Have you been (counter) arguing again? Be nice! Post#100, a thanks? Maybe I should quit while I'm ahead!
Should Teachers Use Rubrics to Grade Writing? General question: Are rubrics helpful to learn writing? Does it help the student more or the teacher or helps both equally? Is writing keeping a rubric in mind like studying with a test in mind? If a teacher uses a rubric, is it like "teaching to the test"? At what age of student or level of writing should teachers stop using rubrics? Specific question: If there is a paid writing course in which the class size is relatively big, teacher uses a rubric, and students use a rubric to peer-grade each other's writing, is creativity going to take some assault? To rubric or not, is the question, I guess.
Rubrics are like training wheels. It's OK to start with them to instill/achieve a minimal proficiency in writing (for example, the "Five Paragraph Essay" that is a staple of American middle/high school composition courses). However, writing and grading within a rigid framework can indeed be stifling, even for expository (as opposed to creative) writing. (We have discussed this before, in the context of automated grading by computer, so my bias should be familiar! ). Indian students, including those with graduate degrees (from India), excepting graduates of some leading institutions, are often atrocious writers; they drive me crazy, writing as they do with a causal insousiance even in high stakes situations, such as when they are applying for a job. I am exasperated by the laxity. The question that runs through my mind when I see that kind of sloppiness is: if this fellow cannot have someone give him feedback on his letter, then what sort of initiative can I expect from him in his research? For such people rubrics can be enormously useful, to get them from (near) zero to fifty. That is a start, but it is not enough! For creative writing, I prefer the 'provocative-writing-prompt' strategy. Here's one I liked, courtesy of Reddit: "You sold your soul to the Devil some years ago. Today, he gives it back and says "I need a favor."
"Indian students, even those with graduate degrees (from India), excepting those from leading institutions, are often atrocious writers - they drive me crazy - even in high stakes situations, such as when they are applying for a job." hahaha... only humanities majors are expected to write well enuf in the old english commonwealth. Tech guys get a slack when it comes to cover letters. They have enuf troubles with the syntax on writing codes. I think rubrics help teachers to face tigers and helicopters coming around for explanations of grades of their children. It is also a defensive shield for teaching assistants in grad schools. Saves the hassle of some idiot UG hogging the office hours with a stupid dickering for partial credit on his/her quiz. Malaysian students often ask why they have to bother with the second language when they write applications, letters and such in a white collar job, while the Chinese, Koreans and the Japanese can get away with their own language. Writing in their own language, translating, and then fixing grammar and syntax is the multistep rubric for their predicament with having to use English. The effort always comes out choppy, But then, the fellow who gets to read it is only as good as the applicant, S/He gets the message, grades it on a rubric, and all is well.
Let's start 2018 with a bang, by stressing the very real costs of ambiguous writing. Here is a story, about a court settlement last week, that ought to excite the somnolent visitors of this thread - a comma or the lack thereof may be worth $5 million!!! Pay attention! Lack of Oxford Comma Could Cost Maine Company Millions in Overtime Dispute Oxford Comma Dispute Is Settled as Maine Drivers Get $5 Million
Ahoy Dr. G! My friend, who tends to notice such things, would like to point out that after an em-dash, the convention is to use the lower-case for the first word. Had it been a semi-colon, you would have had greater leeway to make a stylistic choice between lower and upper-case. These pedants are annoying, aren't they?
Haha! Found a mistake in the first paragraph. Thank you. I wasn't clear on that but now I know. I hope you read the rest of the snippet too! You owe me feedback!
On that note what is the protocol on switching tenses for effect. If you notice the last paragraph of my snippet I switched to the present simple tense. From what I remember learning in school that is not encouraged. But it seemed like a good way to get the reader into the moment I was describing. Yay or nay?
Well, you used em-dashes multiple times! Easy rule is to stick with the lower-case – be it after a comma, a semi-colon or an em-dash, except in cases where the word following is a proper noun. I did, I did! That friendly abuse was both acknowledgement and feedback. Men tend not to gush. Apparently stems from aeons of hunting sabre-toothed tigers on the open savannah, fighting wars to protect home and hearth and whatnot, while women kept busy tending to tomatoes in the garden.
Switching within a sentence or succeeding sentences within the same thought is indeed a no-no. Transitioning across time over the course of a piece is allowed – would have to be n'cest pas? You started in the past (last year), you looked to the future (coming round of gardening), and then closed with the run that morning. That could work as 'technique' – of the sort one tortures schoolchildren with (note preposition at the end of a sentence!). We Real Cool Gwendolyn Brooks, 1917 - 2000 THE POOL PLAYERS. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL. We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon.