How not to mark essays
Apr. 10th, 2006 11:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zcat_abroadSome of this is taken from my reply to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
theunshaven's cry of pain - with further details:
In an attempt to combat the pain of marking, there was a full explanation on the second side of the assignment sheet, all about how to hand it in: font size, spacing etc (which are important when marking 40+ essays). I even went through everything in tutorial, because I knew most were incapable of turning the paper over by themselves.
The number of people not following this, thereby making my eyes go cross (in both ways), and no room for me to write snipy comments, was TOO many.
Then I explained that I was fussy about things like sentence structure. And zcatcurious came in and gave 2 hours of punctuation classes, which everyone said they wanted, and yes, the time picked was okay - and then only 3 people turned up.
Sozcatcurious had wasted hours in planning - trying to fit what is possibly a year's worth of learning into 2 hours.
There were many people who should have attended. The abuse of the comma, the rape of the apostrophe, and other bad things happening to sentences, could all then have been avoided.
And then there is the problem of answering the question. In a close analysis, the main point is that you analyse, closely, the passage given. This is apparently too hard, or too confusing.
I don't know what went wrong here. The number of people who did a great comparison of the section they should have analysed with other parts in the Canterbury Tales - but barely touched the section they should have - is beyond a joke. Where did I go wrong? The assignment sheet states "Choose ONE of the following passages and write a detailed analysis of it". What more do you want?
I would like to burn all the essays, and start again. Or possibly the students.
GGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!
theunshaven's cry of pain - with further details:In an attempt to combat the pain of marking, there was a full explanation on the second side of the assignment sheet, all about how to hand it in: font size, spacing etc (which are important when marking 40+ essays). I even went through everything in tutorial, because I knew most were incapable of turning the paper over by themselves.
The number of people not following this, thereby making my eyes go cross (in both ways), and no room for me to write snipy comments, was TOO many.
Then I explained that I was fussy about things like sentence structure. And zcatcurious came in and gave 2 hours of punctuation classes, which everyone said they wanted, and yes, the time picked was okay - and then only 3 people turned up.
So
zcatcurious had wasted hours in planning - trying to fit what is possibly a year's worth of learning into 2 hours. There were many people who should have attended. The abuse of the comma, the rape of the apostrophe, and other bad things happening to sentences, could all then have been avoided.
And then there is the problem of answering the question. In a close analysis, the main point is that you analyse, closely, the passage given. This is apparently too hard, or too confusing.
I don't know what went wrong here. The number of people who did a great comparison of the section they should have analysed with other parts in the Canterbury Tales - but barely touched the section they should have - is beyond a joke. Where did I go wrong? The assignment sheet states "Choose ONE of the following passages and write a detailed analysis of it". What more do you want?
I would like to burn all the essays, and start again. Or possibly the students.
GGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!
