Marks on scripts
(See also Module 9, section 9.4 for ideas on marking written work.)
As noted in the Introduction to this module, testing at University involves not just formal exams for which students will usually not receive their papers back, but also less formal class tests and coursework which they will have returned. This section is concerned with the latter and what the tutor can do to help students learn from written tests and assessments. The comments do, of course, apply to the marking of any written work, whether assessed or not.
A difficult decision that faces all tutors when marking written work is how to avoid overwhelming students with too many annotations. We must ensure they receive adequate feedback if they are to improve, but too much red pen can be demoralizing. A general guiding principle is that marking should always aim to promote learning. Module 13 (13.5.2) discusses different approaches to this, including the degree to which students can be expected to self-correct.
A key instrument is the use of a list of standard annotations that you can use when marking students' written work and to which students can refer when they receive their work back. Refraining from writing in explanations and corrections in every case will save you time and effort, but it will also encourage independence in your students since, especially if you do not provide a corrected version for them, they will have to work out the nature of their error and try to correct it themselves. Here are three such systems, one in German, one Spanish and the third in English (for students of French), which should be readily adaptable to other languages:
(a) German
| A | Ausdruck |
| Art | Artikel |
| Gen | Genus |
| I | Inhalt |
| K | Kasus |
| Kon | Konjunktion |
| Konj | Konjunktiv |
| MV | Modalverb |
| P | Präposition |
| R | Rechtschreibung |
| S | Stil |
| SB | Satzbau |
| ST | Satzstellung |
| T | Tempus |
| W | Wortwahl |
| Z | Zeichensetzung |
(b) Spanish
| ac | acento |
| adj | adjetivo |
| adv | adverbio |
| art | artículo |
| con | concordancia |
| conj | conjunción |
| gen | género |
| m v | modo verbal |
| num | número |
| pers | persona |
| prep | preposición |
| pron | pronombre |
| sin | sinónimo |
| t v | tiempo verbal |
| v i | verbo irregular |
| v r | verbo reflexivo |
(c) French
| ADJ / ADV | Adjective used when adverb needed and vice versa |
| ADJ / N | Adjective used when noun needed or vice versa |
| AG | Agreement: verb does not agree with subject or adjective with noun |
| AGPP | Agreement of past participle |
| ART | Article omitted when needed, or used when not needed |
| AUX | Auxiliary: "être" used instead of "avoir", or vice versa |
| BW / MD | Badly Worded / Mal Dit |
| CON | Construction: verbal construction inadequate |
| EE | English Expression: English expression translated literally |
| EW | An English word is used instead of the French one |
| G | Gender: feminine article with masculine word and vice versa |
| HS | Hors Sujet: irrelevant material |
| PREP | Preposition: the preposition used is incorrect |
| PRO | Pronoun: the pronoun used is not appropriate |
| REFLEX | Reflexive verb needed or used when not needed |
| REG | Register: language inappropriate in the context |
| REL | Relative pronoun (wrong one used) |
| REP | Repetition: the same word or expression is used twice or more |
| SP | Spelling: there is a mistake in the way the word is spelled |
| T | Tense: the tense of the verb is not appropriate |
| VOC | Vocabulary: the word or expression chosen does not express the right idea |
| WM | Word Missing |
| WO | Word Order: the words are in the wrong order |
(All examples from Centre for Modern Languages, University of Birmingham)
Ideally this will be a department- or language-wide system that all colleagues use, so that students do not have to cope with more than one system.
In the same way, the department should have an agreed system for weighting various errors in marking students' work. For example, in a punitive scheme, deduct:
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½ for an orthographical or spelling error; 1 for an error with prepositional use or a case ending error; 1½ for a more serious error (eg misuse of tense). |
Alternatively, in a positive scheme, with a criterion such as 'half of the structures used are correct', there needs to be clear agreement about what counts as a structure and whether repeat errors are to be disregarded, etc.
Once agreed, such schemes should be shared with students and, above all, consistently applied, not just over a single module taught by one tutor but across all the language modules taught in the department. This allows students to perceive fairness in tutors' approach to marking and ensures in practice that students are more likely to be penalized or rewarded in the same way for the same mistake or the same correct use of language.
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