A Teacher's Guide to Grading Papers Quickly and Efficiently

Let us say that you are a new teacher, and you have a lot of papers to grade. How to you get through them fast?

It is a real problem, because grading is not easy. It takes a lot of time and energy. Even if you have been teaching for 20 years, and you have all of your lesson plans in a file, ready to go, and you have your act all worked out, you can't coast on the grading.

I acknowledge, math teachers have it easy. Some teachers at the university can have a computer do the grading on their multiple choice tests. Or, they can have their teaching interns do it. English teachers have to do it themselves the old fashioned way. They have to read each paper and write out the comments and give the grade.

Here is how to get through it.

First, pretend that you are not offended by bad writing. You have to do this to protect yourself because you are going to see a lot of very, very bad writing. In my early years I taught basic writers. I would read one sentence, just one, and struggle to figure out what the heck that kid was trying to say. Then I'd look down the page and see sentence after sentence awaiting my angst. It almost killed me. So give it up. You are not hoping to find a Shakespeare in class; you are hoping for simple clarity.

Second, write assignments that are conducive to easy grading. For example, make five clear demands about what the paper should do. It must have a thesis. It must have an attention getting introduction. It must move beyond the five paragraph, basic structure learned in high school. Its paragraphs must have topic sentences that clearly relate to the thesis. Each paragraph must stick to the topic suggested by the topic sentence. Sounds simple! It is, for you. For your first year college composition class, it will be tough. Now, when you read, read only for those things. Grade the paper based on whether or not it hits those goals. It streamlines the grading process. Ignore other matters.

Third, there is grammar and punctuation. Believe me, it is important, so you can't ignore it. Here is how to save some time. You see a comma splice. Mark it clearly. You see another one. Underline it. That's it. You see another one. Underline it. You see a tense shift. Mark it clearly. Underline all further occurrences. What I am saying is that you are obligated to point out patterns of error, but you are not the proofreader. If the student needs extra help, give it. But do not hesitate to use all of your resources. If there is a Writing Center on campus, make the student go there.

That's it. Maintain your sanity by expecting mistakes and accepting that. Grade for specific things, not everything. Avoid the impulse to proofread for the student.

Grading is much easier this way, though not always painless.