Teaching is primarily a classroom activity, but it also occurs with no students present at all. Nowhere is this more true than in teaching writing, where responding to papers effectively is crucial for student learning. As for many teachers, teaching writing is a major part of my job, although it is not my specialty. My initial reaction to a batch of papers is usually a case of grader's block, a problem I address through specially developed, criteria-based grading sheets that reduce grading time while helping me be fair and thorough. These sheets take some time to develop but save far more time by eliminating the need to rewrite comments for repetitive difficulties on student papers.
Using grading criteria for writing is not new, and grading rubrics are widely available on the Internet (e.g., http://www.odyssey. on.ca/~elaine.coxon/rubrics.htm). However, I have found that most rubrics are not easily adaptable to assignments that do not fit the essay mold, such as expressive or technical writing. This is largely because most rubrics attempt to include all key characteristics for a general format. They also often do not even fit common writing tasks addressing specific writing and grammar issues. The relative seriousness of common errors in English has long been discussed (Burt & Kiparsky, 1972;Hughes & Lascaratou, 1982;Lane & Lange, 1999;Sheorey, 1986), but it is unfortunately difficult to specify them for writing in general. Different writing tasks require different structures and strategies.
This teaching tip will describe how to develop criteria for writing assignments, then tell how criteria-based grading sheets make grading easier and help students be more responsible for their learning.