Why not collect some data?
At a local community college, there was much snarling and gnashing of teeth
between the humanities folks and the natural science folks about the quality
and grading of student writing. Finally, the administration decided to put
the question to a test. They selected 30 student papers, and gave them to
a sample of natural scientists to grade, as well as to a sample of humanities
profs. What resulted was that the same paper when graded by a natural scientist
tended to be graded a full grade step or lower than when graded by a
humanities prof. When the faculty involved were asked to explain their
grading decisions, it turned out that the two groups tended to focus on
different things. The natural scientists were cranky about things like
the failure to carry a theme all the way through, to answer a question directly,
spelling errors, etc. and penalized these deficits; while the humanities
folks were so _delighted_ whenever a paper came in with correct spelling, etc.
that they _rewarded_ these things. This study led to an interesting and
(I assume) valuable discussion across campus about standards and expectations.
So--why don't the folks who are wondering just start collecting some data?
--Kathy Morgan
Wheaton College
