Notes from grading jail....

Today I'm reading drafts -- I'll update as I go.

Right now I've been reading for about an hour and have read exactly 3. This is way too slow... I have 9 more to go on the death penalty alone... sigh.

If y'all have some tips on quickly giving writing advise in comments, I'd love to see it.

Is it sufficient to use my "proofread" stamp for all kinds of errors? They should sort them out on their own, right?

How do you grade drafts? I'm looking for complete drafts -- i.e. things that look like papers they'd actually turn in. A corresponding question, how severely do I punish papers that ignore my comments? They'll have about 3 weeks to revise.

3 more Death Penalty papers down... 6 to go...

A secret note to my current and previous philosophy profs:
I'm sorry. I'm so, so, so sorry to have tormented you with my poor writing.

I must have earned some terrible philosophy karma to have student papers like these. When I was a bratty teenager, my mother said 'I hope one day you have a daughter just like you'. A similar principle must be at work in order for me to have this stack of papers on my desk.

I'm done with Death Penalty papers... YEA!
The gem of the pile was the argument that, without the death penalty or other punishments, we would all be out there murdering and raping others...

Next topic, gun control... ought to be fun!

3 Gun Control Papers left... I think I may be done for the night.

I have 31 papers left to read this weekend... I've read 28 so far.

I've had several well-written papers. Sadly, a couple of them weren't complete -- which makes me a bit suspicious -- although, since they discuss the not-so-common textbook articles in-depth, I'm guessing they just didn't know they needed to support their own argument with an ethical theory.

I've also had at least two papers that I'm pretty sure were written for another class. I don't mind if they use research done for another course in this paper, but they aren't making ethical arguments in these 'other class' papers -- so they aren't satisfying the assignment.

I think I'm done for the night. Hubby and I are going to a movie, as we've been good graders all day!