The time required by additional assignment of writing is not large, but it is significant. Fortunately, not all assigned writing must be graded or read, and not all the grading needs to take much time. Assignments that are "high stakes" or very important to the student's course grade requires more attention from the professor than "low stakes" assignments, such as one-minute essays or in class paragraphs summarizing the lecture.

That said:

• Create a rubric to "measure" with (see below for examples)
• Use peer groups to provide initial revision suggestions for students
• Grade holistically, rather than attempting to average letter grades by quality;
• Offer a two-tier grade: one content, one mechanics. This allows you to use the time you would otherwise spend debating how much a comma splice should count down.
• Before grading or commenting, read through all the responses to a writing assignment quickly. Sort them into three piles: one good, one average, one poor. Once the essays are sorted, grading and commenting moves much more quickly.
• Ask students to write down the two most important questions they have about the draft, and answer only those.
• In a assignment that's low-stakes, choose only one or two responses to read aloud and discuss strengths and weaknesses, rather than grading each of them.
• Write only two comments per page, no more, and pick your battles carefully.
• If students submit assignments electronically, it may be faster for you than hand writing to type brief responses and email the student with the comments.

Nine Ways to Cut Writing Assignment Grading Time (from Time Management for Teachers)

• Use Peer Evaluation (see below for effective peer group training).Distribute rubrics to students asking each to read and respond to three of his or her peers' essays in a specific amount of time. After grading an essay, they should staple the rubric to the back of it so as not to influence the next evaluator. Student writers then get the benefit of multiple sets of eyes.

• Grade Holistically.Use a single letter or number. To do this, put your pen down and simply read and sort assignments into piles according to score. When finished with a class, check each pile to see if they are consistent in quality, then write the score at the top. This process allows you to grade a large number of papers quickly. It is best used with final drafts after students have used a rubric to grade one another's writing and made improvements.

• Use Portfolios.Have students create a portfolio of checked-off writing assignments from which they select the best to be graded. An alternative approach is to have the student select one of three consecutive essay assignments to be graded. Portfolios are flexible in their application—mould them as you see fit.

• Grade Only a Few from a Class Set - Roll the Die!Use a roll of a die to match numbers selected by students in order to select from eight to ten essays that you will be grading in-depth, checking off the others.

• Grade Only a Few from a Class Set - Keep them Guessing.Tell students you will make an in-depth evaluation of a few essays from each class set and check off the others. Students will not know when theirs will be graded in-depth.

• Grade Only Part of the Assignment. Grade only one paragraph of each essay in depth. Don't tell students ahead of time which paragraph it will be, though.

• Grade Only One or Two Elements. Have students write at the top of their papers, "Evaluation for (element) " followed by a line for your grade for that element. It is helpful to also write "My estimate _____" and fill in their estimate their grade for that element.

• Have Students Write in Journals That Are Not Graded. Require only that they write either for a specified amount of time, that they fill a specified amount of space, or that they write a specified number of words.

Steps for Designing a Grading Rubric

1. Review the intended outcomes of the assignment. What do you want students to gain from doing this assignment? Or, what skills or mastery should they be able to demonstrate by completing this assignment? Another way to think about this is: what do you expect in these papers? It’s important to be specific and to prioritize your expectations. It’s very difficult to grade if you’ve left out a major component that you expect the papers to contain!
2. Translate these into the criteria by which the student work will be evaluated. Keep criteria to between 5-10, fewer if applicable, but not more than 10.
3. Decide how many levels of proficiency you want to include. For example, three (3): weak, satisfactory or strong, or five (5) based on grades A-F.
4. Determine the relative weight of each criterion. Some rubrics list the points for each level of quality, and these can vary from criterion to criterion. If you’re using a checklist approach, weight need not be indicated.
5. Now write out the descriptions for each level. What specific features will an A paper’s thesis have? What will an A paper contain in terms of the evidence used to support the thesis? For each criterion and each level, you must describe how a student’s paper will appear as specifically as possible. Sometimes it’s best to describe the best possible paper in all its facets first, and then describe the worst possible paper. Then fill in intermediate levels. I prefer starting at the best level and then thinking down a level for each criterion. Other people start at the bottom end and work their way up, even including phrases such as “includes the previous box plus has xyz.”

Examples of Grading Rubrics

FOUR GENERAL CRITERIA FOR WRITING ASSESSMENT:

FOCUS: Does the writer stay on topic? Is the topic narrow enough to allow the student to “go deep”?

ARRANGEMENT Does the organization make logical sense? Are the reader’s expectations of “what should come next” being met? Are transitions in place?

SUPPORT/DEVELOPMENT Does the writer provide sufficient evidence and explanation to make the point clear? Are resources clearly indicated? Is research smoothly integrated? Are processes fully explained?

MECHANICS Are there grammar, punctuation, or spelling mistakes? Are there so many mistakes that they interfere with your reading? Are you looking at MISTAKES or are you looking at the writing of a student who composes “with an accent”?

TRAIN YOUR STUDENTS TO READ EACH OTHER’S WRITING

Even with a response form in hand, students will not necessarily know how to give feedback to peer drafts. Most students need to be taught how to give constructive, useful feedback.

One approach:

1. Hand out copies of a sample completed assignment (perhaps written by a student in the previous semester).

2. Discuss the criteria on the feedback form so that the language becomes meaningful to everyone.

3. Show how you would apply the criteria by "thinking out loud" as you read the first paragraph of the paper.

4. Ask students to read the paper and complete a response form (alternatively, they can complete the form out of class).

5. Discuss the responses as a class. This step is critical for students to feel as if the process is worthwhile. Student responses such as "This is good" or "This is bad" are too general to be helpful and don't give a writer enough information on how or what to improve. Show students how to go beyond generalities by reinforcing appropriate and effective comments as students offer them in discussion. Encourage them to specify what needs improvement and what works well. Practice sessions are important for the success of peer review. They give you a chance to clarify the criteria and even aspects of the assignment if that proves necessary. Once your students become familiar with how to respond appropriately using peer feedback forms, they are ready to try it out on their own drafts.

GROUND RULES FOR SMALL GROUP WORKSHOPS

• Read a draft all the way through before you begin to comment on it.

• Give yourself enough time to read and respond.

• If something on the feedback form is unclear, ask the instructor.

• Point out the strengths of the draft.

• When discussing areas that need improvement, be nice. Offer appropriate, constructive comments from a reader's point of view.

• Make comments text-specific, referring specifically to the writer's draft (NO "rubber stamps" such as "awkward" or "unclear" or "vague," which are too general to be helpful).

• Don't overwhelm the writer with too much commentary. Stick to the major issues on the feedback form that are problematic.

• Make sure your suggestions are reasonable (i.e., don't suggest that they totally rewrite the paper because you didn't agree with the author's point of view or didn’t like the topic).

• If something appears too complicated to write in the commentary, just mention that you have something that you would like to talk to the writer about when you discuss the draft afterwards.

• Before giving your written comments to the author, reread your comments to make sure they are clear and make sense.