The dreaded pile of papers. We assign writing with high hopes, walk our students through the process, give feedback and direction at every step, and then it all comes down to that: one giant stack for us to wrangle. Instructors sometimes avoid assigning papers just because of this moment. Grading can be overwhelming and, especially for students, it often appears mysterious. Making grading more transparent can help us to manage the paper load and helps students be less apprehensive about the outcome. Two major moves can help alleviate the pressure of grading 30 final papers: feedback throughout the process and rubrics.

Formative Feedback

Remember that not everything has to be graded, or has to be graded as formal writing. Students need practice in a low-stakes environment. Give them ample opportunity to try some of the moves that will be required of them in the final paper. Often these assignments are formative in nature, which gives students exposure to the task and gives you less grading.

However, remember the end goal. While strict grading isn’t necessary at every step of the writing process, your final grading load will be less if you give feedback along the way. More constructive feedback throughout the process helps students understand instructor expectations, increasing transparency. But there is a bonus for you in giving feedback, too. The more feedback that you give through the process, the better students will understand what you mean when you tell them to “analyze” or “critique” or “summarize.” Helping them grasp these concepts is important for their overall learning, but also helps them understand your grading better. If you do more work along the way, you do not need to explain final grades as thoroughly. This leads to making rubrics work even more efficiently.

Rubrics

The idea behind a rubric is that the item being evaluated can be quickly and clearly assessed in a manner that works for both the grader and the graded. Rubrics should, to varying degrees, outline the criteria that will be used for evaluation and then explain said criteria. For grading, rubrics will show students what their paper should do (in conjunction with a strong assignment) and on what points their writing will be evaluated, so it works in tandem with the assignment, project pieces, models, and outlines. As instructors evaluate student work, rubrics allow instructors to assign a point value or level to each criterion and document where the work was strong or weak. Using a rubric can make grading writing a much faster process.

But is that how it usually plays out? I’ve often told myself that I will stick to just marking the rubric for the final grade, only to find myself, an hour later, writing a small novel at the bottom of the rubric. These are usually moments when I feel like my rubric criteria or explanation may not be clear enough and I want to make sure the students understand their final grades. Giving feedback along the process, though, has alleviated much of this. When students already have a solid understanding of the expectations – from the assignment, process practice, models, and outlines – there is less of a need to explain final marks. The rubric then becomes, once again, what it was intended to be: a tool to support transparent and efficient evaluation. If rubrics haven’t helped in the past, you may want to look at your entire process for teaching the writing and consider supporting other aspects more fully. Those supports will help rubrics once again become the useful tool they are intended to be.

There you have it: everything you need to know about helping your students produce more effective writing…

I’m kidding. Of course that isn’t everything. But the last four articles have given you a nice foundation to build on. Teaching writing is a tricky business and it can be hard for students to learn, like all complicated tasks, but it is so critical. Following some of the advice presented here can help it to be easier to manage in the classroom, both for us and for our students.

(See also My students can’t write! Part 1: Crafting Effective Writing Assignments; My students can’t write! Part 2: Scaffolding; and My students can’t write! Part 3: Outlines and Models.)