Thursday, October 29, 2009
Guest Blogger - Sophie H.
As I am sitting here wondering what to write about, all that comes to mind is the massive amounts of papers we have been grading in class. At the time it was a huge pain but after the fact, I think it helped everyone see what the people who grade AP essays are actually looking for. When we wrote our first essay about the hero’s journey and Beowulf, I honestly had no idea what Ms. Arko was looking for. Automatically I thought okay just make it long and you will get a good grade. Wrong. To my and many others surprise, in AP essays length has nothing to do with it. Content and organization are much more important. So now that we are grading papers, I can finally see why. The first shocking thing was that the graders award you for what you do well. Many of the papers we graded were not that well written, but had outstanding organization so they got a better score. The graders are not the harsh, mean spirited people they are believed to be. Another thing I realized is how easy it is to misunderstand the prompt. In class, when Ms. Arko asked us how many parts there were to a certain prompt, everyone got it completely wrong. You have to completely dissect the question that is asked. If you don’t do this and don’t answer the prompt completely, you are on the fast track to getting no higher than a three on your essay. Another shocker for me was how fast forty minutes really goes by. On Monday when we wrote the in class essay, we got extra time and I still barely finished my essay. Considering the time you get it surprises me how it is even possible to write a perfect essay and get a nine. How can you do that when most of our class barely finished? The final thing I think is interesting is how off the class was when we compared how we each scored the packet of essays. I know we aren’t English teachers, but could that much variation go into scoring based on which AP grader you get to score your essay? I sure hope not. So overall, I have realized that an AP writing test is way harder then it seems.
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I was also surprised by how high some of the scores actually were. I gave many of the papers low scores because they did not flow well, or they weren't organized in the best way. However, some of those papers actually got high scores because they had really good content and they completely answered the prompt. I realize that transitions and organization are still very important, but when time is short, the content of the essay should be our main concern.
ReplyDeletei was surprised by how when there was text to use for support, the people that jsut filled their paper with quotes and didnt connect them in any way didnt get a good score. but if the paper made sense, had a good concept, and was well organized it more than likely got a good score even if it wasnt overflowed with quotes.
ReplyDeleteI use to think the same thing! I thought, "Alright, i'll use more quotes, and it will look longer and way more impressive." WRONG. After going through some of the AP essays, I found some of the shortest ones were the best. This makes sense however because by condensing the material, the focal point can be easier to point out, making it seem much more organized. Reading through those and then my own really opened my eyes, and has helped me to cut out "excess" from my papers.
ReplyDeleteI had the same exact problem. I would sit down and freek out that we only had 40 minutes(or less) to complete this perfect essay that people we don't even grade it. I thought the longer the essay the better so i would repeat myself and write usless things down just so it would look good. But in reality they are looking to see if you can connect to the prompt rather than just summerizing the prompt or story. I have deffinatly learned the hard way and gotten 3's and 4's on essays instead of 7..8..9 but now i know!:)
ReplyDeleteI also think that grading those essays really helped me write my essays for class a lot better. Those essays showed that length doesn't matter, it's all about how you put it together. I think I learned more about essays than I ever have while we spent hours reading and grading those papers.
ReplyDeleteWriting anything takes practice especially if you are trying to write something that you want perfect. For instance, you need to know what the question or prompt is exactly asking and like you said its hard to get all of the compondents of the prompt so with practice we will get better at picking out the compondents of the prompt. It goes hand in hand with writing your essay.
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