Tips for effective grading

Journalism TAs probably have the toughest time grading. Not only are students competitive and prone to grade challenges, we’re also expected to hold them up to higher standards of grammar and writing style than in other disciplines.

Here are a few tips to make your life easier. They should apply to TAs in journalism who are working in other departments, too.

1. Remember that grades are an emotional issue.

Something I’ve heard come up in workshops is that if we could just get students to see grades rationally instead of emotionally, all conflicts could be resolved.

This is impossible. When you assign a student a grade, you’re passing judgment on their work. For dedicated students, work is very closely tied to how you define yourself as a person. So to these students, you’re basically grading them on how they’re doing in life.

There can be a “sink or swim” mentality in journalism – and other departments. There’s a difference between coddling someone and remembering that what you write and the grade you give will probably be taken personally - and taking it personally is totally natural.

It helps me to remember the phrase “constructive criticism.” Is what you’re writing constructive, or just criticism? If it’s just criticism, what’s the point in writing it? Ask yourself, “How can I help the student improve?” instead of “Is there anything wrong with this paper that I forgot to point out?”

2. Back up your grades both digitally and as a hard copy.

Emailing grades to yourself is a good idea, because Google’s entire cloud memory is a lot less likely to crash than your hard drive. But have a hard copy too, just in case.

7. Criticize "this paper," not "you.”

This is tied to remembering grades are an emotional issue. Even though students often see their paper as an extension of themselves, you can help break that association by never using the word “you” in your feedback.

8. Use a question rather than a correction to challenge errors.

“How could this sentence be phrased more clearly?” “What other examples could you use here?” This is another tip for making your criticism constructive, not destructive.

9. Put your papers in piles before grading them.

I found this technique very helpful. As you read each paper, put them in piles based on what you thought of them. I generally had three piles: “Very good,” “met all the basic requirements but didn’t blow me away,” and “has some sort of major problem.” I often found that as I went back over them, I re-thought my original assessment if I couldn’t find a concrete reason to justify it. I might not have changed the grade if I hadn’t used that system.

10. Don’t leave all your grading to the last minute.

I marked 50 exams in 48 hours last spring. I liveblogged it. Hopefully there was no long term psychological damage.

11. Be glad there are no research assistant positions this year.

Whenever you’re tempted to put your head down and weep into your pile of unmarked papers, just be thankful that this is not you.

Liz and I are going to offer the grading workshop again, probably on Thursday Oct. 22. In that workshop, we grade a mock essay in groups. Half the groups get a rubric, the other half doesn’t. It’s really interesting to see how other people’s minds work when they grade, and how much having a rubric changes things. You can find the slides for the workshop here.