lifting for them. Alternatively, turn the revision process into an active experience for them. Instead of going through the essay on your own, marking errors, and making suggestions, talk it through with each student.

When it comes to student-teacher conferences, make sure to set a reasonable time limit for each conference to ensure you’re not spending days conducting these meetings. Just make sure your time limit is enough to review their written work and provide verbal feedback. I require each student to mark their essay as we review it so they know exactly what to work on. While I’m more than willing to answer questions, I encourage students to make an appointment with me after school if they need extensive help.

Tip 5: Skim and Review

I can’t be the only one who wants to shed a tear of frustration when I watch a student toss a comment-covered essay right into recycling. So, instead of spending hours leaving comments on each and every student’s essay, skim through their rough drafts while noting common errors. That way, instead of waiting until students turn in their final draft to address their mistakes, you can review common errors in class before they submit a final draft.  Trust me. This will make grading those final drafts much easier– especially if you have a clear rubric or grading checklist to follow.

This is a great way to review common grammar mistakes that we don’t always take time to teach at the secondary level. It’s also a great way for you to address aspects of your target skills that students are still struggling with. Lastly, I find this shift in focus from the final product to the revision process helps students better understand (and, perhaps, appreciate) the writing process as more than a grade but a learning experience.

Tip 6: Leave a Comment at the End.

This is a huge time-saver, and it’s pretty simple. Although be warned, it might challenge you to go against all of your grading instincts! We’re so used to marking every single error or making all the suggestions with student essays. But, students are often overwhelmed by the mere look of ink-filled margins. What if, instead, you save your comments for the end and limit yourself to one or two celebrations and one or two areas for improvement? This is a simple yet clear way to provide feedback to your students on a final draft, especially if you’ve already gone through a more in-depth revision process from draft to draft.

Okay fine. If you must, you can fix the grammatical errors using a red pen, but save your energy by avoiding writing the same thing over and over again. If you’ve marked the same error three times, let that be it. If they don’t get it after three examples, they should probably make time to see you after school.

Tip 7: Grade Paragraph-by-Paragraph.

Instead of feeling overwhelmed by grading a tall stack of essays, consider breaking your grading– and writing– process down by paragraph. Assessing a single paragraph is far more time-friendly than an entire essay. So, have your students work on their essay paragraph by paragraph, turning each component in as they are completed. That way, you can provide quick and effective feedback they can apply when revising that paragraph and writing any future paragraphs for the final piece. Take it a step further by breaking it down into specific skills and components of an essay. For example, maybe you grade students’ thesis statements and supporting evidence as two separate steps. Grading each of these components takes far less time and, by the time students put it all together for their final essay, their writing should be much more polished and easier to grade. Plus, since you gave immediate feedback throughout the process, you don’t have to worry about spending hours writing comments throughout their entire paper. Instead, give the students a “final” grade using a simple rubric. And since you gave them opportunities to apply your feedback throughout the writing process, you can even have an “improvement” section of the rubric. This is an easy way to acknowledge student effort and progress with their writing.

Tip 8: Mark-up a Model Paragraph.

Take some of the work off your plate by grading a paragraph and letting the students do the rest. (You read that right.) Here’s how it works: instead of grading an entire paper, rewriting the same comments paragraph after paragraph, just mark up a model paragraph. Alternatively, you can grade the intro and conclusion paragraphs, while marking up one body paragraph as a model for the remaining body paragraphs. Give them a score on a smaller scale, such as 1 to 10, as a phase one grade.

Then, set aside time in class to have your students review your model paragraph and use it to mark up the rest of their paper before fixing their errors. I like giving them time in class to do this so they can ask me any clarifying questions in real-time. Once they turn in their revised essay, you can give them a phase two grade without having to worry about diving too deep into feedback. A comment per paragraph or page would suffice.

More Teacher Tricks to Help You Grade Essays Faster

T ip 9: set realistic goals..

Just like we set our students up for success, set yourself up for success too. If you know you can’t get through a class worth of essays during your prep period, don’t set it as your goal. You’ll only feel overwhelmed, disappointed, and discouraged when you only make it through half of your stack. Instead, only tackle your grading when you have the time to do so, and set realistic goals when you do. Grading more essays than you planned on? You feel on top of the world. Grading fewer? You feel like it’s neverending.

Tip 10: Avoid Distractions.

Instagram? Facebook? I know how easy it is to wander over to your phone and take a scroll break. But, we both know a few minutes can turn into an hour real fast. So, do yourself a favor, and when you know it’s time to grade a stack of essays, free your space of any distractions and set a timer. You’d be surprised by how much you can get done in an hour of uninterrupted essay grading.

The bottom line is that grading is an unavoidable aspect of being an ELA teacher. However, I hope one or more of these ideas can help you grade essays faster. The truth is, with these essay grading tips and tricks, you won’t only grade essays more efficiently, but you’ll provide better feedback for students as well. In fact, the longer we take to grade (or procrastinate grading) those essays, the less effective the feedback is for students, period.

So, here’s to more effective grading– faster!

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Essay Rubric: Grading Students Correctly

• Icon Calendar 10 July 2024
• Icon Page 2897 words
• Icon Clock 14 min read

Lectures and tutors provide specific requirements for students to meet when writing essays. Basically, an essay rubric helps tutors to analyze an overall quality of compositions written by students. In this case, a rubric refers to a scoring guide used to evaluate performance based on a set of criteria and standards. As such, useful marking schemes make an analysis process simple for lecturers as they focus on specific concepts related to a writing process. Moreover, an assessment table lists and organizes all of the criteria into one convenient paper. In other instances, students use assessment tables to enhance their writing skills by examining various requirements. Then, different types of essay rubrics vary from one educational level to another. Essentially, Master’s and Ph.D. grading schemes focus on examining complex thesis statements and other writing mechanics. However, high school evaluation tables examine basic writing concepts. In turn, guidelines on a common format for writing a good essay rubric and corresponding examples provided in this article can help students to evaluate their papers before submitting them to their teachers.

General Aspects

An essay rubric refers to a way for teachers to assess students’ composition writing skills and abilities. Basically, an evaluation scheme provides specific criteria to grade assignments. Moreover, the three basic elements of an essay rubric are criteria, performance levels, and descriptors. In this case, teachers use assessment guidelines to save time when evaluating and grading various papers. Hence, learners must use an essay rubric effectively to achieve desired goals and grades, while its general example is:

What Is an Essay Rubric and Its Purpose

According to its definition, an essay rubric is a structured evaluation tool that educators use to grade students’ compositions in a fair and consistent manner. The main purpose of an essay rubric in writing is to ensure consistent and fair grading by clearly defining what constitutes excellent, good, average, and poor performance (DeVries, 2023). This tool specifies a key criteria for grading various aspects of a written text, including a clarity of a thesis statement, an overall quality of a main argument, an organization of ideas, a particular use of evidence, and a correctness of grammar and mechanics. Moreover, an assessment grading helps students to understand their strengths to be proud of and weaknesses to be pointed out and guides them in improving their writing skills (Taylor et al., 2024). For teachers, such an assessment simplifies a grading process, making it more efficient and less subjective by providing a clear standard to follow. By using an essay rubric, both teachers and students can engage in a transparent, structured, and constructive evaluation process, enhancing an overall educational experience (Stevens & Levi, 2023). In turn, the length of an essay rubric depends on academic levels, types of papers, and specific requirements, while general guidelines are:

High School

• Length: 1-2 pages
• Word Count: 300-600 words
• Length: 1-3 pages
• Word Count: 300-900 words

University (Undergraduate)

• Length: 2-4 pages
• Word Count: 600-1,200 words

Master’s

• Length: 2-5 pages
• Word Count: 600-1,500 words
• Length: 3-6 pages
• Word Count: 900-1,800 words

Element	Description
Thesis Statement	A well-defined thesis statement is crucial as it sets a particular direction and purpose of an essay, making it clear what a writer intends to argue or explain.
Introduction	An introduction captures a reader’s interest and provides a framework for what a paper will cover, setting up a stage for arguments or ideas that follow after an opening paragraph.
Content	High-quality content demonstrates thorough understanding and research on a specific topic, providing valuable and relevant information that supports a thesis.
Organization	Effective organization ensures author’s ideas are presented in a clear, well-structure, and logical order, enhancing readability and an overall flow of a central argument.
Evidence and Support	Providing strong evidence and detailed analysis is essential for backing up main arguments, adding credibility and depth to a final document.
Conclusion	A strong conclusion ties all the main numbers together, reflects on potential implications of arguments, and reinforces a thesis, leaving a lasting impression on a reader.
Grammar and Mechanics	Proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation are vital for clarity and professionalism, making a whole text easy to read and understand.
Style and Tone	Correctness in writing style and author’s tone appropriate to a paper’s purpose and audience enhances an overall effectiveness of a particular text and engages a reader.
Citations and References	Accurate and complete citations and references are crucial for giving credit to sources, avoiding plagiarism, and allowing readers to follow up on the research.

Note: Some elements of an essay rubric can be added, deled, or combined with each other because different types of papers, their requirements, and instructors’ choices affect a final assessment. To format an essay rubric, people create a table with criteria listed in rows, performance levels in columns, and detailed descriptors in each cell explaining principal expectations for each level of performance (Steven & Levi, 2023). Besides, the five main criteria in a rubric are thesis statement, content, organization, evidence and support, and grammar and mechanics. In turn, a good essay rubric is clear, specific, aligned with learning objectives, and provides detailed, consistent descriptors for each performance level.

Steps How to Write an Essay Rubric

In writing, the key elements of an essay rubric are clear criteria, defined performance levels, and detailed descriptors for each evaluation.

• Identify a Specific Purpose and Goals: Determine main objectives of an essay’s assignment and consider what skills and knowledge you want students to demonstrate.
• List a Key Criteria: Identify essential components that need to be evaluated, such as thesis statement, introduction, content, organization, evidence and support, conclusion, grammar and mechanics, writing style and tone, and citations and references.
• Define Performance Levels: Decide on a particular scale you will use to measure performance (e.g., Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor) and ensure each level is distinct and clearly defined.
• Create Descriptors for Each Criterion: Write detailed descriptions for what constitutes each level of performance for every criterion and be specific about what is expected at each level to avoid misunderstanding.
• Assign Number Values: Determine a specific range for each criterion and performance level and allocate numbers in a way that reflects an actual importance of each criterion in an overall assessment.
• Review and Revise: Examine a complete rubric to ensure it is comprehensive and clear and adjust any descriptions or number values that seem unclear or disproportionate.
• Test a Working Essay Rubric: Apply a grading scheme to a few sample compositions to see if it effectively differentiates between different levels of performance and make adjustments as necessary.
• Involve Peers for Feedback: Share marking criteria with colleagues or peers for feedback and insights on clarity and fairness that you might have overlooked.
• Provide Examples: Include examples of complete papers or writing excerpts at each performance level and help students to understand what is expected for grading.
• Communicate With Students: Share a complete rubric with students before they begin an assignment and explain each criterion and performance level so they understand how their work will be evaluated and what they need to do to achieve highest marks.

Essay Rubric Example

Organization

Excellent/8 points: A submitted essay contains stiff topic sentences and a controlled organization.

Very Good/6 points: A paper contains a logical and appropriate organization. An author uses clear topic sentences.

Average/4 points: A composition contains a logical and appropriate organization. An author uses clear topic sentences.

Needs Improvement/2 points: A provided text has an inconsistent organization.

Unacceptable/0 (zero): A complete document shows an absence of a planned organization.

Grade: ___ .

Excellent/8 points: A submitted essay shows the absence of a planned organization.

Very Good/6 points: A paper contains precise and varied sentence structures and word choices. 

Average/4 points: A composition follows a limited but mostly correct sentence structure. There are different sentence structures and word choices.

Needs Improvement/2 points: A provided text contains several awkward and unclear sentences. There are some problems with word choices.

Unacceptable/0 (zero): An author does not have apparent control over sentence structures and word choice.

Excellent/8 points: An essay’s content appears sophisticated and contains well-developed ideas.

Very Good/6 points: A paper’s content appears illustrative and balanced.

Average/4 points: A composition contains unbalanced content that requires more analysis.

Needs Improvement/2 points: A provided text contains a lot of research information without analysis or commentary.

Unacceptable/0 (zero): A complete document lacks relevant content and does not fit the thesis statement. Essay rubric rules are not followed.

Excellent/8 points: A submitted essay contains a clearly stated and focused thesis statement.

Very Good/6 points: A paper comprises a clearly stated argument. However, a particular focus would have been sharper.

Average/4 points: A thesis statement phrasing sounds simple and lacks complexity. An author does not word the thesis correctly. 

Needs Improvement/2 points: A thesis statement requires a clear objective and does not fit the theme in a paper’s content.

Unacceptable/0 (zero): A thesis statement is not evident in an introduction paragraph.

Excellent/8 points: A submitted is clear and focused. An overall work holds a reader’s attention. Besides, relevant details and quotes enrich a thesis statement.

Very Good/6 points: A paper is mostly focused and contains a few useful details and quotes.

Average/4 points: An author begins a composition by defining an assigned topic. However, a particular development of ideas appears general.

Needs Improvement/2 points: An author fails to define an assigned topic well or focuses on several issues.

Unacceptable/0 (zero): A complete document lacks a clear sense of a purpose or thesis statement. Readers have to make suggestions based on sketchy or missing ideas to understand an intended meaning. Essay rubric requirements are missed.

Sentence Fluency

Excellent/8 points: A submitted essay has a natural flow, rhythm, and cadence. Its sentences are well-built and have a wide-ranging and robust structure that enhances reading.

Very Good/6 points: Presented ideas mostly flow and motivate a compelling reading.

Average/4 points: A composition hums along with a balanced beat but tends to be more businesslike than musical. Besides, a particular flow of ideas tends to become more mechanical than fluid.

Needs Improvement/2 points: A provided text appears irregular and hard to read.

Unacceptable/0 (zero): Readers have to go through a complete document several times to give this paper a fair interpretive reading.

Conventions

Excellent/8 points: An author demonstrates proper use of standard writing conventions, like spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, usage, and paragraphing. A person also uses correct protocols in a way that improves an overall readability of an essay.

Very Good/6 points: An author demonstrates proper writing conventions and uses them correctly. One can read a paper with ease, and errors are rare. Few touch-ups can make a submitted composition ready for publishing.

Average/4 points: An author shows reasonable control over a short range of standard writing rules. A person also handles all the conventions and enhances readability. Writing errors in a presented composition tend to distract and impair legibility.

Needs Improvement/2 points: An author makes an effort to use various conventions, including spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar usage, and paragraphing. A provided text contains multiple errors.

Unacceptable/0 (zero): An author makes repetitive errors in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, usage, and paragraphing. Some mistakes distract readers and make it hard to understand discussed concepts. Essay rubric rules are not covered.

Presentation

Excellent/8 points: A particular form and presentation of a text enhance an overall readability of an essay and its flow of ideas.

Very Good/6 points: A chosen format has few mistakes and is easy to read.

Average/4 points: An author’s message is understandable in this format.

Needs Improvement/2 points: An author’s message is only comprehensible infrequently, and a provided text appears disorganized.

Unacceptable/0 (zero): Readers receive a distorted message due to difficulties connecting to a presentation of an entire text.

Final Grade: ___ .

Grading Scheme

• A+ = 60+ points
• F = less than 9

Differences in Education Levels

An overall quality of various types of texts changes at different education levels. In writing, an essay rubric works by providing a structured framework with specific criteria and performance levels to consistently evaluate and grade a finished paper. For instance, college students must write miscellaneous papers when compared to high school learners (Harrington et al., 2021). In this case, assessment criteria will change for these different education levels. For example, university and college compositions should have a debatable thesis statement with varying points of view (Mewburn et al., 2021). However, high school compositions should have simple phrases as thesis statements. Then, other requirements in a marking rubric will be more straightforward for high school students (DeVries, 2023). For Master’s and Ph.D. works, a writing criteria presented in a scoring evaluation should focus on examining a paper’s complexity. In turn, compositions for these two categories should have thesis statements that demonstrate a detailed analysis of defined topics that advance knowledge in a specific area of study.

Recommendations

When observing any essay rubric, people should remember to ensure clarity and specificity in each criterion and performance level. This clarity helps both an evaluator and a student to understand principal expectations and how a written document will be assessed (Ozfidan & Mitchell, 2022). Consistency in language and terminology across an essay rubric is crucial to avoid confusion and maintain fairness. Further on, it is essential to align a working scheme with learning objectives and goals of an essay’s assignment, ensuring all key components, such as thesis, content, organization, and grammar, are covered comprehensively (Stevens & Levi, 2023). Evaluators should also be aware of the weighting and scoring distribution, making sure they accurately reflect an actual importance of each criterion. Moreover, testing a rubric on sample essays before finalizing it can help to identify any mistakes or imbalances in scores. Essentially, providing concrete examples or descriptions for each performance level can guide students in understanding what is expected for each grade (Taylor et al., 2024). In turn, an essay rubric should be reviewed, revised, and updated after each educational year to remain relevant and aligned with current academic standards. Lastly, sharing and explaining grading assessment with students before they start their composition fosters transparency and helps them to put more of their efforts into meeting defined criteria, ultimately improving their writing and learning experience in general.

Common Mistakes

• Lack of Specificity: Descriptions for each criterion and performance level are too vague, leading to ambiguity and confusion for both graders and students.
• Overcomplicating a Rubric: Including too many criteria or overly complex descriptions that make a scoring assessment difficult to use effectively.
• Unbalanced Weighting: Assigning disproportionate number values to different criteria, which can mislead an overall assessment and not accurately reflect an actual importance of each component.
• Inconsistent Language: Using inconsistent terminology or descriptors across performance levels, which can confuse users and make a rubric less reliable.
• Not Aligning With Objectives: Failing to align a particular criteria and performance levels with specific goals and learning outcomes of an assignment.
• Omitting Key Components: Leaving out important criteria that are essential for evaluating a paper comprehensively, such as citations or a conclusion part.
• Lack of Examples: Not providing examples or concrete descriptions of what constitutes each performance level, making it harder for students to understand expectations.
• Ignoring Grammar and Mechanics: Overlooking an actual importance of grammar, spelling, and punctuation, which are crucial for clear and professional writing.
• Not Updating an Essay Rubric: Using outdated rubrics that do not reflect current educational standards or specific assignment needs.
• Insufficient Testing: Failing to test a grading scheme on some sample documents to ensure it effectively differentiates between levels of performance and provides fair assessments.

Essay rubrics help teachers, instructors, professors, and tutors to analyze an overall quality of compositions written by students. Basically, an assessment scheme makes an analysis process simple for lecturers, and it lists and organizes all of the criteria into one convenient paper. In other instances, students use such evaluation tools to improve their writing skills. However, they vary from one educational level to the other. Master’s and Ph.D. assessment schemes focus on examining complex thesis statements and other writing mechanics. However, high school grading criteria examine basic writing concepts.  As such, the following are some of the tips that one must consider when preparing any rubric.

• Include all mechanics that relate to essay writing.
• Cover different requirements and their relevant grades.
• Follow clear and understandable statements.

DeVries, B. A. (2023). Literacy assessment and intervention for classroom teachers . Routledge.

Harrington, E. R., Lofgren, I. E., Gottschalk Druschke, C., Karraker, N. E., Reynolds, N., & McWilliams, S. R. (2021). Training graduate students in multiple genres of public and academic science writing: An assessment using an adaptable, interdisciplinary rubric. Frontiers in Environmental Science , 9 , 1–13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2021.715409

Mewburn, I., Firth, K., & Lehmann, S. (2021). Level up your essays: How to get better grades at university . NewSouth.

Ozfidan, B., & Mitchell, C. (2022). Assessment of students’ argumentative writing: A rubric development. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies , 9 (2), 121–133. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/1064

Stevens, D. D., & Levi, A. (2023). Introduction to rubrics: An assessment tool to save grading time, convey effective feedback, and promote student learning . Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Taylor, B., Kisby, F., & Reedy, A. (2024). Rubrics in higher education: An exploration of undergraduate students’ understanding and perspectives. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education , 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2023.2299330

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4 Tips for Managing Essay Grading

Audrey Wick is an English professor at Blinn College in central Texas

I remember the bright-eyed enthusiasm with which I approached the process of essay grading for the first time as a rookie instructor. I was so excited! The essays seemed like such a gift! They were, after all, the voices of my students come alive to me on paper.

Now that I’ve been teaching for a number of years, those essays seem like “gifts” that keep on giving. Each semester, I receive batches of essays from my students—multiplied by the several sections of each course I teach—and the process of responding to them all can be overwhelming.

Luckily, I’ve developed a few techniques for essay grading over the years that I’m happy to pass along so we can all recapture the initial enthusiasm which surrounded that inaugural set of essays.

1. Stagger Due Dates For Essay Grading

For instructors teaching multiple sections, this is key.

Full-time instructors at my institution teach five classes, so each deadline results in well over 100 papers submitted. That’s a lot of essays to grade at once! Rather than bracing for an avalanche of essays being submitted on a single day, consider staggering due dates: a Monday deadline for one section, a Tuesday deadline for another, etc. Since deadlines are often accompanied by student questions, staggering them allows correspondence around the assignment to spread out a bit. This way an instructor is not answering dozens of last-minute questions, for instance, on a Monday.

But even if there needs to be uniformity between sections, staggered deadlines can be accomplished by differences in modality. For instance, my face-to-face sections have a mid-week Wednesday deadline, but my online sections have an end-of-weekend Sunday deadline. With this schedule I can still ensure all of my students submit essays, say, at the end of week four, even with staggered submission days.

2. Digitize Your Essay Grading

Many instructors use digital assignment submissions—but I still have colleagues who require hard-copy paper submissions. I shared this preference when I first began teaching, but collecting, shuffling, transporting, organizing, and redistributing paper copies cut into time I spent actually grading essays.

Digitizing through electronic drop box submissions means that the moment a student submits an assignment, I get it—and I don’t have to move it anywhere.

Digital drop boxes also allow me to set submission windows, so students have the option to submit early. While plenty of students do procrastinate, it’s refreshing to see those who submit well in advance of a deadline. This helps me manage the influx of their assignments since the files arrive a few at a time.

3. Grade Essays in Order

Thanks to digitized submissions, I am able to see the exact date/time a student submitted an assignment. The dropboxes I use allow me to sort submissions using this time data, and that is the order in which I grade papers. I tell this to students—so for some, it’s their incentive to submit early because it means that they will receive their grades and feedback prior to others in the class.

This is a good habit to cultivate in students: a reward for early preparation. I realize this is not always possible for students, but it’s one small way I can incentivize the process equitably.

Grading essays on a rolling basis instead of in one fell swoop means that I can devote more focused attention to each submission because I’m not overwhelmed. This allows me to stay organized as well.

4. Use Smart Shortcuts in Essay Grading

If I’m assigning the same essay prompt across multiple sections, there are certain types of feedback that I am apt to give. If I find a way to shortcut these, I can save myself time on each essay.

The easiest way I do this is through saved comments in the digital grading software I use; I can archive comments across sections and then apply them individually to papers as needed.

No matter if you have this capability or not, there may be other ways to take a smart shortcut:

• Creating a document in a word processor of frequently typed feedback
• Using shorthand and frequently understood editing marks
• Applying a rubric for essay grading
• Leaving audio feedback on digital essay submissions instead of text feedback (since many of us can talk more quickly than we can type or write)

I may be grading over 100 submissions, but each of my students is only reading feedback on their own. So, I also need to remember that shortcuts should not undercut the quality of feedback each student ultimately receives.

Seeing students’ writing is, truly, a gift. And with proper time management, essay grading can be an exercise instructors feel enthusiastic about, round after round.

Want more of my tips for powering your course your way? Get the Empowered Educator eBook.

Related articles.

Yes, Virginia, There's a Better Way to Grade

By  Linda B. Nilson

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Pause a moment to consider the way we’ve been grading our students’ work since time immemorial. The way we allocate points on the basis of apparent quality. The way we struggle to be fair in giving the same number of points to works of comparable quality, even though they differ a great deal -- and the time it takes us to make these hairsplitting decisions. The way students stress over the points their work does or doesn’t get. The way they challenge our grading decisions in the hope of squeezing more points out of us -- despite the agonizing care and attention to detail we give to their work. For students, it’s all about maximizing partial credit.

Consider, too, the value that external stakeholders attach to our grading. Most employers of our graduates give grades little heed in hiring. They want experience. At the program and university level, accreditors eschew grades and demand independent evidence of student achievement of learning outcomes.

Our grading system is broken, yet we educators keep using it. You may think you have no alternative. But you do. And you can comfortably make the change in your own classes and not confront your administration.

Imagine another grading system, one where you grade all assignments and tests satisfactory/unsatisfactory, pass/fail. Students earn all of the points associated with the work, or none of them, depending on whether their work meets the particular specifications you laid out for it. This is why I call this grading system specifications, or specs, grading. Think of the specs as a one-level, uni-dimensional rubric. But don’t think of them as defining D or even C minus work. Rather, imagine that they define truly “satisfactory” as at least B work -- maybe even A minus work. This assures rigor.

The specs may be as simple as “completeness”: for instance, all the questions are answered, all the problems attempted in good faith or all the directions followed (that is, the work satisfies the assignment), plus the work meets a required length. Or the specs may be more complex: for instance, the work fulfills the criteria you set out for a good literature review, research proposal or substantial reflection.

You must write the specs for a complex assignment very carefully, clearly and thoroughly. They must describe exactly what features in the work you want and will look for. This may mean specifying the organization as well as contents of each section of the work, perhaps even paragraph by paragraph.

Too formulaic? Let’s be real: most of our assignments follow a formula. All you have to do is lay out that formula or whatever part of the formula is important for your students to learn and follow. If you’re bothered by late work, you can include on-time submission among the specs, too.

If your objective for an assignment is creativity, simply provide loose specs of the various ways that students can demonstrate their ability to explain and apply the material -- such as a 20-minute informational video or dramatic performance, a four-minute original musical performance, a 15-page short story or an eight-minute persuasive speech. You can specify basic parameters for creative assignments and not worry about “grading” them.

In sum, complete, satisfactory work receives full credit (full value), and incomplete, unsatisfactory receives no credit/value. For students, it’s all or nothing. No skipping the directions and no sliding by on partial credit for sloppy, last-minute work.

In fact, research reveals that this kind of assignment grading increases student motivation and produces higher-quality work than traditional grading systems do. And the 2015 National Survey of Student Engagement has found that only 54 percent of freshmen and 61 percent of seniors believe that they have been “highly challenged to do their best work” in college. Clearly, our students have room to meet higher and more rigorous academic standards. Maybe we’ve gone too far with lowering the stakes of our assignments and tests. Now, nothing students do matters much to them.

But what about second chances, redemption and flexibility? Consider this second element of specs grading: a virtual-token economy, which buffers the riskiness of no partial credit and allows the opportunity for redemption.

At the beginning of the term, you give your students one, two or three virtual tokens that give them the chance to revise an unsatisfactory assignment, hand in an assignment 24 hours late without penalty or to take a makeup exam. (It’s easier to keep track of three tokens than points docked.) Of course, students who consistently submit satisfactory work on time will keep their tokens. If you choose, you can even let students earn tokens by submitting satisfactory work early, successfully completing additional assignments or doing whatever you’d like to reward. Then, at the end of the course, you can give the student(s) with the most tokens something desirable -- perhaps the chance to skip the final exam or a gift certificate for a pizza.

Actually, you can import this token economy into any grading system. Many students regard it as a game and want to hoard their tokens.

Bundles of Assignments

Specs grading has one more exotic feature: course grades are based on the bundles of assignments and tests that students complete at a pass/satisfactory level. Bundles that require more work, more challenging work or both earn students higher grades. No more points to painstakingly allocate and haggle over with students. By choosing the bundle they want to complete, students select the final grade they want to earn, taking into account their motivation, time available, grade point needs and commitment. If a student chooses a C because that’s all he or she needs in your course, you can respect that. Under such conditions, students are often more motivated to learn because they have a sense of choice, volition, self-determination and responsibility for their grade, as well as less grade anxiety.

Another benefit is the option to associate each bundle with one or more student learning outcomes, so completing a given bundle indicates that the student has achieved certain of those outcomes. Why shouldn’t our grades reflect the outcomes students have and have not achieved? Then our grades may actually mean something.

Let’s admit that, right now, our grades have little connection to outcomes. Students earning an A may have achieved all the outcomes of a course, but what about those getting a B, a C or a D? Did they achieve some outcomes and not others? If so, which ones? Or did they achieve few or none at an acceptable level? Even so, they passed the course.

The idea of bundles can be hard to grasp without examples. Let’s say you set up 10 assignments and tests. These may be papers, essays, objective items, problem sets, programs, designs or some combination of these. Each assignment and test has a companion assignment that enhances its learning value, such as a self-regulated learning exercise, a self-assessment, a paraphrase of your feedback or a plan for doing better next time. Together, they form a bundle.

Then, number each bundle according to the challenge level so that the lower numbers designate relatively easy and lower-level thinking assignments and tests and the higher numbers indicate increasingly demanding and higher-level thinking assignments and tests. Therefore, your course offers 10 bundles.

• For a D, students have to complete bundles 1 through 5, which require achieving only knowledge/recall outcomes, plus the ability to write brief reflections.
• For a C, they have to complete bundles 1 through 6, where bundle 6 also requires comprehension, plus the ability to correct their errors.
• For a B, they have to complete bundles 1 through 8, where bundles 7 and 8 also require application, plus the ability to plan improvement strategies.
• For an A, they have to complete all 10 bundles, where bundles 9 and 10 also require evaluation and creation, plus the ability to assess their work.

Here is an even simpler system with only four bundles of assignments and tests, ranging from relatively easy/basic to very challenging/advanced. The more challenging bundles will require students to achieve more learning outcomes, including higher levels of thinking about broader and more complex knowledge.

• For a D, students have to complete only the easiest and most basic bundle.
• For a C, they have to complete that basic bundle and a somewhat more challenging one.
• For a B, they have to complete these two bundles and a third one that is even more challenging.
• For an A, they have to complete all four bundles, the fourth of which is the most challenging.

Again, to complete a bundle, a student must finish all the assignments and tests within it at a satisfactory level -- which means at least a B level. That is, each piece of work within a bundle must meet all your specs for satisfactory completion.

Specs grading is flexible. You can adopt one or two of the three elements, or apply an element in some cases and not others. For instance, you can integrate pass/fail grading and tokens into a course but retain your current point system. Or you may choose to grade only some assignments and tests pass/fail. Or you may institute bundles only for grades C and D, or only for grades A and B.

Some faculty members already use specs grading in their courses, in whole or in part, and they get better results than they did grading the traditional way. Most of them claim that their students produce higher-quality work, pay more attention to feedback, feel more responsible for their grades and are less grade anxious and less likely to protest their grades.

In addition, these instructors find the grading process simpler and less stressful and time-consuming. More of their time goes more toward figuring out what they want their students to show they can do and at what level.

So take heart. If you don’t like the impact that our grading system has on you and your students, you don’t have to tolerate it anymore.

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Grading criteria

The documents below (all from Northwestern) provide examples for instructors seeking methods to systematize their grading of papers and to explain their grading criteria to students. The documents illustrate three principles about grading criteria: (1) The criteria depend on the nature of the assignment (e.g., reflective essay, technical report).  (2) The criteria are grouped in categories (e.g., clear purpose, logical organization, grammar/style).  (3) The criteria can be presented to students in different forms (e.g., table, list, etc.). 

Analytical and research paper grading guide Details the criteria--including compelling argument, logical organization, awareness of audience, sophisticated style, and evidence of revision--used to determine grades

Grading criteria for a reflective essay A list of grading criteria distributed to students before they revise their first assignment, a reflective essay.  The handout is intended both to inform students of what I will be looking for in assessing their revisions and to reinforce the general suggestions I gave them in our conferences about their first drafts.

Grading criteria freshman engineering essays (doc) A two-column chart, with evaluation criteria listed in one column and space for specific comments in the other.  Each student receives this chart back with his or her graded essay.

ESL grading symbols What is most useful about this handout on symbols for ESL (English as a Second Language) writers is that it divides the errors into those that interfere with a reader comprehending the writer’s intended meaning and the more superficial errors.  

Criteria for letter grades Grading standards that can be distributed to students and then referred to in giving  students feedback on working drafts so they can understand what they need to do to improve their writing.

Freshman seminar grading chart A chart that explains the criteria (purpose, content, organization, mechanics, and style) used to determine grades.

Freshman seminar grading sheet final essay A detailed checklist of strengths and areas for improvement returned to each student with his or her graded paper.

Freshman seminar assessment rubric A rubric developed by Northwestern's WCAS freshman assessment group to assess how well the freshman seminar program meets its goal of improving student writing.  Instructors may find it a useful way to evaluate each student's writing on individual papers and throughout the course.

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Criteria for Grading Essays

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Essay tests are useful for teachers when they want students to select, organize, analyze, synthesize, and/or evaluate information. In other words, they rely on the upper levels of Bloom's Taxonomy . There are two types of essay questions: restricted and extended response.

• Restricted Response - These essay questions limit what the student will discuss in the essay based on the wording of the question. For example, "State the main differences between John Adams' and Thomas Jefferson's beliefs about federalism," is a restricted response. What the student is to write about has been expressed to them within the question.
• Extended Response - These allow students to select what they wish to include in order to answer the question. For example, "In Of Mice and Men , was George's killing of Lennie justified? Explain your answer." The student is given the overall topic, but they are free to use their own judgment and integrate outside information to help support their opinion.

Student Skills Required for Essay Tests

Before expecting students to perform well on either type of essay question, we must make sure that they have the required skills to excel. Following are four skills that students should have learned and practiced before taking essay exams:

• The ability to select appropriate material from the information learned in order to best answer the question.
• The ability to organize that material in an effective manner.
• The ability to show how ideas relate and interact in a specific context.
• The ability to write effectively in both sentences and paragraphs.

Constructing an Effective Essay Question

Following are a few tips to help in the construction of effective essay questions:

• Begin with the lesson objectives in mind. Make sure to know what you wish the student to show by answering the essay question.
• Decide if your goal requires a restricted or extended response. In general, if you wish to see if the student can synthesize and organize the information that they learned, then restricted response is the way to go. However, if you wish them to judge or evaluate something using the information taught during class, then you will want to use the extended response.
• If you are including more than one essay, be cognizant of time constraints. You do not want to punish students because they ran out of time on the test.
• Write the question in a novel or interesting manner to help motivate the student.
• State the number of points that the essay is worth. You can also provide them with a time guideline to help them as they work through the exam.
• If your essay item is part of a larger objective test, make sure that it is the last item on the exam.

Scoring the Essay Item

One of the downfalls of essay tests is that they lack in reliability. Even when teachers grade essays with a well-constructed rubric, subjective decisions are made. Therefore, it is important to try and be as reliable as possible when scoring your essay items. Here are a few tips to help improve reliability in grading:

• Determine whether you will use a holistic or analytic scoring system before you write your rubric . With the holistic grading system, you evaluate the answer as a whole, rating papers against each other. With the analytic system, you list specific pieces of information and award points for their inclusion.
• Prepare the essay rubric in advance. Determine what you are looking for and how many points you will be assigning for each aspect of the question.
• Avoid looking at names. Some teachers have students put numbers on their essays to try and help with this.
• Score one item at a time. This helps ensure that you use the same thinking and standards for all students.
• Avoid interruptions when scoring a specific question. Again, consistency will be increased if you grade the same item on all the papers in one sitting.
• If an important decision like an award or scholarship is based on the score for the essay, obtain two or more independent readers.
• Beware of negative influences that can affect essay scoring. These include handwriting and writing style bias, the length of the response, and the inclusion of irrelevant material.
• Review papers that are on the borderline a second time before assigning a final grade.
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English A: Language and Literature Support Site

Hle assessment criteria, criterion a: knowledge, understanding and interpretation.

• To what extent does the essay show knowledge and understanding of the work or body of work?
• To what extent are interpretations drawn from the work or body of work to explore the topic?
• To what extent are interpretations supported by relevant references to the work or body of work?

Marks	Descriptor
1	The essay shows knowledge and understanding of the work or body of work. Interpretations are relevant to the topic and supported by references to the work or body of work.
2	The essay shows knowledge and understanding of the work or body of work. Interpretations are relevant to the topic and supported by references to the work or body of work.
3	The essay shows knowledge and understanding of the work or body of work. Interpretations are relevant to the topic and supported by references to the work or body of work.
4	The essay shows a knowledge and understanding of the work or body of work. Interpretations are to the topic and supported by appropriate references to the work or body of work.
5	The essay shows knowledge and understanding of the work or body of work. Interpretations are to the topic and supported by convincing references to the work or body of work.

Criterion B: Analysis and evaluation

• To what extent does the essay show analysis and evaluation of how the author uses stylistic and structural features to construct meaning on the topic?

Marks	Descriptor
1	The essay shows analysis and evaluation of how uses stylistic and structural features to construct meaning on the topic.
2	The essay shows analysis and evaluation of how uses stylistic and structural features to construct meaning on the topic.
3	The essay shows analysis and evaluation of how uses stylistic and structural features to construct meaning on the topic.
4	The essay shows analysis and evaluation of how uses stylistic and structural features to construct meaning on the topic.
5	The essay shows analysis and evaluation of how uses stylistic and structural features to construct meaning on the topic.

Criterion C: Coherence, focus and organisation

• To what extent does the essay show coherence, focus and organisation?

Marks	Descriptor
1	The essay shows coherence, focus and organisation.
2	The essay shows coherence, focus and organisation.
3	The essay shows coherence, focus and organisation.
4	The essay shows coherence, focus and organisation.
5	The essay shows coherence, focus and organisation.

Criterion D: Language

• To what extent is the student’s use of vocabulary, tone, syntax, style and terminology accurate, varied and effective?

Marks	Descriptor
1	The student’s use of vocabulary, tone, syntax, style and terminology is accurate, varied and effective.
2	The student’s use of vocabulary, tone, syntax, style and terminology is accurate, varied and effective.
3	The student’s use of vocabulary, tone, syntax, style and terminology is accurate, varied and effective.
4	The student’s use of vocabulary, tone, syntax, style and terminology is accurate, varied and effective.
5	The student’s use of vocabulary, tone, syntax, style and terminology is accurate, varied and effective.

Real Grading Scale Used in California Public Schools?

We found the original graphic on an episode of "dr. phil," but without some of the necessary context., published aug. 7, 2024.

In August 2024 , a post on the social media site X displayed a graphic from the daytime talk show "Dr. Phil." The graphic, summarizing a "Facebook Post by CA Parent," shows a lenient "public school grading scale" that assigns an "A" grade to an 84% and up, while the next three grades covers 20 percentage points, making a "B" between 64% and 84%, a "C" between 44% and 64% and so on, with an "F" below 24%. The same graphic previously went viral in April 2024 .

 (Facebook user Latara Youngblood)

Users across the social media landscape left comments bemoaning the state of the American public-education system. Some users went further , implying that the scale was implemented statewide.

But a few things about the post felt a bit wrong: The graphic did not include a precise source, and the grading scale was so different that we wondered whether it was real.

Is the Facebook Post Real?

It is unclear whether the post referenced by the graphic was real and whether it was describing a legitimate grading system.

Although we were unable to find an exact clip from the episode, we feel relatively comfortable in saying that the graphic is a real screenshot from "Dr. Phil." Dr. Phil McGraw used the same example when discussing American public education on " The Joe Rogan Experience " podcast in October 2022.

"Dr. Phil" stopped taping new episodes in early 2023, which means the episode in question would have been a rerun in April 2024. That fact made it even harder to track down the post's origin. We reached out to people involved with the production of "Dr. Phil" to ask them for the graphic's source, but have not yet heard back. We could not find a Facebook post matching what appeared on the show.

Because the Facebook post supposedly came from California, we investigated the grading methodologies of a few large public school districts in the state and reached out to the California's Department of Education.

The Los Angeles and Long Beach Unified school districts did not publish a districtwide grading scale, but reporting from the Los Angeles Times combined with documents for graduation requirements confirmed that these schools use some sort of a letter grade system. In February 2024 , L.A. Unified updated its grading practices for the first time since 2005 and included a "heavy suggestion" that teachers move away from traditional grading. However, the episode of "Dr. Phil" with the graphic would have aired long before that change was made.

In addition, the  San Diego Unified and San Francisco Unified school districts had districtwide grading scales for middle- and high-schoolers that match the standard "A = 90-100%" grading scale most Americans are used to. Therefore, although the grading scale shown on "Dr. Phil" might exist in the state of California, it certainly is not statewide. We have not yet heard back from the Department of Education.

In our research, we came across mentions of a grading methodology called "mastery-based" or "standards-based" grading that might be able to explain the uncommon scale. In particular, we found that the percentages found in the graphic could have easily resulted from attempting to translate a mastery-based grading system into a more traditional percentage-based or letter grade system.

So with the caveat that Snopes could not definitively identify the particular scale featured on "Dr. Phil," let's explore standards-based grading.

Standards-Based Grading

Sharona Krinsky, an adjunct professor of mathematics at California State University, Los Angeles and executive director of The Grading Conference , knew exactly what was going on with that methodology.

"Grades don't communicate learning. They were designed to rank and score students against each other," she said. "We're recreating grading as a tool to help students learn and report what they learn."

In order to do that, Krinsky said, we need to think of grades as subjective evaluations rather than objective numbers. In a normal ABCDF grading scale, student assignments are given point values and scored based on a percentage of points. In standards-based grading, however, students are graded based on whether or not they've exceeded the instructor's learning goals. For instance, an elementary-school math instructor might set learning goals of understanding how parentheses work, or knowing how to add two-digit numbers. Then, each student is given a different mark (oftentimes, on a 0-4 or 0-5 scale) for how well they understand and can apply each objective.

Although a numerical scale is still applied in standards-based grading, Krinsky said that what really matters is whether the student understands the concept.

"Grades are labels, and we made the mistake of treating them as math," she said.

Under common ABCDF gradings, the passing threshold is a C, equivalent to 70%. But on standards-based learning scales, passing is often a 3, placing it much closer to the graphic that appeared on "Dr. Phil," where a C was between 44 and 64%. And when taken in a vacuum, such a grading scale makes it look like the expectations for students are more lenient.

"If that's the only thing you change, then of course standards are going to go down," Krinsky said.

But these grading systems do not exist in a vacuum. Under standards-based grading systems, educators change more than just the grading scale. This was the main problem Krinsky had with the graphic on "Dr. Phil." She said the lack of context removed any possible explanation for how the grades are given and what standards the students are being held to.

Translating a standards-based system into a familiar percentage or letter grade scale just doesn't make a lot of sense, because number grades are not objective. A 50% on one scale could genuinely equal the same effort from a student as a 70% on another scale. This is possibly how Dr. Phil's grading scale ended up the way it did: a different set of academic standards got lost in translation.

Krinsky said that people criticizing the public education system, grading scales included, don't often acknowledge that it fails because budget cuts and political pressure do not give it the chance to succeed. She wanted parents who criticize the education system to know that her goal is to get their kids to learn effectively.

"Parents should be willing to engage with an open mind, and not assume that their way is always the best way." she said. "They're such powerful advocates."

By Jack Izzo

Jack Izzo is a Chicago-based journalist and two-time "Jeopardy!" alumnus.

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School of Medicine (SOM)

Som academics, admissions & financial aid, som student life, som alumni profiles, som policies, visiting medical students, office of faculty affairs, contact som, som grading policy for phase 1 of md program.

Issue Date : May 30, 2024 Supersedes : Course Grading Policy for Phase 1, dated May 8, 2024 Last Review :  May 30, 2024

The purpose of this policy is to provide consistent guidelines for grading courses in the New York Medical College, School of Medicine (NYMC SOM) Phase 1.

It is the policy of NYMC SOM that at the end of each course, each student’s performance is evaluated and recorded.  All Phase I courses will be graded as Pass/Fail on the student's transcript.  Course grades are composed of summative evaluations in two (2) domains:  Medical Knowledge (MK) and Patient Care (PC).  Any medical student who fails any domain of a course (MK in any module and/or PC), regardless of the outcome of remediation, will be reviewed and monitored by the Student Academic Success Team (SAST). Any medical student who has two (2) course Conditional Passes (CPs) OR one (1) course Fail (F) regardless of the outcome of remediation in an academic year, will be discussed by the Student Advancement, Performance and Review Committee (SAPRC) to determine the outcome of promotions. See the Policy on Student Promotions for more details.  Professional behavior of the students is evaluated throughout the curriculum, separately, and monitored by the Professionalism and Integrity Committee (PIC) and the SAPRC.

This policy applies to all faculty, staff, and instructors who teach and assess, and medical students in Phase 1 of NYMC SOM curriculum.

IV. DEFINITIONS

Competency-based grading: assessment of student achievement using pre-defined standards.  Grade abbreviations are as follows:

“INC” =incomplete “F” = Fail “P” = Pass “PR” = Pass with remediation “CP” = Conditional Pass “W” = Withdraw “WF” = Withdraw Failing

SAPRC: Student Advancement, Promotions, and Review Committee SAST: Student Academic Success Team ECC: Education and Curriculum Committee NBME : National Board of Medical Examiners

V. PROCEDURES

• Criteria and assessments utilized for assigning grades are established by faculty members with appropriate knowledge and expertise to set standards of achievement in each required learning experience in the medical education program. Criteria are reviewed and approved by the Education and Curriculum Committee (ECC). All criteria and assessments, as well as the associated grade composition/contribution for each course shall be described in the course syllabus. Course syllabi are made available to all students electronically throughout the duration of the course.
•   Phase directors must post final course grades to the learning management system and submit them to the Office of the Registrar within 4 weeks of completion of a course.
•   Students will receive regular, timely, and behaviorally specific feedback to help guide their individual learning and progressive development and achievement.
• End of course, and when applicable, mid-course/module written examination (NBME-style, short answer, and short essay)
• Laboratory practical exam (selected courses)
• Summative Clinical Skills Exam
• Final Community Engagement Presentation
• Preceptor Evaluations
• A variety of tools, including but not limited to: written assignments, presentations, written and practical lab exams are used to assess Medical Knowledge.
• The passing standard for this domain of the course grade is an average of “70%” (rounded to the nearest integer) for the entire course, together with a 70% or better for each individual module within the course.
• As an example, 69.5% will be considered meeting the required 70% benchmark for passing Medical Knowledge in a module or course.
• The Patient Care domain is assessed using structured rubrics that evaluate the student’s skills in history taking, physical examination, communication, clinical reasoning, ethics, and/or interprofessional collaboration.
• The passing standard for this domain of the course grade is achieving a minimum competency on pertinent patient care assessments within the course as outlined in the course syllabus.
• Assessments may include but are not limited to: Clinical Skills Exams (CSE), written examinations, written assignments, presentations, observed encounters, reflections, community engagement projects, preceptor evaluations.
•   Professionalism: Professionalism is assessed throughout the curriculum using specific tools that evaluate stated SOM objectives for the professionalism competency. Lapses in professional behaviors will be recorded for longitudinal monitoring and, as appropriate, amenable to structured remediation.
•   Numeric grades for each performance assessment and the final Medical Knowledge average grade for each module will be posted to the learning management system by module directors. The class average and standard deviation for each assessment will also be provided to the students. Where appropriate (e.g., medical knowledge assessment via electronic assessment platform), medical students will receive individualized Strengths and Opportunity reports.
• Application of letter grades will employ rounding of numerical grades to the nearest integer. As an example, 69.5% will be considered a Pass. The original numerical grade (to the nearest tenth) will be reported to the Registrar.
• A student does not achieve the required benchmark threshold for both the MK AND PC domains in a course OR
• A student does not meet the requirements of a CP as stated below (5a).
• A student does not achieve the required benchmark threshold for ONLY 1 competency domain (MK or PC) in a course AND
• The overall MK grade in the course is 67% AND
• The MK deficiency only involves a single module in the course AND
• The individual MK module deficiency is NOT <64%.
• A “CP” grade must be converted to a final grade (“P” or “F”) within one year of its issuance and prior to any determination regarding the student’s promotion to the next phase. Following receipt of a CP grade and absence of other conflicting performance issues, the student will be provided with an opportunity to remediate the deficiency. Conversion of a CP to P will occur for a medical student who successfully remediates the deficiency to the standards set forth by the module and phase directors. Conversion of a CP to F will occur, however, for a medical student who does not successfully remediate the deficiency on first attempt. Further remediation may be provided based on a decision of the SAPRC; successful remediation in such a circumstance would result in a conversion of the F to a PR (pass with remediation).
• Pass-Remediation (“PR”): A grade of PR will be assigned to a medical student who has failed a course but was subsequently successful in an assigned remediation (i.e., Pass with remediation).
• An “INC” grade must be converted to a final grade (“P” or “F”) prior to any determination regarding the student’s promotion to the next phase. A student may not be eligible to sit for the appropriate USMLE until the “INC” has been resolved.
• Withdrawal (“W”): A W grade will be assigned to a medical student who withdraws from a course which is already in progress.
• Withdrawal due to Failure (“WF”): A WF grade will be assigned to a medical student who is failing a course at the time of withdrawal in accordance with policies established by the Office of the Registrar.

VI. EFFECTIVE DATE

This policy is effective immediately.

VII. POLICY MANAGEMENT

Executive Stakeholder: Dean, School of Medicine Oversight Office: Undergraduate Medical Education

VIII. REFERENCES

LCME Standard 10.3: Policies Regarding Student Selection/Progress and Their Dissemination: The faculty of a medical school establish criteria for student selection and develop and implement effective policies and procedures regarding, and make decisions about, medical student application, selection, admission, assessment, promotion, graduation, and any disciplinary action. The medical school makes available to all interested parties its criteria, standards, policies, and procedures regarding these matters.

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NOTICE OF NONDISCRIMINATORY POLICY AS TO STUDENTS The New York Medical College admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the college. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs. See full non-discrimination statement with contact info .

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Will the Olympics break breakdancing?

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For some sports, picking the winner is simple: It's the athlete who crosses the finish line first, or the side that scores the most goals. But for the new Olympic sport of breaking (if you want to be cool, don't call it breakdancing), the criteria aren't quite that straightforward. How do you judge an event whose core values are dopeness, freshness, and breaking the rules?

That was the challenge for Storm and Renegade, two legendary b-boys who set out to create a fair and objective scoring system for a dance they say is more of an art than a sport. Over the years, their journey to define the soul of breaking led them to meetings with Olympics bigwigs, debates over the science of dopeness, and a battle with a question many sports — from figure skating to gymnastics — have tried to answer: Can art and sport coexist?

This episode was hosted by Jeff Guo and Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi. It was produced by Emma Peaslee and edited by Jenny Lawton. It was fact checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez with help from James Willets and Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money 's executive producer.

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How to cite ChatGPT

Use discount code STYLEBLOG15 for 15% off APA Style print products with free shipping in the United States.

We, the APA Style team, are not robots. We can all pass a CAPTCHA test , and we know our roles in a Turing test . And, like so many nonrobot human beings this year, we’ve spent a fair amount of time reading, learning, and thinking about issues related to large language models, artificial intelligence (AI), AI-generated text, and specifically ChatGPT . We’ve also been gathering opinions and feedback about the use and citation of ChatGPT. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and shared ideas, opinions, research, and feedback.

In this post, I discuss situations where students and researchers use ChatGPT to create text and to facilitate their research, not to write the full text of their paper or manuscript. We know instructors have differing opinions about how or even whether students should use ChatGPT, and we’ll be continuing to collect feedback about instructor and student questions. As always, defer to instructor guidelines when writing student papers. For more about guidelines and policies about student and author use of ChatGPT, see the last section of this post.

Quoting or reproducing the text created by ChatGPT in your paper

If you’ve used ChatGPT or other AI tools in your research, describe how you used the tool in your Method section or in a comparable section of your paper. For literature reviews or other types of essays or response or reaction papers, you might describe how you used the tool in your introduction. In your text, provide the prompt you used and then any portion of the relevant text that was generated in response.

Unfortunately, the results of a ChatGPT “chat” are not retrievable by other readers, and although nonretrievable data or quotations in APA Style papers are usually cited as personal communications , with ChatGPT-generated text there is no person communicating. Quoting ChatGPT’s text from a chat session is therefore more like sharing an algorithm’s output; thus, credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the corresponding in-text citation.

When prompted with “Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, “the notation that people can be characterized as ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth” (OpenAI, 2023).

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

You may also put the full text of long responses from ChatGPT in an appendix of your paper or in online supplemental materials, so readers have access to the exact text that was generated. It is particularly important to document the exact text created because ChatGPT will generate a unique response in each chat session, even if given the same prompt. If you create appendices or supplemental materials, remember that each should be called out at least once in the body of your APA Style paper.

When given a follow-up prompt of “What is a more accurate representation?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that “different brain regions work together to support various cognitive processes” and “the functional specialization of different regions can change in response to experience and environmental factors” (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).

Creating a reference to ChatGPT or other AI models and software

The in-text citations and references above are adapted from the reference template for software in Section 10.10 of the Publication Manual (American Psychological Association, 2020, Chapter 10). Although here we focus on ChatGPT, because these guidelines are based on the software template, they can be adapted to note the use of other large language models (e.g., Bard), algorithms, and similar software.

The reference and in-text citations for ChatGPT are formatted as follows:

• Parenthetical citation: (OpenAI, 2023)
• Narrative citation: OpenAI (2023)

Let’s break that reference down and look at the four elements (author, date, title, and source):

Author: The author of the model is OpenAI.

Date: The date is the year of the version you used. Following the template in Section 10.10, you need to include only the year, not the exact date. The version number provides the specific date information a reader might need.

Title: The name of the model is “ChatGPT,” so that serves as the title and is italicized in your reference, as shown in the template. Although OpenAI labels unique iterations (i.e., ChatGPT-3, ChatGPT-4), they are using “ChatGPT” as the general name of the model, with updates identified with version numbers.

The version number is included after the title in parentheses. The format for the version number in ChatGPT references includes the date because that is how OpenAI is labeling the versions. Different large language models or software might use different version numbering; use the version number in the format the author or publisher provides, which may be a numbering system (e.g., Version 2.0) or other methods.

Bracketed text is used in references for additional descriptions when they are needed to help a reader understand what’s being cited. References for a number of common sources, such as journal articles and books, do not include bracketed descriptions, but things outside of the typical peer-reviewed system often do. In the case of a reference for ChatGPT, provide the descriptor “Large language model” in square brackets. OpenAI describes ChatGPT-4 as a “large multimodal model,” so that description may be provided instead if you are using ChatGPT-4. Later versions and software or models from other companies may need different descriptions, based on how the publishers describe the model. The goal of the bracketed text is to briefly describe the kind of model to your reader.

Source: When the publisher name and the author name are the same, do not repeat the publisher name in the source element of the reference, and move directly to the URL. This is the case for ChatGPT. The URL for ChatGPT is https://chat.openai.com/chat . For other models or products for which you may create a reference, use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (i.e., the page where you can access the model, not the publisher’s homepage).

Other questions about citing ChatGPT

You may have noticed the confidence with which ChatGPT described the ideas of brain lateralization and how the brain operates, without citing any sources. I asked for a list of sources to support those claims and ChatGPT provided five references—four of which I was able to find online. The fifth does not seem to be a real article; the digital object identifier given for that reference belongs to a different article, and I was not able to find any article with the authors, date, title, and source details that ChatGPT provided. Authors using ChatGPT or similar AI tools for research should consider making this scrutiny of the primary sources a standard process. If the sources are real, accurate, and relevant, it may be better to read those original sources to learn from that research and paraphrase or quote from those articles, as applicable, than to use the model’s interpretation of them.

We’ve also received a number of other questions about ChatGPT. Should students be allowed to use it? What guidelines should instructors create for students using AI? Does using AI-generated text constitute plagiarism? Should authors who use ChatGPT credit ChatGPT or OpenAI in their byline? What are the copyright implications ?

On these questions, researchers, editors, instructors, and others are actively debating and creating parameters and guidelines. Many of you have sent us feedback, and we encourage you to continue to do so in the comments below. We will also study the policies and procedures being established by instructors, publishers, and academic institutions, with a goal of creating guidelines that reflect the many real-world applications of AI-generated text.

For questions about manuscript byline credit, plagiarism, and related ChatGPT and AI topics, the APA Style team is seeking the recommendations of APA Journals editors. APA Style guidelines based on those recommendations will be posted on this blog and on the APA Style site later this year.

Update: APA Journals has published policies on the use of generative AI in scholarly materials .

We, the APA Style team humans, appreciate your patience as we navigate these unique challenges and new ways of thinking about how authors, researchers, and students learn, write, and work with new technologies.

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000

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HOWTO: 3 Easy Steps to Grading Student Essays

In a world where number two pencils and bubbles on an answer sheet often determine a student’s grade, what criteria does the writing teacher use to evaluate the work of his or her students? After all, with essay writing you cannot simply mark some answers correct and others incorrect and figure out a percentage. The good news is that grading an essay can be just as easy and straightforward as grading multiple-choice tests with the use of a rubric!

What is a rubric?

• A rubric is a chart used in grading essays, special projects and other more items which can be more subjective. It lists each of the grading criteria separately and defines the different performance levels within those criteria. Standardized tests like the SAT’s use rubrics to score writing samples, and designing one for your own use is easy if you take it step by step. Keep in mind that when you are using a rubric to grade essays, you can design one rubric for use throughout the semester or modify your rubric as the expectations you have for your students increase.

How to Grade Student Essays

What should I include?

When students write essays, ESL teachers generally look for some common elements . The essay should have good grammar and show the right level of vocabulary . It should be organized, and the content should be appropriate and effective. Teachers also look at the overall effectiveness of the piece. When evaluating specific writing samples, you may also want to include other criteria for the essay based on material you have covered in class. You may choose to grade on the type of essay they have written and whether your students have followed the specific direction you gave. You may want to evaluate their use of information and whether they correctly presented the content material you taught. When you write your own rubric, you can evaluate anything you think is important when it comes to your students’ writing abilities. For our example, we will use grammar, organization and overall effect to create a rubric .

What is an A?

Using the criteria we selected ( grammar , organization and overall effect ) we will write a rubric to evaluate students’ essays. The most straightforward evaluation uses a four-point scale for each of the criteria. Taking the criteria one at a time, articulate what your expectations are for an A paper , a B paper and so on. Taking grammar as an example, an A paper would be free of most grammatical errors appropriate for the student’s language learning level. A B paper would have some mistakes but use generally good grammar. A C paper would show frequent grammatical errors. A D paper would show that the student did not have the grammatical knowledge appropriate for his language learning level. Taking these definitions, we now put them into the rubric.

The next step is to take each of the other criteria and define success for each of those, assigning a value to A, B, C and D papers. Those definitions then go into the rubric in the appropriate locations to complete the chart.

Each of the criteria will score points for the essay. The descriptions in the first column are each worth 4 points, the second column 3 points, the third 2 points and the fourth 1 point.

What is the grading process?

Now that your criteria are defined, grading the essay is easy. When grading a student essay with a rubric, it is best to read through the essay once before evaluating for grades . Then reading through the piece a second time, determine where on the scale the writing sample falls for each of the criteria. If the student shows excellent grammar, good organization and a good overall effect, he would score a total of ten points. Divide that by the total criteria, three in this case, and he finishes with a 3.33. which on a four-point scale is a B+. If you use five criteria to evaluate your essays, divide the total points scored by five to determine the student’s grade.

Once you have written your grading rubric, you may decide to share your criteria with your students.

If you do, they will know exactly what your expectations are and what they need to accomplish to get the grade they desire. You may even choose to make a copy of the rubric for each paper and circle where the student lands for each criterion. That way, each person knows where he needs to focus his attention to improve his grade. The clearer your expectations are and the more feedback you give your students, the more successful your students will be. If you use a rubric in your essay grading, you can communicate those standards as well as make your grading more objective with more practical suggestions for your students. In addition, once you write your rubric you can use it for all future evaluations.

Like it? Tell your friends:

How to design a rubric that teachers can use and students can understand.

How to Evaluate Speaking

FAQ for Writing Teachers

Tim Walz's military record: What to know about potential VP's National Guard service

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, choosing a progressive yet plain-spoken VP candidate from America’s heartland to help her win over rural, white voters.

“I’m pleased to share that I’ve made my decision: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will join our campaign as my running mate,” Harris said via text to supporters. “Tim is a battle-tested leader who has an incredible track record of getting things done for Minnesota families. I know that he will bring that same principled leadership to our campaign, and to the office of the vice president.”

We look at Walz, a 60-year-old U.S. Army National Guard veteran, and his military career over the years.

More: Tim Walz is Kamala Harris' VP pick: Minnesota governor named running mate: Live updates

How long was Walz in the military?

Walz served in the military for 24 years, enlisting in the Nebraska National Guard at 17 in 1981 and then transferring to the Minnesota National Guard in 1996. He retired in 2005 to begin his successful run for the U.S. House, representing Minnesota as command sergeant major, among the highest ranks for enlisted soldiers. His battalion went on to deploy to Iraq shortly after Walz's retirement.

Walz specialized in heavy artillery and had proficiency ribbons in sharpshooting and hand grenades.

But during the 21 years that Walz spent working with large artillery pieces, he suffered hearing loss and tinnitus in both ears, Minnesota Public Radio reported. He was allowed to continue his service after undergoing surgery, which partially resolved his hearing loss.

Where did Walz serve, and what did he do in the National Guard?

During his service, Walz responded to natural disasters, including floods and tornadoes in Minnesota and Nebraska, and was deployed overseas for months at a time, according to MPR.

In 2003, he was sent to Italy, where he served with the European Security Force to support the war in Afghanistan. He was also stationed in Norway for joint training with other NATO militaries.

Walz told MPR that he reenlisted in the National Guard after the September 11 attacks but never saw active combat in his years in the military.

Stars and Stripes reported in 2020 that Walz credited his Army experience with helping him steer Minnesota through the COVID-19 pandemic as governor.

As governor of Minnesota, Walz is commander in chief of the 13,000-soldier Minnesota National Guard. “I’m certainly proud of my military service, but it’s one piece of me,” he told Minnesota Public Radio in 2018. “It doesn’t define me.”

Reuters and USA TODAY reporter Tom Vanden Brook contributed to this story.