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Points
A more “analytic” way to grade student papers separates out individual criteria for students’ work and assigns points to each one. So, if the important criteria for a particular assignment are clarity and focus, development of ideas, organization, voice, and mechanics, you could give students 30 points, say, for clarity and focus, another 30 for development of ideas, 15 for organization, 15 for voice, and 10 for mechanics. Non-textual criteria can also be factored in, so points might be awarded for turning in all drafts on time, participating thoughtfully in peer review, etc.
UMass English Professor Anne Herrington describes her “point-credit” system to students this way:
I believe that all the work I ask you to do in this class is important. The point-credits are a way of showing that I give credit for all of that work. They also show you how I distribute that credit in determining the final course grade. They give you feedback on your work as you do it. For each essay, the point distribution, unlike a letter grade, shows how I evaluate specific aspects of your work: each draft and general traits of the final essay. They are a way of putting into the record what I say to you in words. My aim is that my written response and point evaluation will be useful feedback that will give you a perspective on your writing and help you work to improve as a writer.
For fellow teachers, she explains it this way:
I've always dreaded the end of the semester when I have to determine final course grades. In a writing course, we have worked so closely with our students that a host of personal feelings – some not relevant – play in our minds. A point-credit system makes that end-of-semester judgment easier for me – although still difficult – and, I believe, valid and fair for students [. . .] Most generally, it's a way of recording qualitative judgments that I'm making anyway, as I make them. Here are general principles that guide me. At the simplest level, we should record in some way and give credit for all the work that each student does. That's a descriptive task. Still, there is evaluation to do. Points, like letter grades or evaluations encoded in words, derive from our personal judgments. We make those judgments on the basis of good reasons, and we should make those reasons clear to our students; we should also be willing to reconsider our evaluations if a student or other additional information shows us we should.
In Anne’s system, the first three essays of a 6-paper semester are worth 10 points each:
4 points for drafting and revising
6 points for the final draft, consisting of
2 points for Focus
2 points for Development
2 points for Style and Editing.
The final three essays are worth 14 points each:
6 points for drafting and revising
8 points for the final draft:
2 points for Focus
3 points for Development
3 points for Style and Editing.
Anne gives written or oral feedback to in-process drafts. For the final drafts, she gives written feedback along with a point evaluation. She has found that students read her written responses and take them seriously; the point distribution becomes secondary.
For the final course grade, Anne’s points add up this way:
Essays: 72 pts.
the first three (@ 10 pts. ea.) 30 pts.
the final three (@ 14 pts. ea.) 42 pts.
Journals: 36 pts.
(1 point per page, 3 pages per week, for 12 weeks)
Classwork: 18 pts.
Peer Reviews (as both giver and receiver): 15 pts.
Final Portfolio: 22 pts.
review essay 10 pts.
revision of two essays of choice 12 pts.
TOTAL: 163 pts.
She then converts that total to a final letter grade using the following formula:
151-163 = A (93-l00%)
143-150 = A/B (88-92%)
135-142 = B (83-87%)
127-134 = B/C (78-82%)
118-126 = C (73-77%)
110-117 = C/D (68-72%)
102-109 = D (63-67%)
0 -101 = F (0-62%)
(Note that the references to grading here are to an older scale that used A/B, B/C, and C/D rather than plus and minus grades.)
Many teachers use a grid as part of their analytic grading system; the one below (thanks to Peter Elbow) could be modified to allow for a 5-point system matching the university’s letter grades (with “excellent,” “good,” “average,” “poor,” and “failing” as the column headings) or for other kinds of point systems (20 points for ideas, 15 for organization, 10 for voice, etc.). With this system, you would attach a filled-out grid to each student’s final paper.
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weak |
satisfactory |
strong |
ideas, insights, thinking |
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organization, structure, guiding the reader |
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voice |
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mechanics |
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genuine revision, substantive changes |
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overall |
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To return to the list of systems for evaluating student writing, click here.
To return to the article on Evaluating Student Writing, click here.
Updated September 3, 2008
