It’s that time of year again. When all of a sudden your to-do list seems longer than it really should be and you wonder how it is all going to get done.

And a big part of that to-do list right now is probably grading. Which feels like Endless Grading.

Like all great jobs, there are things you need to do that are not so great.

An online friend used the example of parenting (a great job) and changing really poopy diapers that have leaked all the way up your kid’s back (a not-so-great task). All parents have done this. I’ve done it on a train. But we don’t think parenting isn’t for us because of a couple of poopy diapers.

First, let me reassure you that grading is not, in fact, endless. It just feels that way.

However, unlike the diapers, there will always be grading in your academic career. So lets see if I can help get the grading into perspective. And make sure it isn’t taking up more time and energy than it deserves.

Limit the time you give it

Grading is one of those tasks that can expand to fill the time available. So limit the time available.

Some of the personal rules I had for grading (mostly 2500 word essays) were:

• 20 minutes per essay: read, decide a grade, write comments
• Never read an essay more than once
• Resist the temptation to mark the good ones first
• Take breaks, reward your persistence

I never wrote on the essay itself, mostly because we couldn’t return them to students but had to keep them on file. So my comments were on one page on the front.

• Always start with a positive statement no matter how hard it is to come up with one.
• Focus your negative comments on important issues.

These rules might not work for you, and that’s okay. Use them as a jumping off point for creating your own rules about how you manage this task.

Mark out from a C

A statistically normal group of students should have most people in the C to B range. A smaller bunch of A students and very few A+. You will probably also have a smaller bunch of weak students (C to D) and even a couple of students who really are not making the grade.

However, because you were an A to A+ student, I bet you mark down from an A+. You have a good idea what an A+ answer to this question looks like. And you judge every essay against that standard.

It gets kind of depressing, and you end up writing a lot of comments about what students aren’t doing. And have a hard time saying positive things about all those thoroughly average students you have.

Back when I was teaching, I found it useful to have a sense of what a C paper might look like. A IIii for those in the UK system.

If a student did the minimum amount of work and has a good basic grasp of the concepts without much sophistication, maybe a couple of errors but generally good, what would that look like? That’s a C.

Then figure out what a B and an A have (broadly) that a C doesn’t. Do the same for a D and a fail. Then you can figure out the minus and plus gradations within each band. (For the UK folks, I started with a IIii, then figured out a IIi, a first, a III, and a fail, then used about 3 marks in each band: top, middle, bottom)

This method enables you to see the positive things in the C and B papers rather than just all the things that make them not-an-A.

You can also be excited about the A students (rather than just relieved that someone is paying attention).

Know what you are assessing

A corollary to this is to know what it is you are trying to assess: grasp of facts? ability to apply concepts to new situations? an ability to support an argument with evidence? what?

I know it is difficult to articulate exactly what these are but spending some time doing it in the abstract can make a big difference. You can also take a break after you have marked a chunk of your stack and try to articulate the standards you seem to have been using. This will allow you to calibrate and do the next bunch more quickly.

If you know what you are trying to assess, you can focus your comments on those aspects of the paper. It will be clear what they have demonstrated and where the weaknesses are.

Every once in a while, you will also realize that a paper which may be reasonable in the abstract provides no evidence of having learned anything from your course. I have been known to give such a paper 10% (and defend it).

Even better (though a bit late for this semester) communicate this to your students. Tell them what you are trying to assess and what you expect in each broad band of marks (A, B, C, D, fail). Sometimes smart, hard-working students write bad papers because they misunderstand what is expected.

Communicating your expectations also saves you time (defending your marks) and emotional energy (worrying about whether students will complain).

Wielding power responsibly

Grading brings the power relationship between you and your students to the forefront.

Unsurprisingly, many of us find that power uncomfortable. I even had colleagues who denied that they had power over their students.

Whether we like it or not we work within a structure in which we have power. And grades are the physical manifestation of that power.

The emotional energy required to confidently use our power in responsible ways can be draining.

Am I being fair? Am I being too harsh? Am I being too lenient? What if the student challenges this grade?

Articulating what you are trying to assess and what you expect for each grade can really help with this, particularly if you also make it clear to the students. Arbitrary power is not responsible.

If you have a colleague you trust, you could also share your criteria and process and confirm for each other that your expectations are reasonable.

But sometimes just recognizing that this is what is going on can go a long way towards reducing the energy it requires.

Self-Confidence

Grading also brings out the fraud squad in your head. You know, the gremlins that tell you that you aren’t really good enough to do this job.

Part of the emotional energy devoted to worrying about students challenging your grades, is beating back the gremlins who are telling you you have no right to judge these people.

We all think we are normal. What we do seems to come naturally for us, so we think most people can naturally do the same things.

You might end up attributing a student’s failure to do A work as a failure of you as a teacher. After all, you are just a normal person and you did A work as an undergraduate. Surely these students are capable of that?

It is hard to accept that you are different. But you are. There are things these students can do that you would be utterly hopeless at. But in the realms of writing essays about this topic? You are much better than they are. And you were much better at their age than most of them are now.

Accepting this will enable you to confidently grade their work. You will be able to confidently determine reasonable expectations for their level. And you will be able to assess their work in a way that differentiates between different levels of performance at that level.

You don’t need to be arrogant about it. There is nothing more obnoxious than an arrogant academic. But you need to accept that intellectual work of the kind that you do is something you excel at.

You are grading their work

The other thing to keep in mind is that you are grading an essay.

You are not grading a student. You are grading the work the student did on this particular occasion in response to a particular assignment.

That student can improve.

That student might excel at something else and be merely good at this.

Your job is to determine how well they have demonstrated their ability to do the various things you are trying to assess.

It’s just one diaper.

During a recent coaching session, a client mentioned that she needs to move around to think well. Pacing. Going for a long walk or a bike ride. That kind of thing.

This got me thinking.

Do you struggle with research because you think you need to be sitting at your desk to do it?

I know that schools are really big on sitting still and being quiet as the necessary precursor to doing academic work.

As a homeschooler, I’ve become aware of the fact that this is just not true for some people. In fact, it can be downright damaging.

Some folks think better if they are doing something physical at the same time. With kids, that might mean letting them play with Lego while you read to them. Or doodle. Or jump on a trampoline.

Actually, apart from playing with Lego, a lot of things that homeschooling parents of kids like this do so their kids can learn better are things adults could easily do. (And scholarly research is just learning for grown-ups.)

If you think better when moving…

• Combine your research time with running, biking, or walking.
• Get a mini-tramp and bounce while thinking about research ideas.
• Or just pace up and down.

Moving + reading =

Of course you can’t read while biking, at least not without seriously endangering yourself.

But try these options:

• Put your book on a music stand so you can knit while reading. Choose relatively plain knitting so your thinking brain can concentrate on the book.
• Doodle.
• Play with a string of beads. You can get nice ones here (no, I don’t get a commission).
• Take notes, whether you refer to them or not. Writing is a physical activity that might activate that part of your brain that needs movement.

Take regular movement breaks

Sometimes you do have to sit there. Reading. Writing. Staring at sources trying to figure out what is going on.

But don’t force yourself to sit there past your fidget point.

Get up and move around. This will release all the pent up energy that will otherwise distract you.

And it will allow you to process the ideas you have been dealing with while sitting still.

Set a timer if you have to. There is a rather pleasant free one here (designed for meditation so it shouldn’t be too intrusive).

You’re a grown-up now

And you work in a field where you have considerable autonomy.

Figure out how you work best and then design your day and your space to support your work.

It’ll feel weird at first. And you might have to experiment a bit. But sitting at your desk in silence might not be the most productive way for you to work.

You got into academia because you were excited by ideas. Particular ideas.

Stuff you read made you think “But what about …” Or “I wonder if …”

And you do research to answer those questions and contribute to the conversations that inspired them.

Have you lost that excitement?

All research goes in phases. And sometimes you do have to push through the boring bits to get back to the exciting part.

But you can also lose the excitement by worrying too much about what others expect of you.

Maybe you accepted an offer to write a chapter for a book that is related to your interests but not in your main area.

Or you saw a funding opportunity and came up with a proposal that met the funder’s objectives. Something you could do well, but not something that really excited you.

Or maybe you just doubt that the work that really excites you is going to get you tenure, funding, or whatever it is you need.

You now have deadlines and obligations but the research involved feels like it is taking you away from your real research.

Make sure you do the stuff that excites you

Deadlines and obligations are important. But focusing exclusively on stuff that doesn’t excite you can make you less productive.

Don’t make the projects that you are really excited about wait until you’ve finished those obligation projects.

If you spend 30-minutes a day on research during term time, then 1 day a week that 30-minutes can be devoted to your favourite project. Even if that project doesn’t have funding or isn’t at the stage where it will result in a “product” any time soon.

Working on your favourite project will energize you

You will be reminded that you love your job.

And everyone performs better when they are doing things they love and are good at.

Taking that excitement and energy back to the obligation projects will move them along more quickly.

And stopping work on a particular project when it is starting to drain your energy will make your average productivity go up.

It’s simple arithmetic. If you take out the lowest numbers, the average goes up. And your productivity is lower when you are dragging yourself through something.

Don’t stop an obligation project indefinitely

You aren’t putting it on a shelf to come back to “some day”.

You are limiting the time you devote to this particular project in order to give time to other projects.

Scheduling time, even 30-minutes a day 2-days a week, will mean the project keeps moving forward.

And because you are also spending time on your favourite project, you won’t be spending those 30-minute sessions grumbling about how you really want to be doing something else.

A better frame of mind and constant work leads to higher productivity.

Be picky about new obligations

New opportunities arise all the time. But you don’t need to say “Yes” to everything.

Spending time on your favourite project enables you to create opportunities that are more in line with your primary interests.

If an opportunity feels like it is taking you away from the research that excites you, just say “No”.

You can even delay decisions about publications until you’ve advanced your exciting research to a point where you have something to say and you are clearer about who needs to hear it.

Related posts

For more on taking on writing obligations for the wrong reasons, you might want to revisit Publishing in the wrong places, in which I talk about an example in my own career.

And on how multiple projects can lead to more finished projects, One Thing at a Time.

“The usual result of worrying about excellence or perfection before you start creating is that you’ll never start creating. Let go of how good the end product will be and embrace the act of creating. Excellence comes as a byproduct of continual creation and learning.” (Charlie Gilkey, Productive Flourishing, July 30, 2009)

When you only have limited time to do research, it is normal to want to use that time well. But sometimes that desire can get in the way of getting anything done at all.

Research is a creative process. At some point you will need to focus on the quality of the product. Now is not that time.

Start creating

Write down your half-formed thoughts.

Mind-map ideas that are generated out of that source material you collected last year.

Immerse yourself in that source material. Mess around with data.

Freewrite on a specific idea.

Sit in a comfy armchair with a cup of tea and just think about your research.

All of this is work.

Real work.

You are not slacking.

I know you love your research. I know you love thinking big thoughts. But spending 30 minutes a day doing something you love is not something to feel guilty for.

In fact, I will hazard a guess that actually allowing yourself to ponder the ideas that brought you into this profession in the first place on a regular basis will energize you to be a better teacher and a better colleague.

And will lead to more (and perhaps better) products.

But don’t worry about the products now.

Embrace the creative research process.