Grading student written papers

[goingback]

I need help and suggestions. I am a student instructor (MSN student) and am getting lots of feedback from students telling me I am doing things too harsh. I know that the papers (written papers on subjects/articles read) need to cover the basic requirements required and stated in the assignment, but what about papers that don't have a correct APA header? Or papers in which the students are citing literally every sentence? To me it shows that they are not necessarily understanding the information, but for them they are covering their A** because they are citing sources (we are not using turn it in). Is there any guidance you can give me or resources you can point me to? Is it OK to give a student 4/5 points if they have met all the required objectives, but their paper is so hard to read because they have cited sooo much?

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

Are the papers required to be in APA format? In that case, there are standards for citing references, and they should lose points if they don't do it correctly. Does your school state a policy about deducted-points for not following format?

If they do more than one paper in the semester, if it was me, I'd go easy the first time, in relation to format, discuss it with them afterwards (or write ample notes on the paper), and let them know that the next paper will be graded more harshly. You have to tell them what you expect or they won't know. If it's not spelled out by the school, you have to spell it out.

All work is a learning experience, not just hoop-jumping, in the best of all educational worlds. The instructor needs to guide the students toward what's expected, and facilitate movement toward that, with nudges or bigger nudges along the way. There's no need to hit an ant with a hammer. Consider what your reason is for the scores you give. To help them improve? To instruct with feedback? A show of irritation for their lack of whatever? That should help you figure out what's the right thing to do.

(off soapbox now)

[llg, PhD, RN]

I agree with Whispera, but want to add:

One of the last things I do when I grade papers is to step back and consider the letter grade my numerical score corresponds to -- and consider whether or not the paper is "good enough" or "bad enough" to deserve that grade. For example, I might end up scoring someone 84 points, which at my school is a "C." So, I would ask myself... "Is this really a C paper? Or does this person really deserve a B?" Sometimes I modify the numerical score up or down by a couple of points when the final letter grade doesn't seem to match my overall feel for the paper.

And when I am finished grading all the papers ... I spot-check papers to see if I was consistent with my judgments. For example, I will skim 2 or 3 papers that got "C's" to see if they were roughly equivalent in quality ... and then look at 2 or 3 "B" papers to be sure I see a higher level of quality there ... etc.

[BigBadInstructor]

Is there a rubric for the written papers that is given to students besides what the stated requirements are? A lot of times you can write the rubric and include APA format and give various grades to represent what it is that you will and will not accept for the paper. I know that I have rubrics for all of my courses that requires any type of written work, including online courses.

Good luck

[VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN]

Definitely use rubrics. Also (if you have one from a past class and permission from the student to use it) post an example of a superlative paper (with all student identifiers removed) - this usually helps immensely. I have found that one great example is worth a thousand words.

One year I gave an APA quiz in the beginning to help the class get their feet wet with proper use of APA.

When I am grading papers, I usually will skim through the papers first, then read each one in much greater detail. Then I use a "norm-referencing" method of grading (along with the rubric) from what I consider to be the "best" paper in the class to the "worst." The last thing I do is assign grades (similar to a bell curve) and this is after much thought and consideration.

Another thing - I do not grade papers when I am tired. Usually 5 or 6 per day is my limit.

[TooterIA]

Ditto using rubrics and handing out an APA example. I hand out an example f an APA reference page, yet still get students who cant get the reference page right. I am also clear about references and tell them they should not be citing every sentence, they should have enough of a grasp on the info that they can paraphrase and cite the source.

I can understand their frustration if each paper is only worth 5 points, is one whole point of that for APA? With only 5 points possible, it seems you would have to write a pretty darn great paper to earn all 5 points.