Marking Guides
Marking everything produces no improvement and takes all weekend. Marking one thing produces improvement and takes an evening.
Why heavy marking fails
A script returned covered in red is not read; it is glanced at and put away. The student sees a page of failure, not a set of instructions, and there are too many corrections to act on any of them.
The teacher, meanwhile, has spent four hours producing this effect.
The remedy is not to care less. It is to mark selectively and instructively: choose the fault that is costing the most marks, explain the remedy as an action, and require one rewrite.
A marking method
Read five scripts before marking any
The class's common fault emerges immediately. You can then teach it once to everybody instead of writing it thirty times.
Teach the common fault before returning the work
Fifteen minutes of teaching replaces thirty individual comments, and it is better teaching because it is public and can be discussed.
Underline the best sentence and write 'This.'
Students genuinely do not know which of their own sentences was good. Showing them is the fastest way to get more of it, and it changes the emotional temperature of the whole script.
Choose one fault to correct
The one costing the most marks. Ignore the rest this time — they will have their turn.
Write the remedy as an instruction
Not develop your ideas but after each example, add one sentence beginning 'This shows that…' The student can act on the second one tomorrow.
Give the mark and the route to a better one
14. To reach 16, begin each paragraph with a point rather than an event.
Require one paragraph rewritten
Not the whole piece. One paragraph, and look at it. This is where the improvement actually occurs.
Comments that work, and comments that do not
| Instead of | Write | Because |
|---|---|---|
| Develop! | Add one sentence after each example beginning "This shows that…" | The second is an action, not a diagnosis |
| Vague | Which word in the quotation tells you this? | A question requires an answer, and answering is the work |
| Grammar! | Check every verb: does it match its subject? | It says what to do and where to look |
| Good | Your second paragraph is your strongest — you explained the effect | Specific praise can be repeated deliberately |
| Too short | You made three points. Choose the strongest and give it five sentences | It converts quantity into a method |
| Not relevant | Read the question again. Does this paragraph answer it? | It makes the student diagnose, which teaches |
| Wrong | This is nearly right. What happens to the verb after "did"? | It preserves the student's willingness to try |
A simple marking code
Marking symbols in the margin rather than corrections in the text force the student to find and fix the error themselves — which is the point.
Teach the code once, put it on the wall, and use it consistently.
- sp — spelling
- gr — grammar
- T — wrong tense
- WW — wrong word
- WO — word order
- P — punctuation
- ^ — something is missing
- // — start a new paragraph here
- ? — I do not understand this sentence
- ✓ — this is good (use it as often as the others)
Getting through a class set
- Set a time per script and keep to it. Four minutes. A timer helps more than willpower.
- Do not mark every piece of written work in full. Some work can be self-corrected against a checklist, some peer-marked, some collected and skimmed for the common fault only. Full marking three times a term, done properly, beats weekly marking done exhaustedly.
- Require self-correction before collection. Students who have checked their own work against a checklist hand in better work, and you spend your time on things that matter.
Downloadable marking guidance
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