"Why do you use red ink to grade?", has come up on more than one occasion
with me. Rather than defend the practice per se, I just though about why we
use red ink anyway. Primarily to reduce confusion over which are our
comments and which are those of the student. It is also a somewhat accepted
practice for term papers because of the editors use of red to "draw
attention" and differentiate. I just tell my students that I will use ink
in whatever color is handy but grade each paper in some color other than
that which they wrote in (to keep the clarity of ownership). I hate red
pens, personally. I see very little reason to defend or attack the
procedure. However, if it were important to me I think I'd tend to stick
with it. What to do if it actually offends a particular student seems
obvious to me.
TOS
_______________________________________________________
Timothy O. Shearon, PhD
Albertson College of Idaho
Department of Psychology
2112 Cleveland Blvd
Caldwell, Idaho
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
208-459-5840
