Marking written

assignments
Paul Bress ponders the power of the written word.
“Rather inaccurate at times” (woodwork teacher)
“Tests terrible.” (Chemistry teacher)

For some reason, the comments above, written on my school report when I was about 13, are indelibly
etched on my memory. I suspect that the authors of the comments would be surprised to hear that. But
I think we sometimes forget the power of the written word when a teacher is evaluating the work done
by a student. Ink on paper can often have a more powerful effect than a stream of words uttered in the
more transient world of oral communication.

Teachers of EFL or ESL are most likely to write evaluative comments when their students hand in a
written assignment for them to mark. Such assignments, of course, can range from very simple
grammatical exercises, to poetry, to a substantial EAP assignment. Marking academic writing requires
a great deal of skill, and, for the EAP student, there is a great deal at stake. That’s why I want to focus
here on the best way to mark such assignments. I shall do this by addressing how ineffective markers
contrast with effective markers.

Don’ts (Ineffective markers)

Ineffective markers will not give the assignment their full attention. They may not even write anything on
the scripts at all. If they do write something, it may not skillfully sum up the overall impression the student
has made. Furthermore, ineffective markers may not exemplify any comments they have made or give
suggestions for improvement. Then, to add insult to injury, they may make aggressive or hurtful
comments about the writing –and, indeed, about the students themselves. If you imagine such
comments written in a hurried, perhaps not very legible way, then you can also imagine the damaging
effect this could have on the students in question.

Dos (Effective markers)

Let’s consider effective markers in somewhat greater detail! I’ll focus on five key dos of effective marking.

Pay attention
Effective markers give the assignment their full attention. This is always a precondition for successful
marking. The students have probably invested a lot of time, thought and energy in their work and want,
at the very least, a very thorough consideration of its merits.

Give an overall impression

Effective markers give an overall impression of the assignment. This may sound lazy, but, in fact, it can
take some skill to articulate this impression. It requires some quiet space in which the singular qualities
of the assignment sink into the marker’s brain. An overall impression comment might be: ‘You have
taken a lot of trouble to read all the background literature, and you have summed up the thoughts of key
authors effectively. I’m wondering whether focusing on a more restricted area would allow you to delve
into your topic more deeply.’

Provide examples
If markers don’t back up their overall impression with examples, students may fail to understand the
basis for the impression. So, in short, markers need to do some extra work here –to spell out clearly
what the overall comments refer to. In the above case, the marker might write: ‘You have mentioned
Austin and Searle (p2) and Widdowson (p3). You have addressed the area of communicative
competence (p4) in a very broad way. But perhaps you could conflate some sections on this? This would
free up more space to focus on communicative performance (which is the key word in your title).’
Suggest improvements
Perhaps the most important thing a student can take away from the comments is practical suggestions
concerning how to improve in future assignments (indeed, university entry may be dependent on making
improvements). So the effective marker needs to make concrete suggestions for future assignments.
An example might be: ‘Perhaps you need to do some more preparatory work (ie in your plan) before
you begin writing your assignment proper. It’s a good idea to make sure that your work is well balanced.
Try to make sure that the wording of the title is reflected in the proportions of both the plan and the
assignment proper.’

Write legibly
This is an obvious, but nonetheless important, point. The student has probably gone to the trouble of
word-processing the assignment, so the very least the marker can do is write legible comments. Perhaps
the best way to do this is to imagine the student reading the ink as it flows out of the pen. This can have
quite a dramatic effect on the speed and legibility of the marker’s writing.

In conclusion, I’d like to make two points. Firstly, English language teaching (particularly in the private
sector in English-speaking countries) isn’t, unfortunately, a very well-paid profession. It may, therefore,
be understandable if many teachers are unwilling to spend a lot of their leisure time marking their
students’ work in a diligent way. For this reason, I think employers need to think very carefully about
rewarding teachers appropriately for quality marking –or, alternatively, freeing up time for this very
demanding task.

Secondly, there is often a mismatch between the effort a teacher puts into marking and consequent
effect of that effort on the student in question. Because of this, I believe that teachers need to pay
particular attention to the comments they commit to paper, remembering that they may leave an indelible
impression. I also feel that a significant amount of time ought to be dedicated, in both pre- and in-
sessional teacher training programmes, to the skills associated with effective marking.

“Marking written assignments” by Paul Bress in English Teaching Professional. Issue 49, March 2007.