Watch Out •••••••••••••••••••

 

Following are COMMON sources of rater bias — any one of which can cause you to score unfairly:

 

The positive-negative leniency error: A tendency to be too hard or too easy on everyone — just as a matter of principle.

 

Appearance: Scoring up because the paper looks neat and presentable or down because it looks messy. Judge content first. Good appearance IS important, but it is not part of the scoring criteria.

 

Length: Is longer better? No! In fact, length often works against a piece if there’s too much “interruptive information.” Papers that are too short, of course, cannot be scored fairly, but the real trick is to balance the need for good detail with an ability to be succinct.

 

Fatigue: If you’re never tired and bleary-eyed while you’re doing this, you’re either a machine or you’re sneaking your papers into someone else’s stack. The point is, take an occasional break. You’ll score faster (and MUCH more accurately) in the long run if you get up to stretch now and then.

 

Personality clash: I hate animal stories! I love sport papers! Oh, what a neat kid — he fishes with his dad! All this kid DOES is watch TV — he needs a couple of rejections to wake him up to reality! This is the don’t-even-go-there approach to scoring. Try to be neutral. If you simply can’t (“I hate iguanas, my father hated iguanas, and I’m never changing my mind”), give the paper to someone else. Think: What if it were your paper? Your child’s?

 

Skimming: You might think you know after the first 8 lines, but Do read the whole thing to be sure you’re assessing the entire performance, not just the grand opening.

 

Sympathy Score: Her dog died…she loves her grandpa so much…These situations tug at your heart, and rightly so. But the hard truth is, there are good and not-so-good pet papers, grandparent papers, etc. Be sure you score the writing, not the circumstances.

 

Scoring Suggestions:

Give priority to content, clarity of thought and expression.

Does the writer address the topic?

Does the writer give examples?