Grading Essay Article

Using the article on this page, you need to write a 5 paragraph essay persuading me to believe your opinion on the article’s question. You need to start by answering the question the article asks. Come up with 3 reasons for why you think this way. Make sure that you use an example from the article to back up each of your reasons. Make a graphic organizer, like a web, on the bottom of this page as your pre-write to help you before you write your paper. You must turn in your pre-write, your rough draft which must be edited and revised, and you must type your essay into the computer on Google Drive. You also must submit your essay on My Access. We will have the Chromebooks in class on Fridays for you to type. This essay is due on Friday. We are trying to prepare you to be able to write an essay in 1 or 2 days for our test coming up. This homework will take the place of your spelling homework each week.

Should computers grade student essays?

Humans can grade about 30 essays per hour. Computers can grade thousands of essays in seconds. But humans are better at scoring, right?

Not so, says Mark Shermis, dean of the College of Education at the University of Akron, in Ohio. He used computer programs to grade more than 16,000 middle school and high school essays that had already been graded by humans. He found there wasn’t much difference in the scores.  

Shermis acknowledges, however, that the grading software has its limitations. “It can’t recognize a good argument,” he explained. “But it can tell you that you’ve mistaken there fortheir, and tell you that you’ve made some mechanical errors.”

Les Perelman argues that the grading software will teach bad writing. He was the director of writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for 26 years. While testing one grading system, he wrote a bogus essay that received the highest score. How did he trick the computer? Just throw out all the rules for good writing that you’ve ever learned, he says.

“Almost half of the score is based on length,” he told TFK. “The more words you write the better. Never use a simple word when you can use a big word. Never say many, say myriador plethora.”

Do you think computers should grade student essays?