Lane was worried that her students would become discouraged if they saw a lot of mistakes marked on their papers. So to help them develop confidence in their writing skills, for the first essays that they turned in at the beginning of each term, she was very selective about which mistakes she marked. Thus, their first grades were all relatively high. Unfortunately, this approach had some less-than-desirable outcomes, not only for her students, but also for their teachers at the next level.

First of all, the message to the students was, “You don’t have to carefully edit—you can still get a good grade.”

Also, as the term progressed, she realized that several of the students were still making many mistakes, whether from poor editing and/or from lack of knowledge. At the end of the term, she had to decide to either fail those students, which would be a shock to them since they wouldn’t be expecting that, or pass them, which would be a burden for their next teacher, who would have to deal with students who didn’t have the skills necessary to be successful at that level.

A better approach has been to mark every mistake as long as the teacher is strategic when dealing with essays.

One strategy is to indicate not only mistakes but also good parts of their essays, for example, sentences in which they used correct grammar or that had a good style or ideas and details that were clear. (See • Writing class: Easy, focused, POSITVE feedback on essays. )

We can also turn the process of correcting mistakes into a kind of puzzle by coding mistakes in the margin instead of directly above the word(s) in the essay. (See  • Most Effective Technique for Marking Grammar on Essays to Develop Self-Editing Skills ) It’s interesting to watch students when they get their essays marked in the way. Many of them immediately start looking at the codes (clues) and begin solving the mysteries by correcting the mistakes. They don’t even look at the feedback form with their grade first.

Another strategy is to let students know that the initial grade is just for their information. It indicates how they did on this early draft, but they can revise their essay, and they can get help doing that.  (See • How to lead ESL Students to Discover their Grammar Mistakes on Writing Assignments ). One of my students, Yuka, talked to me with tears in her eyes, distraught over the many mistakes on her early paper and the low score. I told her that if she would like, in the future I wouldn’t mark all her mistakes, only some serious ones. In addition, I wouldn’t have to give her a grade. Her expression completely changed as she suddenly realized that marks and grades were there for her benefit, not some kind of judgement of her or a personal failure. She immediately said, “No, I want you to continue to mark all my mistakes and give me a grade.” And she promised not to cry if she saw many mistakes marked. She never did, and she seemed to have a new perspective on grades.

In fact, when I give students an essay assignment, I show them the feedback form that I’ll be using and tell them that they can cross out the place where I would write the grade if they’d rather not get one. In all my years of teaching with hundreds of students, only two students have ever indicated that they didn’t want a grade. (Interestingly, after getting their marked papers back with the feedback form, both of them asked me what their grade would have been.) (See • User-Friendly Writing Panel Process: Time and Energy Efficient And Effective  )

As we begin to mark an essay, if we notice many mistakes, we can use this strategy. It may be that the students just hadn’t proof read. At the same time, if the student had done their best, we may not want to overwhelm them with marks. In either of those case, it works well to mark all the mistakes on just the first half of the essay. Then, after they’ve had a chance to revise that, they can revise the second half without our marks, or we can proceed to mark the original second half if they’d prefer. (See • When Marking Only Half of a Student’s Essay Makes the Most Sense. )

An assumption that Lane had which was the basis for her not marking all the mistakes was that students hate to see red marks on their papers. However, according to research, the opposite is true; they want to see those marks once they realize the purpose that those marks serve and how they can use them to improve their essay before the final evaluation. (See • Common Teacher Myth: Students Don’t Like to See Red Marks on Their Papers..)

At this point, some teachers will probably wonder how we can determine whether a student has the skills necessary to pass to the next level if they are shown all their mistakes (by the teacher) and can correct them before getting a final grade on the paper. This is where timed essays is vital. (See • In-Class Essays: More Important Than Ever .) This process reinforces the importance of seeing all their mistakes on the essays that they can revise and demonstrate that they have learned from them.

David Kehe
Faculty Emeritus