Mateo Gong

Writing 2

Professor Britton

March 22, 2023

Int. School Writing Office – Day

Professors ASAO INOUE, MARCY BAUMON and PAT BELANOFF are discussing something

around a table, ASAO INOUE and MARCY BAUMON are sitting in chairs while PAT

BELANOFF is standing across the room, checking his mail box. Suddenly, writing student

CARLOS walks in.

CARLOS

Professor BELANOFF and INOUE, good to see you!

Professor BAUMON, are you busy? I need to ask you something.

All three look towards CARLOS.

MARCY BAUMON

(Puts down the book she is reading)

Of course, that’s what I’m here for.

CARLOS

(While walking towards the table)

I have a question regarding my grade for my last piece, or rather the lack thereof.

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How am I supposed to improve if I can’t benchmark my progress?

MARCY BAUMON

(With a skeptical look)

Well that’s what the comments are for, have you taken a look at them? Or what

about the syllabus. If you read it, you would know that I do a contract grading

system.

CARLOS

Yeah, I know, but I came to ask why? Comments are great but it feels difficult to

gauge how I’m doing. Look, I just want to write best for you and I feel if I receive

a grade I can process feedback better, and improve.

ASAO INOUE

(Takes a sip of his coffee)

Well it seems you have a misunderstanding on why you should be writing.

CARLOS

What do you mean?

MARCY BAUMON

It’s great that you want to write best for me, but that isn’t how you should be

writing. The purpose of writing a paper should be to effectively communicate

what you think.

CARLOS

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Okay, but I don’t necessarily think that having our writing graded was a big issue.

In fact, it seems that having a grade will allow us students to communicate more

effectively due to the fact that we can tell the effectiveness of our writing by

looking at the grade.

PAT BELANOFF

(Interrupting CARLOS while walking towards all three with some papers)

Excuse me, if I may. I have actually done quite extensive research on grading

practices in the field of writing, and have even compiled a list of commonly

taught myths about writing, the biggest of them being that it’s possible to have an

absolute standard and apply it uniformly.

ASAO INOUE

(Excitedly)

Yes! This may not surprise you Carlos because we’re all co-workers, but I

strongly agree with PAT’s idea of these writing myths, especially the one he just

said. I think that grading a student's writing inherently fails the student because

not all pieces of writing accomplish the same goal, or should even try to. That’s

what makes a uniform standard for grading writing impossible.

MARCY BAUMAN

Exactly! Writing should be a communicative act, not a demonstrative one.

Applying a grade encourages demonstration of knowledge, rather than the

application of it.

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Suddenly, professors MAX MARSHALL and ALFIE KOHN rush into the room.

MAX MARSHALL

(With concerned look)

Is everything alright? I heard a lot of yelling.

MARCY BAUMAN

(Sheepishly)

Sorry, we got a little excited talking about grading.

MAX MARSHALL

(Leans against the doorway with hand on hip)

Oh, well I know a thing or two about grades. After all, I was the first professor to

ever have a class with no grades whatsoever!

CARLOS

Really? What class? I am registering for classes soon.

MAX MARSHALL

It was a microbiology class back in the day. I noticed that the grade one student

received didn’t necessarily correlate to the quality of their work. So, I got rid of

grades entirely. Everyone got a C at the end of the semester to motivate everyone

equally. You only need to try as much as you are motivated to.

CARLOS

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What!? But if everyone gets a C no matter what, there’s no motivation to try and

learn. (Grumbles) It seems like a stupid idea to me.

MARCY BAUMAN

(Gasps and then exclaims)

Carlos!

ALFIE KOHN

(Walking towards the group at the table)

Hey, I know it may seem counterintuitive but I have done lots of research on

rewards and incentives. I’ve even interviewed the father of behaviorism himself,

B.F Skinner and have ultimately concluded that competition and rewards actually

holds back other students from doing their best work.

MARCY BAUMAN

(Nods her head at ALFIE)

You know ALFIE, I must agree with you: extrinsic motivation does seem to

hamper intrinsic motivation. I’ve noticed that without the pressure of having a

grade dropped on them and being compared to their peers, they have more healthy

intrinsic motivation to help them write efficiently.

CARLOS

(Puzzled look)

Uhh, extrinsic intrinsic what now?

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 MARCY BAUMAN

(Giggles)

Basically, you are more motivated when your motivation comes from inside you,

rather than from outside forces.

MAX MARSHALL

Yes, grades are despotic and autocratic judgment cast mercilessly and unfairly

upon students in order to terrorize and cloud their thoughts.

PAT BELANOFF

(Side eyeing MAX)

Woah, okay now. I don’t necessarily think that grades are evil or anything, but

rather that we misunderstand why we need grades in writing studies, and what we

are grading. This ends up with the teacher not grading a piece of work to the

standards it needs to be held to. I think there is a solid line between objective

good and bad work.

MAX MARSHALL

Well, I’m not really a writing guy, but I’ll take your word for it. All I know is that

grades and competition only make students perform worse!

ASAO INOUE

Yup! And that’s why my colleagues and I also got rid of extrinsic rewards like

grades in my classroom.  There’s only one person you should be focusing on

anyways - (Points finger at Carlos) You!

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 CARLOS

(Sarcastically and while eyeing the doorway)

Me? Wow I never thought about that before. Thank you but I really should get

going now.

ASAO INOUE, MARCY BAUMAN

(Waving)

See you in class.

MAX MARSHALL

What a riveting conversation. I love talking about grades!

FADE OUT

SCENE.

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 References

Belanoff, Pat. “The Myth of Assessment.” Journal of Basic Writing, vol. 10, no. 1, 1991, pp. 54–

66., https://doi.org/10.37514/jbw-j.1991.10.1.06.

Inoue, Asao B. Labor-Based Grading Contracts: Building Equity and Inclusion in the

Compassionate Writing Classroom. The WAC Clearinghouse, 2022.

Kohn, Alfie. Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise,

and Other Bribes. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade & Reference Publishers, 1993.

Marshall, Max S. “The Flotation Technique: Teaching without Grades.” Improving College and

University Teaching, vol. 8, no. 1, 1960, pp. 23–29.,

https://doi.org/10.1080/00193089.1960.10534082.

Tchudi, Stephen, and Marcy Bauman. “What Grades Do for Us, and How to Do without Them.”

Alternatives to Grading Student Writing, National Council of Teachers of English,

Urbana, Ill, 2011.