criteria to mark an essay

In a world where and 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

. The essay should have good and show the right level of . 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. .

, and ) 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 and so on. Taking grammar as an example, an would be free of most grammatical errors appropriate for the student’s language learning level. A would have some mistakes but use generally good grammar. A would show frequent grammatical errors. A 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.

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Rubric Grids: Essay Marking Made Easy!

• Introduction (3 marks available)
• Conclusion (2 marks available)
• Topic Sentences (4 marks available)
• Breadth (3 marks available)
• Depth (4 marks available)
• Style (4 marks available)

For each of these, I provide different level descriptors for 1 mark up to the maximum available for that particular essay feature. Then, it’s simply a question of shading off the correct cell in the grid and providing an explanation on the right-hand side.

The benefits of this approach are that I mark the essay much more methodically, but also much more quickly. Rather than  make one overall evaluation right at the end of the essay, I instead make separate, shorter but more focused comments about half a dozen features of the piece. This provides the students with feedback which is directly comparable to their previous essay rubric so they can spot exactly where they have improved, and where they need to focus next.

Marking Rubric for History Essays

If you have similar rubrics for other subject areas that you’d like to share on this blog, feel free to contact me!

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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 .

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Because there are fewer ways to produce good work than there are to produce bad work, it is easier to stipulate the criteria for a First Class essay than it is to stipulate the criteria for essays that do not meet this high standard. 

Because different essays may combine different strengths and weaknesses, these have to be weighed against one another. An essay that is very good in one regard and only competent in another may merit an overall assessment of “good”.

First (75%) An excellent essay: Clearly written, well-argued answer to the question, and originally presented.

80 to 85% for essays that are outstanding. Such essays demonstrate unusual sophistication or originality. (Relatively rare.)

90% for brilliant essays. Such essays constitute publishable work. (Extremely rare, if ever.)

Upper Second (70% to 74%) A very good essay: Possesses most of the attributes of a First Class essay, but is sufficiently deficient either in clarity, the quality of argument or the originality of presentation not quite to deserve a First.

74% for essays that very narrowly miss a First. 

72% for comfortable Upper Seconds.

70% for essays that barely meet the standards of an Upper Second. 

Lower Second (60% to 69%) A good essay: Demonstrates a good understanding of the material, is a reasonably well-argued answer to the question and demonstrates some originality in presentation. 

69% for essays that very narrowly miss an Upper Second

65% for comfortable Lower Seconds.

60% for essays that barely meet the standards of a Lower Second. 

Third (50% to 59%) A competent essay: Demonstrates a passable understanding of the material and a minimally competent argument. May often lack originality of structure (but cannot be so bad as to constitute plagiarism). 

59% for essays that very narrowly miss a Lower Second

55% for comfortable Thirds.

50% for essays that barely meet the standards of a Third.

Fail (<50%) An incompetent essay: Does not demonstrate a passable understanding of the material or a minimally competent argument, or is irrelevant.

45% to 47% for essays that approximate a pass. 

5% to 44% for failing essays with fewer or more redeeming features

0% for essays that are either plagiarised or without any redeeming features. 

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How Much and What to Mark on Essays

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Many teachers and professors take pride in red-inking student essays: the more ink the better. Some shift the burden of marking grammar and mechanics errors onto readers or grad students, while retaining the job of marking and grading content, argument, and evidence. Some “grade” essays without comments by using holistic or analytical rubrics, but do not mark papers. Others latch onto familiar excuses: the subjective nature of essay grading, the lack of time, the lack of student writing skills and conveniently avoid the work altogether by giving objective exams.

For those who still assign writing process essays and/or essay exams and believe that students can and do benefit from comments, the question of How Much and What to Mark on Essays is relevant. Working smarter, not harder and focusing on efficiency and outcomes over pedagogical purity are worthy mantras for effective writing instruction.

How Much to Mark on Essays

…………

• There is no significant statistical difference in the overall quality of student writing between teachers who mark all mistakes and teachers who mark only a few of the mistakes (Arnold 1964).
• Both Harris (1978) and Lamberg (1980) found that voluminous essay comments do not improve student writing.
• Shuman (1979) found that most students respond effectively to no more than five error corrections per paper.
• Dudenhyer (1976), Beach (1979), Harris (1978), Thompson (1981), and Moore (1992) found that marks on final drafts have little impact on subsequent writing.

In sum, less is better than more, especially on final drafts or essay exams. Moreover, focusing on reader response is essential. In other words, how much the student will absorb and apply.

What to Mark on Essays

1. Concentrate on Status Errors

Maxine Hairston (1981) suggests that certain errors are perceived as higher status than others. Hairston found that these errors were seen to be more egregious by most teachers: nonstandard verb forms, lack of subject-verb agreement, double negatives, objective pronoun as subject. Other errors are perceived as low status and may not warrant marking: unnecessary or inaccurate modifiers, use of a singular verb with data, use of a colon after a linking verb.

2. Used Focused, Specific Feedback

Use focused, not unfocused feedback. “Focused corrective feedback was more useful and effective than unfocused corrective feedback” ( Sheen, Wright, and Moldawa 2009 ).

When students receive feedback while they are writing, “they are more inclined to use it to revise and edit their drafts than they would be if they received the suggestions on a graded, polished copy” (Nicol, D.J., & Macfarlane-Dick, D. 2006).

3. Use a Variety of Writing Feedback Modes

Not every student responds the same to writing feedback. Some prefer written feedback; others auditory, and still others respond best to visual feedback, such as video conferencing. Adding a variety of writing feedback modes will address learning preferences.

Dr. Martha Marie Bless found a statistically significant difference in the amount and quality of student revisions and skill acquisition in favor of the audio comments (Walden University 2017).

4. Do Mark Writing Errors; However

Instead of marking and explaining every writing error, Peterson suggests “… identifying patterns of convention errors, rather than every error in the paper. Students are more likely to learn how to use a convention correctly if they attend exclusively to that type of error when editing their writing” (2008).

5. Mark and Explain Teachable Errors

Teachers tend to mark errors and comment on content or process. Instead, writing researchers suggest that teachers should comment on both. Choosing to concentrate on errors that can be easily explained to the student with the greater likelihood of producing positive transfer to subsequent writing assignments just makes sense. For example, errors in speaker tag commas can be easily remediated because the rules are relatively unambiguous; errors in commas isolating dependent clauses are harder to remediate because the rules are more ambiguous and context dependent.

Students are likely to attend to and appreciate feedback on their errors, and this may motivate them both to make corrections and to work harder on improving their writing. The lack of such feedback may lead to anxiety or resentment, which could decrease motivation and lower confidence in their teachers” (Ferris, D. R. 2004).

6. Maintain a Balance between Error Correction and Writing Analysis

Writing researchers suggest striking a balance in essay response between error correction and writing content/evidence/argument analysis.

Following are key elements of writing discourse for writing teachers to keep in mind to strike this balance:

• Essay Organization and Development (Introduction, Body, and Conclusion)
• Word Choice
• Sentence Variety
• Writing Style
• Format and Citations
• Parts of Speech
• Grammatical Forms
• Sentence Structure
• Types of Sentences
• Conventional Spelling Rules.

7. Differentiate and Individualize Assessment-based Instruction

Writing feedback catered to the needs of the individual students is highly effective. Knowing the relative strengths and weaknesses of individual student writers should guide the teacher’s comments. Two data sources are integral to effective writing instruction: diagnostic assessments and frequent student writing. The former affords the teacher quantitative data, while the latter provides qualitative data. Each is useful.

For Further Study

• The Power of Feedback  by  John Hattie  and  Helen Timperley , in Review of Educational Research 77 (March 2007): 81-112.
• Seven Keys to Effective Feedback  by  Grant Wiggins  in Educational Leadership 70.1 (September 2012): 10-16.

To improve writing feedback and integrate writing and grammar in step-by-step programs, check out Pennington Publishing . View entire programs and test-drive our free resources.

Grammar/Mechanics , Writing analytical rubrics , descriptive feedback , diacritical marks , e-comments , essay comments , essay exams , essay feedback , essay response , grade essays , grading hacks , how to grade essays , how to mark an essay , insert comments , Mark Pennington , Teaching Essay Strategies , writing feedback , writing feedback research , writing rubrics

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An insider’s guide to markers and the marking process

(Last updated: 12 May 2021)

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Writing essays and dissertations, at any level of university study, is a tough task. Add to that the fact that many students have little-to-no idea what the person marking their work is actually looking for , and this sets the average student on a course for struggle before they’ve even begun.

With that in mind, the goal of the blog posts in this series on marking is to reveal some of the realities of marking and the marking process so that students can know what they are up against. Hopefully, this will also help some of you avoid the mistakes and blunders that may cost you a better grade.

In this first blog post we break down the situation, the institution and practice of marking.

What is the process of marking?

Let us first consider what is actually happening. In the vast majority of university courses, you will be required to submit written work to a professor, lecturer, or teaching assistant who will read your work and assign it a mark. Simple. The process is part exchange (your paper for a grade) and part evaluation (your paper is worth however much according to the marker). Most students assume that this process is fair, and that they are being graded by the standards established by the university. Students often also believe that the markers are not biased, hold all students to the same standard, and that each marker would grade any one paper in a similar way. And this is true, sometimes.

It is also true that the economic realities that many universities face have seriously altered this rather old fashioned ideal. Generally, students would prefer to have a class taught by a professor who has published and researched in their area and become famous. Sadly, in order for many professors to keep up with the demands of publishing they will have to cut back on the time they can devote to other areas of their work, and one of these is marking.

Let us suppose that you have a course with a professor and they have set you the task of writing a seven-page paper (a modest length). This professor is fairly popular and has an average class size of 20-25 students. This amounts to 140-175 pages of student writing that will need to be read, considered, commented on, and assigned a grade. There are, of course, class sizes double and even quintuple that enrolment that will also have a writing component.

And a truly dutiful professor will read each essay twice to get some idea of how they all fit within the class. But this is rare. The vast majority of markers will only read a paper once, regardless of how ‘fair’ they are, or how skilled they are in their field.

So ask yourself honestly, knowing that there are many other demands on your time (e.g. publishing, committee work, supervision, family duties) and probably other work that you would prefer doing – how much time and effort would you spend reading each of these papers? Or want to?

If the professor is fortunate (for them, not necessarily for you), they will have one to a half-dozen teaching assistants that will be familiar with the material, attend the lectures (and in some cases prepare and/or deliver them). And when all those papers, yours included, land on the desk or are submitted online, the professor is not likely to read any of them unless 1) the teaching assistant is utterly useless, which is rare because most want to impress the senior staff; 2) the paper is so bad that they cannot decide between a low-pass or a fail and will ask for guidance (contrary to common belief few teaching assistants are comfortable failing students); and 3) there is a case of plagiarism or academic dishonesty to be addressed. So only when your paper falls into one of these unfortunate categories will a professor read your paper, if it is first being handled by an assistant.

Teaching assistants

Teaching assistants are really a bowl of mixed nuts. Some are fantastic, wonderful, and competent. Others are well-meaning, but not quite able. And others are just wicked (as far as marking goes) and confuse academic rigour with some sort of sadism.

Many of these markers are not “trained” in the sense that they all will have a uniform idea of what to look for in the papers. Often these assistants, and really even some new lecturers, just muddle through. In fact, most will mark based on either how they experienced marking in their own studies, or on a more alarming and no less subjective picture of how they think grades should be assigned. And when push comes to shove and you feel you have been graded unfairly, a professor will often feel a personal obligation to side with the marker.

How do you know who will be marking your paper? You don’t. And this is why it is vital, so vital, that to do well on written work you cover all the bases and do everything in your power to produce your very best effort. And this is a matter we will return to in subsequent posts.

Communicate ideas well to get the best mark

For now, understand that this is why your best work is imperative: academic papers often are not as simple as right or wrong, pass or fail. There is a certain amount of grey area in writing academic papers that many undergraduate students do not fully understand. This is why marking papers can be difficult, and why teaching writing is a challenge that can take years to improve. It is the little things that often make or break a paper. It is not really about the ideas, but the way in which the ideas are communicated, that matters. This is what markers are sensitive to. Brilliant and incisive ideas buried in a crappy unreadable scattered paper is a fail. Boring ideas in a well-structured intelligible paper will pass. Think about that!

It’s also safe to say that writing papers is something that most academics “pick up” as they go. It is not something that they are trained in, but over time acquire a kind of feel for what good writing should look like.

Many students think that the process of marking is more or less fair and that this fairness is enshrined in a notional anonymity where papers can only be identified by student number or a registration number. This should, at least, save the student from anything personal during marking. However, what about students whose first language is not English and maybe their ability to express themselves is not as strong as their native-speaking peers? Do you think markers can tell the difference between a paper written by a native English speaker and one written by a non-native English speaker? Of course they can. And do you think this might create a conscious or subconscious bias in the mind of the marker? Or what about gender? Or race? Or socio-economic background? Are there any “tells” in the paper – words, phrases, or ideas – that someone might use, and that could reveal something about who they are? While none of that should matter, the point we want to make is that there are biases that can be present even where they should not, and you may have no idea if they are working against you. In truth, in a good paper, there will be nothing present that gives away your background. Nevertheless, you would be surprised at how easily these things are to detect among markers.

Now, in an ideal situation, you will have a capable professor reading your paper, and they will give you helpful feedback. Indeed, it would be the feedback from a professor that would be the most helpful. The feedback that comes from a marking assistant might be great, but it might be unhelpful. In fact, you may not even receive any substantive feedback at all. Often markers are more focused on pointing out all the things that you might have done wrong and less concerned with the ways that you might improve. It is unfair, sadly, considering the substantial investment of time and money students put into their education . But it is unlikely to change soon.

So why do academics often give poor feedback? Well, you should not suppose that all or even most of them do. It is quite likely that if they had sufficient time and motivation, markers could give excellent feedback. But consider the differences between professors/lecturers and marking assistants. Professors and lecturers will have not only gone through their graduate studies, which would involve a lot of writing, but they will have published (most likely) in peer-reviewed journals or a book (or more) with an academic press. This writing is reviewed by three experts anonymously - often by a professional and reputable company - and we can assure you, the evaluations do not hold back. Every small grammatical error that can be found will be pointed out. It is a thorough process and professors may, and should, hold graduate students to a high enough standard to prepare them for this publishing reality. The plain truth is that one of the reasons why professors and lecturers can give the best feedback is because they have experienced, no doubt, some of the hardest comments and criticisms to get their work published.

Conversely, markers do not have such experience. They haven’t gone through that process, and they are not yet professional academics. All they have is what they think that process might be like. This, we believe, is one of the biggest differences between the feedback you will get from the professional and, for all intents and purposes, the amateur.

The importance of multiple feedback

OK! We know exactly what you are thinking at this point. You are saying to yourself, but I am not a professional academic, amateur academic, or even aspiring academic. I am just a student on a course trying to find some way of getting a decent grade so I can graduate, go into the world to earn a living and have a nice life.

And that is fine, but if you want those high marks you have to understand that this is the system within which you are working. There are assumptions and rules, formal and informal, that affect how papers are written and how they are evaluated. It is, really, a culture, and you need to familiarise yourself with these rules in order to be successful.

Now, at this point, you are probably thinking, “Hang on! If writing is such a brutal process and professors get such scathing reports, how do they get published?! And what could this possibly have to do with me?”

Well, we are glad you asked.

There is probably a huge difference between what professors do and what you do. And it isn’t about style, or ideas, or content. Do this: go to the library and grab a little stack of academic books, somewhere between five and ten. Pretty much anything that has such-and-such university press will be an academic book. Now skim the prefaces of each of these books, do you notice anything they have in common?

Most prefaces are used by academic writers to say thank you for awards, or grants, and other forms of support. We are fairly certain that over half will have a few thanks to colleagues who read earlier drafts and provided feedback. This feedback allowed them to improve their work so that it could be published. Similarly, if they are fortunate, the anonymous reviewers will also offer helpful feedback.

Now, when was the last time you had a capable or professional reader go over your work before you handed it in? The chances are fairly good that the only person who read the work was you, while you were writing it. That is a bad route to follow.

A paper should always be read by someone else before it goes in for a formal evaluation. For more on this, read the next post in our marking series, Marking: the difference between right and wrong .

Marking: How we mark your essay to improve your grade

Marking: the difference between right and wrong, marking: from a marker’s perspective.

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The Beginner's Guide to Writing an Essay | Steps & Examples

An academic essay is a focused piece of writing that develops an idea or argument using evidence, analysis, and interpretation.

There are many types of essays you might write as a student. The content and length of an essay depends on your level, subject of study, and course requirements. However, most essays at university level are argumentative — they aim to persuade the reader of a particular position or perspective on a topic.

The essay writing process consists of three main stages:

• Preparation: Decide on your topic, do your research, and create an essay outline.
• Writing : Set out your argument in the introduction, develop it with evidence in the main body, and wrap it up with a conclusion.
• Revision:  Check your essay on the content, organization, grammar, spelling, and formatting of your essay.

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Table of contents

Essay writing process, preparation for writing an essay, writing the introduction, writing the main body, writing the conclusion, essay checklist, lecture slides, frequently asked questions about writing an essay.

The writing process of preparation, writing, and revisions applies to every essay or paper, but the time and effort spent on each stage depends on the type of essay .

For example, if you’ve been assigned a five-paragraph expository essay for a high school class, you’ll probably spend the most time on the writing stage; for a college-level argumentative essay , on the other hand, you’ll need to spend more time researching your topic and developing an original argument before you start writing.

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Before you start writing, you should make sure you have a clear idea of what you want to say and how you’re going to say it. There are a few key steps you can follow to make sure you’re prepared:

• Understand your assignment: What is the goal of this essay? What is the length and deadline of the assignment? Is there anything you need to clarify with your teacher or professor?
• Define a topic: If you’re allowed to choose your own topic , try to pick something that you already know a bit about and that will hold your interest.
• Do your research: Read  primary and secondary sources and take notes to help you work out your position and angle on the topic. You’ll use these as evidence for your points.
• Come up with a thesis:  The thesis is the central point or argument that you want to make. A clear thesis is essential for a focused essay—you should keep referring back to it as you write.
• Create an outline: Map out the rough structure of your essay in an outline . This makes it easier to start writing and keeps you on track as you go.

Once you’ve got a clear idea of what you want to discuss, in what order, and what evidence you’ll use, you’re ready to start writing.

The introduction sets the tone for your essay. It should grab the reader’s interest and inform them of what to expect. The introduction generally comprises 10–20% of the text.

1. Hook your reader

The first sentence of the introduction should pique your reader’s interest and curiosity. This sentence is sometimes called the hook. It might be an intriguing question, a surprising fact, or a bold statement emphasizing the relevance of the topic.

Let’s say we’re writing an essay about the development of Braille (the raised-dot reading and writing system used by visually impaired people). Our hook can make a strong statement about the topic:

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability.

2. Provide background on your topic

Next, it’s important to give context that will help your reader understand your argument. This might involve providing background information, giving an overview of important academic work or debates on the topic, and explaining difficult terms. Don’t provide too much detail in the introduction—you can elaborate in the body of your essay.

3. Present the thesis statement

Next, you should formulate your thesis statement— the central argument you’re going to make. The thesis statement provides focus and signals your position on the topic. It is usually one or two sentences long. The thesis statement for our essay on Braille could look like this:

As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness.

4. Map the structure

In longer essays, you can end the introduction by briefly describing what will be covered in each part of the essay. This guides the reader through your structure and gives a preview of how your argument will develop.

The invention of Braille marked a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by blind and visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

Write your essay introduction

The body of your essay is where you make arguments supporting your thesis, provide evidence, and develop your ideas. Its purpose is to present, interpret, and analyze the information and sources you have gathered to support your argument.

Length of the body text

The length of the body depends on the type of essay. On average, the body comprises 60–80% of your essay. For a high school essay, this could be just three paragraphs, but for a graduate school essay of 6,000 words, the body could take up 8–10 pages.

Paragraph structure

To give your essay a clear structure , it is important to organize it into paragraphs . Each paragraph should be centered around one main point or idea.

That idea is introduced in a  topic sentence . The topic sentence should generally lead on from the previous paragraph and introduce the point to be made in this paragraph. Transition words can be used to create clear connections between sentences.

After the topic sentence, present evidence such as data, examples, or quotes from relevant sources. Be sure to interpret and explain the evidence, and show how it helps develop your overall argument.

Lack of access to reading and writing put blind people at a serious disadvantage in nineteenth-century society. Text was one of the primary methods through which people engaged with culture, communicated with others, and accessed information; without a well-developed reading system that did not rely on sight, blind people were excluded from social participation (Weygand, 2009). While disabled people in general suffered from discrimination, blindness was widely viewed as the worst disability, and it was commonly believed that blind people were incapable of pursuing a profession or improving themselves through culture (Weygand, 2009). This demonstrates the importance of reading and writing to social status at the time: without access to text, it was considered impossible to fully participate in society. Blind people were excluded from the sighted world, but also entirely dependent on sighted people for information and education.

See the full essay example

The conclusion is the final paragraph of an essay. It should generally take up no more than 10–15% of the text . A strong essay conclusion :

• Returns to your thesis
• Ties together your main points
• Shows why your argument matters

A great conclusion should finish with a memorable or impactful sentence that leaves the reader with a strong final impression.

What not to include in a conclusion

To make your essay’s conclusion as strong as possible, there are a few things you should avoid. The most common mistakes are:

• Including new arguments or evidence
• Undermining your arguments (e.g. “This is just one approach of many”)
• Using concluding phrases like “To sum up…” or “In conclusion…”

Braille paved the way for dramatic cultural changes in the way blind people were treated and the opportunities available to them. Louis Braille’s innovation was to reimagine existing reading systems from a blind perspective, and the success of this invention required sighted teachers to adapt to their students’ reality instead of the other way around. In this sense, Braille helped drive broader social changes in the status of blindness. New accessibility tools provide practical advantages to those who need them, but they can also change the perspectives and attitudes of those who do not.

Write your essay conclusion

Checklist: Essay

My essay follows the requirements of the assignment (topic and length ).

My introduction sparks the reader’s interest and provides any necessary background information on the topic.

My introduction contains a thesis statement that states the focus and position of the essay.

I use paragraphs to structure the essay.

I use topic sentences to introduce each paragraph.

Each paragraph has a single focus and a clear connection to the thesis statement.

I make clear transitions between paragraphs and ideas.

My conclusion doesn’t just repeat my points, but draws connections between arguments.

I don’t introduce new arguments or evidence in the conclusion.

I have given an in-text citation for every quote or piece of information I got from another source.

I have included a reference page at the end of my essay, listing full details of all my sources.

My citations and references are correctly formatted according to the required citation style .

My essay has an interesting and informative title.

I have followed all formatting guidelines (e.g. font, page numbers, line spacing).

Your essay meets all the most important requirements. Our editors can give it a final check to help you submit with confidence.

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An essay is a focused piece of writing that explains, argues, describes, or narrates.

In high school, you may have to write many different types of essays to develop your writing skills.

Academic essays at college level are usually argumentative : you develop a clear thesis about your topic and make a case for your position using evidence, analysis and interpretation.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

• An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
• Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
• A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

• It gives your writing direction and focus.
• It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

A topic sentence is a sentence that expresses the main point of a paragraph . Everything else in the paragraph should relate to the topic sentence.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

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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.

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How to Grade a Paper

Last Updated: July 29, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Noah Taxis . Noah Taxis is an English Teacher based in San Francisco, California. He has taught as a credentialed teacher for over four years: first at Mountain View High School as a 9th- and 11th-grade English Teacher, then at UISA (Ukiah Independent Study Academy) as a Middle School Independent Study Teacher. He is now a high school English teacher at St. Ignatius College Preparatory School in San Francisco. He received an MA in Secondary Education and Teaching from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education. He also received an MA in Comparative and World Literature from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a BA in International Literary & Visual Studies and English from Tufts University. There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 87,502 times.

Anyone can mark answers right and wrong, but a great teacher can mark up a paper in such a way as to encourage a student who needs it and let good students know they can do better. As the great poet and teacher Taylor Mali put it: "I can make a C+ feel like a Congressional Medal of Honor and I can make an A- feel like a slap in the face."

Going Through an Essay

• These designations obviously depend upon many things, like the assignment, the grade-level of your students, and their individual concerns. If you're in the middle of a unit on comma usage, it's perfectly fine to call that a "higher" concern. But in general, a basic writing assignment should prioritize the higher concerns listed above.

• Does the student address the prompt and fulfill the assignment effectively?
• Does the student think creatively?
• Does the student clearly state their argument, or thesis?
• Is the thesis developed over the course of the assignment?
• Does the writer provide evidence?
• Does the paper show evidence of organization and revision, or does it seem like a first draft?

• Marking essays in pencil can suggest that the issues are easily fixable, keeping the student looking forward, rather than dwelling on their success or failure. Pencil, blue, or black pen is perfectly appropriate.

• Be as specific as possible when asking questions. "What?" is not a particularly helpful question to scrawl in the margin, compared to "What do you mean by 'some societies'?"

• ¶ = to start a new paragraph
• three underscores under a letter = to lowercase or uppercase the letter
• "sp" = word is spelled incorrectly
• word crossed out with a small "pigtail" above = word needs to be deleted
• Some teachers use the first page as a rule of thumb for marking later concerns. If there are sentence-level issues, mark them on the first page and then stop marking them throughout the essay, especially if the assignment needs more revision.

Writing Effective Comments

• Use marginal comments to point out specific points or areas in the essay the student could improve.
• Use a paragraph note at the end to summarize your comments and direct them toward improvement.
• Comments should not justify a letter grade. Never start a note, "You got a C because...". It's not your job to defend the grade given. Instead, use the comments to look toward revision and the next assignment, rather than staring backward at the successes or failures of the given assignment.

• If you struggle to find anything, you can always praise their topic selection: "This is an important topic! Good choice!"

• When you give your first read-through, Try to determine what these three points might be to make it easier when you're going through the paper and writing comments.

• "In your next assignment, make sure to organize your paragraphs according to the argument you're making" is a better comment than "Your paragraphs are disorganized."

Assigning Letter Grades

• Thesis and argument: _/40
• Organization and paragraphs: _/30
• Introduction and conclusion: _/10
• Grammar, usage, and spelling: _/10
• Sources and Citations: _/10

• A (100-90): Work completes all of the requirements of the assignment in an original and creative manner. Work at this level goes beyond the basic guidelines of the assignment, showing the student took extra initiative in originally and creatively forming content, organization, and style.
• B (89-80): Work completes all of the requirements of the assignment. Work at this level is successful in terms of content, but might need some improvement in organization and style, perhaps requiring a little revision. A B reveals less of the author’s original thought and creativity than A-level work.
• C (79-70): Work completes most of the requirements of the assignment. Though the content, organization, and style are logical and coherent, they may require some revision and may not reflect a high level of originality and creativity on the part of the author.
• D (69-60): Work either does not complete the requirements of the assignment, or meets them quite inadequately. Work at this level requires a good deal of revision, and is largely unsuccessful in content, organization, and style.
• F (Below 60): Work does not complete the requirements of the assignment. In general, students who put forth genuine effort will not receive an F. If you receive an F on any assignment (particularly if you feel you have given adequate effort), you should speak with me personally.

• Some teachers like to hand out papers at the end of the day because they fear discouraging or distracting students during class time. Consider giving the students time to go through the papers in class and be available to talk about their grades afterwards. This will ensure that they read and understand your comments.

Expert Q&A

• Avoid distractions. It can seem like a good idea to grade papers while you watch Jeopardy, but it'll end up taking longer. Set a manageable goal, like grading ten papers tonight, and quit when you've finished and have a drink. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Do not keep favorites. Grade everyone equally. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Look for more than just grammar. Look for concepts, plots, climax and most importantly...make sure it has a beginning (introduction that catches your attention), a middle (three reasons should have three supportive details to each) and an end(recapture what the paper was about, make a good ending to let the audience remember your story). Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• Always use a rubric to keep yourself safe from grade appeals. You don't want to have to defend subjective grades. Thanks Helpful 12 Not Helpful 4

Things You'll Need

• Something to write with
• A stack of papers
• A stiff beverage

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Expert Interview

Thanks for reading our article! If you’d like to learn more about grading papers, check out our in-depth interview with Noah Taxis .

• ↑ https://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/grading.html
• ↑ https://depts.washington.edu/pswrite/Handouts/Grading.pdf
• ↑ https://phys.org/news/2013-01-red-pen-instructors-negative-response.html
• ↑ https://gsi.berkeley.edu/gsi-guide-contents/student-writing-intro/grading/
• ↑ https://sites.google.com/a/georgetown.edu/prof-william-blattner/resources-for-students/abbreviations-on-returned-papers
• ↑ https://writing-speech.dartmouth.edu/teaching/first-year-writing-pedagogies-methods-design/diagnosing-and-responding-student-writing
• ↑ http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/criteria.pdf
• ↑ https://teaching.uwo.ca/teaching/assessing/grading-rubrics.html

About This Article

To grade a paper, start by reading it without marking it up to see if it has a clear thesis supported by solid evidence. Then, go back through and write comments, criticism, and questions in the margins. Make sure to give specific feedback, such as “What do you mean by ‘some societies’?” instead of something like “What?” Try to limit yourself to 1 comment per paragraph so you don’t overwhelm the student. You can also write a note at the end, but start with praise before focusing on issues the student should address. For information on how to assign grades to your students’ papers, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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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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Sample Essay Rubric for Elementary Teachers

• Grading Students for Assessment
• Lesson Plans
• Becoming A Teacher
• Assessments & Tests
• Elementary Education
• Special Education
• Homeschooling
• M.S., Education, Buffalo State College
• B.S., Education, Buffalo State College

An essay rubric is a way teachers assess students' essay writing by using specific criteria to grade assignments. Essay rubrics save teachers time because all of the criteria are listed and organized into one convenient paper. If used effectively, rubrics can help improve students' writing. Below are two types of rubrics for essays.

How to Use an Essay Rubric

• The best way to use an essay rubric is to give the rubric to the students before they begin their writing assignment. Review each criterion with the students and give them specific examples of what you want so they will know what is expected of them.
• Next, assign students to write the essay, reminding them of the criteria and your expectations for the assignment.
• Once students complete the essay have them first score their own essay using the rubric, and then switch with a partner. (This peer-editing process is a quick and reliable way to see how well the student did on their assignment. It's also good practice to learn criticism and become a more efficient writer.)
• Once peer editing is complete, have students hand in their essays. Now it is your turn to evaluate the assignment according to the criteria on the rubric. Make sure to offer students examples if they did not meet the criteria listed.

Informal Essay Rubric

Formal Essay Rubric

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• Writing Rubrics
• Rubric Template Samples for Teachers
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• 200 Report Card Comments
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Guide to Marking English Essay Assignments from Your Students

Do you have a hard time marking the English essay assignments from your students?

Well, this can be quite a common headache for tutors as language can be a rather subjective language.

What you perceive as interesting and well written might not be the same for other readers.

Moverover, you need to keep in mind the Cambridge marking scheme when it comes to N/O/A Levels.

Having a very different essay marking scheme as compared to Cambridge marking schemes can potentially be hazardous to your student’s grades due to the different marking styles and expectations.

But fret not, in this article, I’ll be breaking down the information you need to know on how to mark English essay assignments.

Read on to find out!

1) PSLE Essay Marking Scheme

I’ll be going through the PSLE marking scheme with you first as PSLE is not marked and graded by Cambridge.

As you should already know, students sitting for PSLE English Essay will be given a topic with 3 pictures that provides different interpretations.

Students will be required to write an essay consisting of at least 150 words .

And the total score of the PSLE essay is 40 marks .

When marking PSLE essay scripts, you should primarily focus on 2 key areas;

– Content (20 marks)

– Language (20 marks)

When you’re marking content, you should be looking out for the relevance of the story and ideas with relation to the given topic.

If the flow of ideas in the story is; 

• portrayed in a very clear and logical way with relevance to the topic
• the story is very well developed

The range of marks awarded should be from 18 marks to 20 marks .

If the flow of ideas in the story is;

• portrayed in a clear and logical way with relevance to the topic
• the story is well developed

The range of marks awarded should be from 15 marks to 17 marks .

• portrayed in a rather clear and logical way
• is appropriate for the topic
• story being generally developed

The range of marks awarded should be from 11 marks to 14 marks .

• unclear at some parts of the script
• only has slight relevance to the topic, 
• has poor development

The range of marks awarded should be from 6 marks to 10 marks .

• confusing, 
• has no logic
• all over the place
• is not relevant to the topic
• with very poor development

The range of marks awarded should be from 1 marks to 5 marks .

When you’re marking language, you should be looking out for the grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and punctuation.

The flow of the idea, paragraphing, and sequence of events is also something you should look out for.

If there is;

• little to no grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors
• wide use of vocabulary
• excellent paragraphing and sequencing

If there is; 

• few grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors
• adequate use of vocabulary
• good paragraphing and sequencing

The range of marks awarded should be from 14 marks to 16 marks .

• a number grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors
• limited use of vocabulary
• average paragraphing and sequencing

The range of marks awarded should be from 10 marks to 12 marks .

• quite a number of grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors
• limited and wrong use of vocabulary
• poor paragraphing and sequencing

The range of marks awarded should be from 6 marks to 8 marks .

• grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors everywhere
• language used causes confusion to readers

The range of marks awarded should be from 2 marks to 4 marks .

Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation

For students to score for language, they must ensure that there should be little to no grammatical errors.

Followed by little to no spelling errors.

With proper use of punctuations.

If there are numerous grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors, the marks should be deducted accordingly.

When it comes to vocabulary , you’re assessing your students based on how proficient their English language is by looking at their use of words.

Note that you shouldn’t just award higher marks just because there is a wide use of fancy words, make sure the words are used in appropriate context before awarding the marks.

Paragraphing and Sequencing

For this section, you should be looking out for the flow of the ideas.

There should be a smooth transition from one paragraph to another with no abrupt stop.

Depending on how the student arranges his idea and thoughts, you should penalise the student if the flow of the story causes confusion and is illogical.

2) O Level Marking Scheme

For students sitting for O Level English , their scripts will be marked and graded by Cambridge.

Which brings about the importance of you marking their essays based on the Cambridge Marking Scheme.

For Paper 1, it contains Situational Writing , and Continuous Writing (Essay).

Both Situational Writing and Continuous Writing contain 30 marks respectively.

When marking Situational Writing scripts, you should primarily focus on 2 key areas; 

– Task Fulfillment 

– Language

When marking Continuous Writing scripts, you should primarily focus on flow and language.

Task Fulfillment

• good understanding of purpose
• clear awareness of context and audience
• excellent structure and correct format used
• required points are well developed
• excellent use of given information and visual stimulus

The range of marks awarded should be 9 marks to 10 marks .

• an understanding of purpose
• an awareness of context and audience
• proper structure and format used
• required points are developed
• good use of given information and visual stimulus

The range of marks awarded should be 7 marks to 8 marks .

• adequate understanding of purpose
• some awareness of context and audience
• appropriate structure and format used
• required points are addressed but not developed
• not much use of given information and visual stimulus

The range of marks awarded should be 5 marks to 6 marks .

• only a slight understanding of purpose
• slight confusion to context and audience
• wrong structure and use of format
• some required points are left out
• very little use of given information and visual stimulus

The range of marks awarded should be 3 marks to 4 marks .

• misunderstanding of purpose
• confusion to context and audience
• every required point is left out
• no use of given information and visual stimulus

The range of marks awarded should be 1 mark to 2 marks .

Language (applicable for both Writings)

• high accuracy of grammar, spelling, and punctuations
• excellent use of tenses
• excellent paragraphing
• appropriate tone

The range of marks awarded should be 18 marks to 20 marks .

• good accuracy of grammar, spelling, and punctuations with slight errors
• good use of tenses
• good paragraphing

The range of marks awarded should be 16 marks to 17 marks .

• substantial accuracy of grammar, spelling, and punctuations with errors that don’t really affect clarity of communication
• some tense error
• some paragraph have weak or inappropriate links
• appropriate tones with some errors

The range of marks awarded should be 13 marks to 15 marks .

• substantial accuracy of grammar, spelling, and punctuations with errors that slightly affect clarity of communication
• errors in verb forms and tenses
• paragraphing lacks unity
• tones may be uneven

The range of marks awarded should be 11 marks to 12 marks .

• bare accuracy of grammar, spelling, and punctuations with frequent errors that can hamper precision and distract reader from content
• tones may be inappropriate

The range of marks awarded should be 8 marks to 10 marks .

• many grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors
• frequent errors in verb forms and tenses
• repetitive sentences in paragraphs
• poor paragraphing

The range of marks awarded should be 6 marks to 7 marks .

• many grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors that require readers to re-read multiple times
• poor language skill set

The range of marks awarded should be 1 mark to 5 marks .

For more in depth information on the marking scheme of O Level English Essays, click on this link .

3) A Level General Paper (GP) Essay Marking Scheme

As a JC tutor , when marking GP essays , you should primarily focus on;

– content 

– use of english

GP Paper 1 comprises 12 questions and students have to answer any one of the 12 questions.

The word count range should be between 500 to 800 words.

The content section takes up 30 marks of Paper 1.

When marking the scripts based on the content, the relevance of whatever is written is very important.

If the content written is not related to the topic chosen, then you’ll have to fail it.

This section contains 20 marks of Paper 1.

The language of the script should contain as little grammar, spelling, and punctuation error in order to score well.

If you spot any of these errors when marking the scripts, you should penalise accordingly.

For more information, click on this link .

4) Plagiarism 

Teaching GP Tuition and having to mark long essays is not easy. 

But you can’t afford to let your students get away with plagiarism.

When it comes to essays, plagiarism is a very serious offence.

Plagiarism occurs when students write their essays online completely based on someone’s else.

You may notice that the words and sentences used are identical to model essays.

Make sure to use a tool to check plagiarism .

According to Cambridge, students will score 0 if they plagiarise other people’s essays!

Here you have it, I hope this article is able to help you mark your student’s essays better.

By following these tips, I’m sure your marking style will be almost identical to the markers at Cambridge!

Thanks for reading!

Here are some related articles you might like to read:

How To Structure An English Literature Essay For Singapore …

Star Tips For Scoring Economics Essays In Your A-Levels

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Cambridge C1 Advanced (CAE): How Your Writing is Marked

Introduction

One of the more complicated things about C1 Advanced is definitely how your writing tasks are marked. I get this question asked a lot by my students, but the problem is that it is very difficult to explain the whole thing in just a minute or two. So I thought it would be a good idea to put everything in writing for you. This way you get all the information you need, you can revisit this post whenever you want and you will better understand how you can make your texts in CAE stand out and gain great marks.

The four different marking scales

After looking at the very basics we need to get into more detail because the four marking scales in C1 Advanced look at very different and specific aspects of your writing abilities. Only if you are able to show a high level in all four, you will get good marks so let’s check what exactly each scale means.

Get Your Free C1 Advanced Writing Cheat Sheet Now!

Communicative achievement.

This scale is a little bit trickier than Content because it is not so obvious what you need to do if you want to get a good score. Communicative Achievement includes all the things that are necessary to communicate your ideas the right way. Did you choose the most appropriate register (formal vs neutral vs informal)? Does your text have the right structure and layout? Did you communicate your ideas clearly? Did you hold the reader’s attention or is you text difficult to follow?

In the second example task you need to write a review and in this case the readers are the visitors of a website called Great Lives . Comparing it to the proposal from earlier, how formal or informal should your text be? Do these readers require the same level of formality or can you be a little bit more casual? I would say you can definitely be more neutral in tone while trying to engage the reader at the same time . After all, the people reading your review are regular people like you and not your superiors.

Last but not least, in Communicative Achievement the examiner also looks at your ability to communicate your ideas clearly and to hold the reader’s attention. When you read your text you should have the feeling that it is engaging and your arguments/ideas are clear and easy to understand for someone who might not know a lot about the topic.

Organisation

Writing is alright after all.

Marking writing tasks in C1 Advanced is very complex and the examiners check many different aspects of your skills. You really have to show that you are good all around, but with the knowledge and the right tools you can achieve greatness. Find the areas in which you have room for improvement and start practising today.

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13 Best Practices for Grading Essays and Performance Tests

This article originally appeared in The Bar Examiner print edition, Winter 2019-2020 (Vol. 88, No. 4), pp 8–14. By Sonja Olson

When grading essays and performance tests for the bar examination, fairness, consistency, and focus are the cornerstones of good grading. In this article, NCBE’s MEE/MPT Program Director shares best practices for grading these written components to ensure that they serve as reliable and valid indicators of competence to practice law.

Opinions may vary about what should be tested on the bar exam, but if there is one point of agreement, it is that lawyers need to be skilled at communicating in writing. And communicating in writing means much more than using proper syntax, grammar, and vocabulary. Lawyers must be able to adjust their writing to a variety of audiences, such as clients, courts, opposing counsel, and legislators. Essay questions and performance tests are therefore integral to evaluating whether an individual should receive a license to practice law.

The Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) and the Multistate Performance Test (MPT) would not perform as reliable testing components without the dedication and care exercised by the graders in every jurisdiction that uses those exam components. In this article I share some insights and best practices that I’ve learned over the years from our Grading Workshop facilitators, from our MEE and MPT Drafting Committees, and without a doubt, from the graders (veterans and newcomers) who participate in NCBE’s Grading Workshop after every February and July bar exam administration. 1 Following these grading best practices ensures that the MEE and MPT serve as valid and reliable measures of basic competence to practice law.

1. Know the question (and the answer).

Every MEE question comes to the graders with the Drafting Committee’s analysis of the issues raised by the question and a discussion of the applicable law. In addition, we provide grading guidelines at the Grading Workshop. These guidelines, generally one to two pages, distill the issues discussed in the MEE analyses but also offer suggestions for distinguishing answers and may identify common areas where examinees struggle. This information is based on the workshop facilitator’s review of at least 30 actual MEE answers, which are sent to NCBE by jurisdictions after the bar exam. For the MPT, the drafters’ point sheet identifies the issues raised in the MPT and the intended analysis.

Familiarity with the grading materials not only allows a grader to give credit where it is due but also ensures that a grader can readily identify answers containing extraneous discussion that may be accurate (such as memorized portions of bar review outlines) but is not pertinent to a discussion of the issues raised by the problem.

Particularly with performance tests, which provide the relevant law, examinees may reiterate sentences or more from the statutes, regulations, or cases in the test booklet. MPTs also present a more expansive collection of facts for examinees to master, and thus there is the temptation to recite extended portions of the facts in an answer. Familiarity with the text of these questions, from the beginning of grading, will make it much easier to identify examinees who are merely regurgitating material as opposed to synthesizing the relevant facts and law and producing a cogent analysis.

2. Know the applicable law.

Graders of the MPT have the luxury of having all examinees working from the same legal authorities, as the MPT is a closed-universe exam—that is, all the relevant law is provided as part of the MPT. So an MPT grader should have no worries that an examinee is referencing an alternative, but valid, legal doctrine—if it’s not in the Library portion of the test booklet, it’s probably not analysis that should receive credit.

New MEE graders, however, often ask whether it is expected that answers to MEE questions will contain the same level of analysis and legal citations as provided in the Drafting Committee’s analyses. The short answer is no—the MEE analyses are very detailed because the MEE Drafting Committee recognizes that graders may be assigned to grade questions in subject areas that are not frequently encountered in their law practices. The MEE analyses contain the legal authorities relevant to the problem and often some background material to help orient the grader. Graders of MEE questions may want to review the authorities cited in the analyses or other treatises and casebooks if grading a subject outside of their regular practice area.

3. Know the grading scale that your jurisdiction uses.

At the Grading Workshop, NCBE uses a six-point scale when discussing the grading of essays and MPTs. Some jurisdictions use another scale, such as 1 through 7 or 1 through 10. What matters is that the score scale is manageable enough that graders can make consistent and meaningful distinctions among answers without getting frustrated by trying to determine where an answer fits on an overly granular scale. 2 All graders in a jurisdiction should be using the same scale and be in agreement on when an answer is so deficient as to warrant a zero ( see best practice #13 ).

Graders should also know whether their jurisdiction requires that the grades conform to a particular distribution, such as a curve or equal percentages in each grading category. Note that one method isn’t preferred over another—the point is that all graders should be on the same page. 3

4. Focus on rank-ordering.

No grader should bear the weight and added stress of believing that the grade they assign to an essay or performance test is what will tip the scale for that examinee and determine whether he or she passes the bar exam. The emphasis should be on rank-­ordering the papers, not on whether an individual paper receives a passing or a failing grade. The score given to an essay by a grader is essentially a “raw” score because those essay grades will be scaled to the jurisdiction’s Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) scores. 4 Only then will the “real” grade for that specific essay be determined, which will then be added to that examinee’s MBE score, other essay grades, and grades on any other bar exam components to produce the final score.

That being said, a grader should be able to articulate why a paper ends up at a different point on the grading scale vis-à-vis those papers receiving a higher or lower grade. At times, most papers may drop easily into particular “piles” on the grading scale based on simple criteria—for instance, that they cover the first two issues well but then do not reach a correct conclusion on the third issue.

Graders should turn off their inner editor and focus on how well the paper has answered the call and demonstrates the examinee’s ability to reason and analyze compared to the other papers in the pile.

5. Achieve calibration to ensure consistency in rank-ordering.

Fairness to all examinees means that it shouldn’t matter when their papers are graded or by whom. Calibration is the means by which graders develop coherent grading judgments so that rank-ordering is consistent by a single grader as well as across multiple graders. The recommended practice is that a grader review at least 30 papers before grading “for real” to see what the range of answers is. Note that for both multiple graders and single graders, answers for each point on the grading scale should be identified before the “real” grading begins. This could require reviewing more than 30 papers.

For multiple graders: Reviewing at least 30 papers works well when there are two or more graders for a question. As graders read the same papers in the calibration packet, they should pause after every five or so answers and discuss what grades they have assigned. If they have graded the same papers differently, they should discuss those papers and come to an agreement for each paper. This process of grading, discussing, and resolving differences should continue through the whole calibration packet or until graders are confident that they are using the same criteria to differentiate papers.

For a single grader: For a single grader, it is just as important to review a calibration packet of 30 or more papers. The papers can be sorted into piles for each point on the grading scale. After reviewing the first 10 or 15 papers, the grader should revisit the grades given to the first papers to see if the initial grade still holds or if the paper in fact belongs in a different pile. Each pile should then be reviewed to verify that the papers in it are of a consistent quality. One approach that some graders have found helpful is to first separate answers into three piles (poor, medium/average, and good) and then review the papers in each pile, separating them into the 1s and 2s, the 3s and 4s, and the 5s and 6s.

6. Combat “grader drift.”

Graders can “drift,” or begin grading papers inconsistently, for a variety of reasons. Fatigue is a common reason, as is hitting a string of very poor (or very good) papers so that the next one seems very good (or very bad) when it is merely average. To ward against “grader drift,” all graders should have some answers from the calibration packet embedded into the papers they grade, with the score from the calibration session hidden. After grading the embedded paper (which may be on colored paper or otherwise marked as a part of the calibration set), the grader can compare the just-­assigned grade with that from the calibration session and determine whether drift is occurring. For multiple graders, embedding the same answer from the calibration packet at the same point in each grader’s pile provides an opportunity to check that the graders are internally consistent and still applying the same standards.

7. Spread out grades over the entire score scale.

Rank-order grading only works as an effective assessment tool if graders take care to use the entire score scale. This does not mean that the final grades fit a particular curve. Rather, even a grader in a smaller jurisdiction who has fewer than 100 papers to grade should have no problem finding papers that slot into each point on the scale. There will be fewer 1s and 6s (in the case of a 6-point scale) and likely more 3s and 4s, with the number of 2s and 5s probably falling somewhere in between—but there will be papers that a grader, with confidence and justification, may reasonably place at each given point on the scale. While there are times when a question may be easier and most examinees appear to do well, a grader will still be able to find valid points of distinction among answers that will allow the grader to spread out the scores. 5 Some graders may find it helpful to initially use pluses and minuses when grading and then to review those 4- and 4+ answers, for example, to see if they really belong in the 3 or 5 piles.

The table below illustrates the importance of spreading out grades. If there are two graders, each grading answers for different questions, and Grader A decides to use the whole score scale of 1 through 6 but Grader B thinks that all examinees performed about the same and gives out only 3s and 4s, the resulting combination of the scores from Grader A and Grader B demonstrates that it is really Grader A who, by taking care to use the entire range of possible scores, is determining how well, or how poorly, each examinee does overall.

Lack of calibration between graders of the same question is unfair to examinees because their scores will be affected not by the quality of their answers but by whether they got the “easy” or the “hard” grader. On a similar note, if graders of different questions fail to spread out their grades, the questions whose grades are “bunched up” will ultimately have less impact on examinees’ overall scores.

8. Approach each paper as an “empty bucket”—that is, look for reasons to give credit.

Just as we encourage graders at the Grading Workshop to avoid thinking that the pass/fail line is whether a paper receives a 3 as opposed to a 4 on a 6-point scale, we encourage graders to approach each paper as an “empty bucket” and to view their task as searching for points to add to the bucket. It is much more likely that a grader can be consistent across papers in what he or she will give credit for, instead of attempting to be fair and consistent in all the ways a paper could be penalized.

9. Grade in a compressed time period.

Some jurisdictions, where the number of examinees means that grading cannot be completed over the course of a long weekend, may set targets for the number of papers that a grader can reasonably grade in a day. Certainly, grading is not something that should be rushed. But it is much easier to maintain calibration if the grader doesn’t have to get reacquainted with the details of the legal analysis and the quality of the answers because of a start-and-stop grading process spread out over several weeks. To the extent possible, grading should be done over a shorter time period.

10. Know the additional factors to consider when assigning grades.

Know what factors are legitimate grounds for assigning different grades to papers. Obviously, the content and substance of the answer is the first indication—what parts of the question did the examinee answer correctly? But other qualities are valid reasons for distinguishing papers.

Response to the call of the question

For both MEEs and MPTs, the answer should respond to the call of the question asked—and not the question that the examinee may have preferred to answer. For example, the examinee may launch into a discussion of whether a contract was validly entered into when the call of the question specifically asks for an assessment of the amount of damages the plaintiff is likely to recover. If that examinee then goes on to provide discussion that does respond to the specific call, the examinee will receive credit for the good content and at that point, the grader can generally ignore the extraneous material. Examinees who inflate their answers with a lot of extraneous material effectively penalize themselves: including the irrelevant material leaves the examinee less time to devote to the legal issues that are raised by the call. If two papers have approximately equal good content, but one is cluttered by unnecessary material, the one that adheres to the relevant issues is the better answer, although depending on the overall group of answers, those two papers could end up in the same pile.

Additional factors to consider, especially with MPTs, are the answer’s format, structure, and tone, and whether the examinee followed directions (e.g., if the task is to draft a letter to opposing counsel, which should be a persuasive piece, and instead the examinee writes an objective memorandum, this should be taken into account in determining the examinee’s grade). Finally, the analysis should state the applicable legal standard, marshal the relevant facts, and apply the law to those facts in the problem.

Accuracy in stating facts

In a similar vein, examinees may get a fact or two wrong when writing their answers. Even with MEE questions, which are generally just one page long, in the rush to produce an answer in 30 minutes, it is not unusual for an examinee to misread or misstate facts. The mistake may be very minor (e.g., getting a character’s name wrong). If it is clear from the context whom the examinee is discussing, such an error can probably be ignored. But if an examinee misstates a fact and then hinges part of the analysis on that incorrect statement, that should likely be considered when grading. After all, an important lawyering skill is paying attention to the facts that matter and getting them right when presenting a legal argument or analysis.

Written communication skills

For jurisdictions that have adopted the Uniform Bar Examination (UBE), the UBE Conditions of Use mandate that graders take into account written communication skills when grading, although no discrete weight is provided for that component. Each jurisdiction may have specific guidelines for how its graders should handle papers that are riddled with typos, exhibit poor grammar, or contain irrelevant information (legal or factual), among other things. Obviously, there will be a point where a paper’s typos and poor grammar will make it impossible to discern whether the examinee does comprehend the relevant legal principles, and in such cases, a lower grade is warranted. But typos and occasional poor grammar, in themselves, should generally not factor into the grading decisions for most papers. NCBE suggests ignoring typos for the most part because it is unreasonable to expect perfection in typing skills given the time pressure of the exam.

When assessing the quality of the writing, the focus should generally be on characteristics such as logical and effective organization, appropriate word choice and level of detail, and the presence or absence of a clear conclusion. The quality of the writing does matter, and while it remains important in MEE answers (and its absence is more obvious, if only because MEE answers are fairly brief), it comes to the forefront when grading MPTs. For one thing, while essay prompts ask the examinee to provide solid, reasoned legal analysis, the MPT instructs the examinee to consider both the audience of the work product and what tone is called for, objective or persuasive, to properly complete the task.

11. Know when to assign partial credit.

Essay exams are more forgiving than multiple-choice questions. If an examinee taking the MBE knows the relevant legal rule and is able to narrow the answer down to two options, one of which is the correct answer, but still selects the wrong answer, the examinee receives no credit for that question. The Scantron machine doesn’t care how close the examinee came to the right answer. But essay questions give examinees a chance to earn partial credit—they have an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to identify relevant facts and employ legal reasoning to reach a conclusion. Even if the ultimate conclusion is incorrect, an examinee who has stated the correct legal rule and then produced a cogent analysis of how the law would apply should get substantial credit. Graders should spend enough time on each paper to see where the examinee has shown some knowledge of the law and how it would apply to the given situation, even if the examinee does not reach the “correct” conclusion.

Similarly, just because an examinee hasn’t remembered the correct name of a legal doctrine, that doesn’t exclude that paper from receiving at least some credit. Depending on the range of quality of answers, an examinee should receive some amount of credit, even substantial credit, for describing the applicable rule or doctrine. The grader should ask whether the examinee’s discussion indicates that he or she is applying the same criteria covered by the relevant doctrine.

12. Acknowledge when a paper is incomplete.

With incomplete papers, those where the examinee clearly ran out of time (sometimes as obvious as a final sentence that cuts off, or a missing final issue, or analysis that starts strong but gets more superficial and conclusory toward the end), the grader can’t provide the answer that the examinee didn’t get to, no matter how promising the first paragraphs are. Fairness to all examinees requires that a grader award credit only for what is on the page, as other examinees were able to complete the essay or performance test in the time allowed by appropriately managing their time.

13. Know when to assign a zero.

All graders in a jurisdiction should be in agreement about when a paper should receive no credit, that is, a zero. A score of zero should be reserved for a blank page or an answer that is completely nonresponsive to the call of the question. This is important because essay answers that receive a zero are excluded from the reference group that is used to determine the formula for scaling essay scores to the MBE. Earning a 1 instead of a 0 should require that the examinee has made an honest attempt to answer the question.

Fairness, consistency, and focus are the cornerstones of good grading. Following these practices in grading bar exam essays and performance tests will not lessen the workload, but it will help ensure that bar exam essays and performance tests serve as reliable and valid indicators of an examinee’s competence to practice law, that scores are fair to examinees and are the result of meaningful differences in the quality of the answers, and that the quality of the writing—an important skill for all lawyers, regardless of practice area—is considered as a grading criterion.

• NCBE’s MEE/MPT Grading Workshop is held in Madison, Wisconsin, the Saturday after each administration of the bar exam. The purpose of the workshop is to identify trends that graders will likely see when grading the MEE and the MPT in their jurisdictions as well as to discuss any questions graders have about the applicable law or the grading materials. While the workshop gives graders an orientation for grading, it is not intended to be a calibration session; that is best accomplished using a calibration packet comprising papers solely from the grader’s jurisdiction. (Calibration is the means by which graders develop coherent grading judgments so that rank-ordering is consistent by a single grader as well as across multiple graders.) (Go back)
• See Mark A. Albanese, PhD, “ The Testing Column: Essay and MPT Grading: Does Spread Really Matter? ” 85(4) The Bar Examiner (December 2016) 29–35, at 30: “For the purposes of illustrating how spread in grades affects the [standard deviation—that is, the average deviation of scores from the mean—] a six-point scale works fairly well. There are enough different grade points that spread can be easily seen, yet not so many that one gets lost in the details of computation.” See also Susan Case, PhD, “ The Testing Column: Bar Examining and Reliability ,” 72(1) The Bar Examiner (February 2003) 23–26, at 24: “All else being equal, more score gradations work better than fewer score gradations. The key is to make sure that the scale reflects the level of judgments the grader can make…. A six-point grading scale tends to work better than a four-point grading scale. Something much broader, like a 20-point grading scale, would work better than a six-point scale, but only if the grader could make reasonable, consistent, meaningful decisions along that scale.” (Go back)
• See Mark A. Albanese, PhD, supra note 2, at 32: “From a practical standpoint, we want to spread scores out as much as possible, but it is not necessary for the number of essays to be evenly distributed in each grade category; there are a range of distributions that achieve reasonably spread-out grades, but they tend to involve having some percentage of examinees in each grade category and not “bunching up” examinees too much into a small number of grade categories. In other words, uniform and bell-shaped distributions of grades are reasonable ways of “bucketing” examinees to ensure good spread in grades.” (Go back)
• Scaling is a procedure that statistically adjusts raw scores for the written components of the bar exam (the MEE and the MPT) so that collectively they have the same mean and standard deviation (average distance of scores from the mean) as the jurisdiction’s scaled MBE scores. See Susan Case, PhD, “ The Testing Column: Frequently Asked Questions about Scaling Written Test Scores to the MBE ,” 75(4) The Bar Examiner (November 2006) 42–44 at 42: “In the bar examination setting, scaling is a statistical procedure that puts essay or performance test scores on the same score scale as the Multistate Bar Examination. Despite the change in scale, the rank ordering of individuals remains the same as it was on the original scale.” (Go back)
• Scaling ( see supra note 4) takes advantage of the equated MBE scores and therefore accounts for variance in difficulty of the essay questions from one administration to the next. See Mark A. Albanese, PhD, “ The Testing Column: Scaling: It’s Not Just for Fish or Mountains ,” 83(4) The Bar Examiner (December 2014) 50–56, at 55: “Scaling essay scores to the MBE will … stabilize passing rates even though the intrinsic difficulty of essay questions may vary.” (Go back)

Sonja Olson is the MEE/MPT Program Director for the National Conference of Bar Examiners.

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In This Issue

Summer 2024 (Vol. 93, No. 2)

• Foreign Legal Consultants and Programs for Public Service Licensure and Law School Faculty: A Look at Three Jurisdictions’ Registration Paths
• Responding to Foreign Regulator Requests for Law Firm Certificates of Good Standing: Global Regulatory Differences and Their Implications
• Background Information for Foreign Regulators About the US System for Regulating Legal Services and Law Firms
• Six Things I Wish Applicants Knew About Admission by Transferred UBE Score
• Evaluation and Development of Pathways to Legal Licensure
• Letter from the Chair
• President’s Page
• Facts & Figures
• Illinois’s Adoption of the NextGen Bar Exam: Stakeholder Engagement During the Decision-Making Process
• Embracing the NextGen Bar Exam: Texas Law’s Strategic Participation
• Quarterly Update: Drafting Committee Growth, Subject Matter Updates, and Continued Testing Research
• The Testing Column: NextGen Research
• FAQs About Bar Admissions: Answering Questions About: NCBE Account Access
• News & Events
• In Memoriam: Alan Kay

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