I have used CoGrader, an AI essay grader, for the last two years
Thanks so much nifwlseirff for your great comments. You are absolutely right that in the end no system can grade essays for you even though they can make some of the task easier. Yet, I still have to tell myself, "no more checking email--just grade!" to get through them. My college just subscribed to an online plagerism and grading system that I've started using. I have put this grading rubric into the system. I'm not sure it is faster to grade, but I do like the grammar/spelling checker feature and the fact that I have a copy of all my comments.
One colleague of mine handled his grading in a very different, personal, and time-efficient way. He had students come to his office and read their papers out loud to him. He read along (on a second copy) and made brief comments as they read. In the end, he gave them a grade and told them a few brief comments. This method does require you to be able to handle student reactions to grades in real-time and means you will have to spend time during office hours and scheduling students. However, this method definitely keeps your time per essay down to 10–15 minutes.
I love using Grammarly for editing my own documents, and I've frequently told my students to use the free version, too. Using Grammarly Premium, you can also have a tool for grading essays. Have your students submit electronically, put Grammarly in editing mode, and you can have the program do part of the work for you while you type comments in review-mode bubbles. If your institution subscribes to Turnitin, you can use the grading mode in that program in a similar way. Although it took some time for me to incorporate all of my personal comments into the Turnitin platform, once I did, I was very pleased with how the system allowed me to make detailed comments more easily. Both Grammarly and Turnitin can also help students understand their errors by referring them to grammar handbooks (a Grammarly premium subscription can be cheaper than most college grammar handbooks).
Grade your students essays with ClassXs new AI Essay Grader
I've seen many simple graph rubrics, but students always wanted me to explain them. So, I developed this detailed rubric based on the guidelines for grades set out by our English Department. I find the detailed explanation of the differences between "A," "B," and "C" in each area of the paper not only cut down on what I had to explain to students but also helped me to make a decision on grades. You are welcome to use my rubric below or customize it for your own grading standards. In fact, I sometimes change the rubric for specific essays to reflect what I'm emphasizing on that paper. See my Sample Custom Rubric at the end of the article.
This essay combines a story of personal strengths with an impactful accomplishment. It’s not necessary to write about one of your accomplishments in your college essays, but if that’s the route you want to go down, then this approach is a good one. Notice how it focuses on concrete action steps, emphasizes the skills the writer learned and used, and highlights how their actions impacted their community. A stop sign may seem small in the grand scheme of things, but the writer shows just how important this effort was.
Do you dread grading essays? Most English teachers do. As an English Instructor for over 23 years, I estimate I graded well over 13,000 Freshman essays. Since I usually look at drafts as well as final papers, I've probably read over twice that many! This article contains the tips and tricks I've used and gathered from colleagues over the years to make essay grading better, faster, and easier!
The first college essay we'll look at got an A+ grade and is about the writer's experience with depression and... Steve Irwin. It's a common application essay. Check it out:
College Admission Personal Statement Essay Grader | MindPal
As an admissions officer, every so often you come across an essay that blows you away. It stops you in your tracks, makes you laugh or cry, or resonates deeply with you. When exceptional essays come through your application bin, you’re reminded what an honor it is to get these fleeting glimpses into incredible students’ lives.
The Original AI Essay Grader as seen on CNN
As we go through the following example essays, remember: college essays are read alongside the rest of your application, and college admissions officers read your essays to learn about your core strengths. That's why focuses on creating a clear, cohesive narrative across the personal statement and supplemental essays, as you'll see in this post.
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What do all of these points have in common? They revolve around your . We’ve written more extensively about core strengths in our . But for now, just know this: your college essays should tell admissions officers something positive about yourself. They want to know who you are, what motivates you, and why you would be an active contributor to their campus.
6 Ways to Grade College Essays Faster and Easier
Thankfully, college essays don’t have to be exceptional to earn admission. They can simply be good. You can still write a solid college essay that does everything you need it to do.
Writing a strong college admissions essay (video)
To summarize: your college essays don’t exist in a vacuum. Your admissions officers learn about who you are from your entire application, and your college essays are the place where you get to tell them exactly what you want them to know. You should write them in a way that creates balance among the other parts of your application.
21 College Essay Examples (Graded by Former Admissions Officers)
Why is this detail important? It matters because your college essays need to be in conversation with the rest of your application. We refer to this strategy as adopting a “.” Your unique personal brand—who you are, what you’re good at, what you value—should emerge across all of your application materials.