Having spelling/grammar on my rubric doesn’t feel inclusive

[foralurker]

I was assigned to teach an online class that was developed by a tenured faculty, then taught by a rotating mass of adjuncts, and has now landed in my lap. It's a fine course, and I am teaching it as-is until someone tells me it's part of my regular rotation (at which point I'd probably try to make it my own).

This is a master's course and we have a lot of international students and first generation in-service teachers from rural areas. The section of our rubric on spelling and grammar rubs me the wrong way. It doesn't feel inclusive.

No spelling errors. Punctuation and grammar are appropriate to the audience and genre and in fact enhance the style. They conform to the conventions for edited American English, or, if they do not, the reason is rhetorical and stylistic. Errors may occur but are few and do not markedly distract the reader. Usage is in accordance with edited American English and sounds appropriate for the audience. There is no inappropriate use of slang or jargon. Words and expressions seem carefully selected for the genre and audience.

This is worth 5 points out of 100. I feel like a jerk docking points from someone who, much like myself, came from a rural, under-funded high school and had to work extra hard to not sound like an idiot. To this day, I know I don't write well. If your second or third language is English, why knock points off? Hell, I never learned Spanish or German or French. Hats off to these people for doing an advanced degree in another language.

Am I being unreasonable in feeling this way? Docking two or three points for spelling, grammar, or punctuation does not feel inclusive, welcoming, nurturing, or a good way to build someone's confidence in our subject matter.

My own rubrics usually contained a few spare points for "prepared with care and attention to detail." I also explain in the first week of class that we are not concerned with perfect grammar and punctuation, but rather the synthesis of ideas. I separate the two as "copy editing" issues that are corrected before something goes to print. If they want to expand a paper into a manuscript after the course has ended, copy editing should be a part of that process.

I'd love to hear some thoughts on this.

[Kron3007]

I always include a section for this.  You are correct that some students are at a disadvantage, but it really does impact the quality of the final product and is an important skill they should be evaluated on.

This is also true during oral presentations, where some people are at a disadvantage for many different reasons but need to be graded on their delivery. 

I do take their background into consideration when grading.  There is no way for it to be 100% fair/even, but I feel eliminating these categories entirely is not the answer.   

[Parasaurolophus]

I used to mark it, but my classes are 90%+ international students, and TBH there's a significant subset not really capable of reading and writing adequately in English--like, it's about what I'd expect on average from a 7th-9th grader. Noting their mistakes would take hours per paper. So I ditched it. (Unlike my colleagues, however, I haven't ditched my content for two-page summaries or excerpts and the like. That's a bridge too far for me. I'd rather lower my expectations for assessments than content.)

I don't teach composition or anything, so it didn't serve any real purpose and just wasted my time figuring out how to apply it consistently. Now, when the quality of writing is a barrier to my comprehension, I note that. It's a relatively easy/lazy set of fixes for those who want to rewrite their papers without rethinking their arguments.

[Puget]

To me it depends on the learning objectives of the course and assignment. If they are supposed to be learning professional writing in the field, then they need to learn to produce error-free writing. Point international students and others needing help with this to resources like your writing center. Spell and grammar check will take care of a lot of it it anyway.

[Hegemony]

Foralurker, your English is perfectly fine in this informal post, and would have no points taken off under your rubric. So i don't think your point, that your own English is faulty, is really true.

It's true that some people are under a disadvantage because they've had a poor education. But when we read an article in a newspaper or professional journal, we don't say, "I can't understand what this person is getting at, but it's okay because they may have had a poor education." Writing needs to be clear and well put together to be understood — competent prose is not a luxury.

That's not even to mention the fact that people with poor mechanics will not be hired. I remember a journalism student I had once, who turned in a paper rife with errors. I said, "In journalism you'll need to learn how to produce a clean copy." She said, "Oh, I don't need to do that, the editor fixes it all for you." Hahahaha! Pardon me while I laugh myself silly. What a hiring manager looks for is someone who doesn't need hand-holding to get their job done. Between two applicants, one who can write clean copy and one who produces error-filled copy, which is going to get the job?

So if you hold the students to professional standards, you will be doing them a favor. If they really don't know the basics, send them to the writing center and other resources.

[marshwiggle]

It's true that some people are under a disadvantage because they've had a poor education. But when we read an article in a newspaper or professional journal, we don't say, "I can't understand what this person is getting at, but it's okay because they may have had a poor education." Writing needs to be clear and well put together to be understood — competent prose is not a luxury.

As the former director of our writing centre, (for whom English was not her first language), said, "Errors in your writing suggest that there are errors in your thinking". Consider how you react when you get a flyer or email about some "important" thing with spelling and/or grammar errors in it; you immediately start to dismiss it as less important.

Communication matters to its audience, so it needs to matter to its creator(s).

[Langue_doc]

This is a master's course and we have a lot of international students and first generation in-service teachers from rural areas. The section of our rubric on spelling and grammar rubs me the wrong way. It doesn't feel inclusive.

There is nothing inclusive about setting up the students for failure by ignoring spelling and grammar errors that can easily be corrected by spelling/grammar checkers. I teach freshman comp, and most institutions in our state require student writing to adhere to standard conventions of grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Why would you make excuses for your students to continue writing sub-standard English just because they are "first generation" from "rural areas" or international students? International students, in my experience, want to learn to write standard English. There are several style manuals that your students might find helpful.

I find it appalling that in-service teachers are excused from adhering to grammar and spelling conventions. How would they help their students if they themselves cannot write standard English?

In our city, even community colleges expect students to learn how to write effectively which is an asset when it comes to employment. No employer would overlook poorly written job application cover letters.

[Caracal]

I used to mark it, but my classes are 90%+ international students, and TBH there's a significant subset not really capable of reading and writing adequately in English--like, it's about what I'd expect on average from a 7th-9th grader. Noting their mistakes would take hours per paper. So I ditched it. (Unlike my colleagues, however, I haven't ditched my content for two-page summaries or excerpts and the like. That's a bridge too far for me. I'd rather lower my expectations for assessments than content.)

I don't teach composition or anything, so it didn't serve any real purpose and just wasted my time figuring out how to apply it consistently. Now, when the quality of writing is a barrier to my comprehension, I note that. It's a relatively easy/lazy set of fixes for those who want to rewrite their papers without rethinking their arguments.

This is more or less how I approach this. The question should really be-what sort of thing are you asking the student to produce for the assignment and what is the purpose. I'm in the humanities, but in my intro and gen ed courses the writing assignments I give the students are not essays-they are highly structured assignments designed to introduce them to particular kinds of thinking and analysis. The reason I don't assign essays for these courses is because it isn't reasonable for me to assume the students have the technical or theoretical skills required and the courses aren't designed in a way that would allow me to teach them these things.  I don't worry about grammar or usage or any of the rest as long as it isn't a barrier to basic comprehension.

In an upper level class, I assign essays because producing writing on the subjects you are studying is a key skill for the discipline. I care more about content than grammar, and I don't go around looking for comma errors, but if the paper is sloppy it does interfere with meaning and I will take off some points.

[ciao_yall]

5 points out of 100 is not bad. It's enough to make the student sit up, pay attention, and get to the writing center. It is not going to crush their souls or wreck their progress towards graduation.

We aren't doing students any favors by allowing mistakes that would not be permitted in the "real world."

It's not inclusive to not give a student the chance to improve upon their poor high schools, people's ethnic/national prejudices by producing poor writing.

As I told my students "If you are going on a date, would you show up with messy hair and stinky socks? No? Well, that's what poor writing looks like."

[foralurker]

Thanks, everyone, for taking the time to share your thoughts on my post. I'm starting to see that — while no one here said it outright— I'm probably projecting my own insecurities onto my students by feeling guilty for docking two or three points on what was otherwise a good paper.

I do take their background into consideration when grading.  There is no way for it to be 100% fair/even, but I feel eliminating these categories entirely is not the answer.   

This is how I felt too. I'm starting to think I need to take a little from this rubric and a little from my own rubric. I have a couple of semesters to think this one over.

This is a master's course and we have a lot of international students and first generation in-service teachers from rural areas. The section of our rubric on spelling and grammar rubs me the wrong way. It doesn't feel inclusive.

I find it appalling that in-service teachers are excused from adhering to grammar and spelling conventions. How would they help their students if they themselves cannot write standard English?

Yeah, these are not your typical in-service teachers. We have an alternative licensure program in Texas and our state school gets a ton of these students in our MEd program. These are people holding a four year degree who (for any number of reasons) couldn't find gainful employment in their profession and went through some courses later in life to get a Texas teaching license. I was sharing my frustrations on the performance of this specific group of students and had a retired k12 teacher from the east coast tell me that a general rule of thumb in their district was any resources developed in a Texas ISD were not utilized because the quality was consistently low. 

I'm not from Texas and will be the first to say I'm not familiar with the rigor of the alternative licensure program. So, apologies in advance if I've offended anyone here.

Foralurker, your English is perfectly fine in this informal post, and would have no points taken off under your rubric. So i don't think your point, that your own English is faulty, is really true.

Thanks, Hegemony. :-)

[Istiblennius]

I use a grading contract; even though spelling grammar is a small part of the rubric, students also have the chance to revise. I try to make it about continuous improvement and learning.

[AvidReader]

You don't note the field of your MA, but writing skills matter in many professional fields, for everything from cover letters to museum labels to grant applications to instruction manuals to descriptions of work completed to fulfill a contract. When I have taught students who struggle with mechanics, I always point them to the Writing Lab, but I also recommend that they think about and test strategies they can use in the real world. Maybe that means (or will mean) hiring an editor to review formal writing once the Writing Lab isn't available. Maybe that means trading work with a native speaker or grammarian. If your students will be judged on their prose in the real world, this is the best possible time for them to figure out what will help them present themselves professionally.

AR.

[Langue_doc]

We aren't doing our students any favor by ignoring writing that comes across as sloppy or uneducated. On the first day of class, I show the students how to download Grammarly, which corrects spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors, on their computers. I also help students improve their writing by flagging errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Students who need remediation are sent to the Writing Center with directions on what areas they should be working on (organization, paragraph structure, sentence structure, and so on). They can then revise these assignments for a higher grade. Rather than being inclusive by not teaching our students professional writing, we are being elitist when we decide that our students are incapable of improving their writing skills.

[Cheerful]

came from a rural, under-funded high school and had to work extra hard to not sound like an idiot. To this day, I know I don't write well.

Your writing looks good to me.  Would you have wanted your teachers and professors to have low expectations and set lower standards for you?  Many find it insulting when educators have low expectations and standards for certain groups.

Inclusive might be thought of as viewing everyone in a school or program as worthy of being held to high standards of performance so that they can succeed in the real world.

Five points out of 100 is not much.  Seems generous.

[Wahoo Redux]

Life is unfair.

But it will not get fairer if people do not learn to write to professional standards.  Some of your students may want to get business degrees or go to law school or whatever----you do them no favors if you don't force them to advance their writing skills.  They will need to write cover letters, resumes, and introductory emails.  Not fair, but they will.

To offset the disadvantages, offer rewrites, send them to the writing center, set up tutorials as time allows, but don't give them a pass.  You might actually be stopping them from advancing.

Or you could just send them over to ChatGPT and hasten the fall of humaity.

Good luck.