Sophia.org English Composition II -- Grader Experiences

[crotique]

When this thread started, I dropped the course before finishing the first milestone. Now I am considering another avenue instead of Sophia. Any suggestions?

Thank you!!!!

[rachel83az]

If you're already paying for Sophia, you might as well do English Comp II. Plenty of people have no issues.

But there are other options out there: StraighterLine, TESU's English Comp II TECEP, even a UExcel - but that one is expensive and not worth pursuing. If you have a CLEP center open near you, you might even consider taking the full English Comp CLEP test. It'd be free through ModernStates.

[ss20ts]

I feel like part of the problem many of us had was we took this course - or started the course - when Sophia was free. Sophia was struggling to keep up because there was such an influx of new students. It seems to have gotten better now that it has calmed down.

Taking English Composition I or II elsewhere is determined by where you plan on pursuing your degree really. Not every school will take these courses from all providers. Other providers may not be as easy or have as few assignments either.

[wow]

Just as a general comment on Sophia paper grading, or any grading of papers when you can't have any personal interaction with the grader:

I have been a professional writer for nearly three decades. I am also an editor. I've worked with several different stylebooks, including APA. People pay me to do it and I have never had a customer dissatisfied with how I applied the rules of grammar and style. I have tutored students on writing their own papers, and the kids I've worked with have gotten better grades as a result. I've graded papers to rubrics, so I'd like to think I know a thing or two about writing to the rubric. I say this not to toot my own horn, but to give you some context for what's coming next.

I simply cannot seem to get an A on a Sophia paper. Today I got back my paper for business law with a lower grade than I'd expected—even though I should know by now not to expect much. I didn't get a grade report back that referenced the rubric, so I have to guess why my grade is the way it is based on comments. I seem to have gotten dinged for things like "You can't start a sentence with 'But'", "A paragraph must have more than two sentences," "you should define these terms" when the definitions appeared right after the grader's comment, and "Where is this reference from?" attached to an inline citation, when the complete APA 7-compliant citation for the item was in the reference list at the end of the paper. The arbitrary grammar/style rules are things you can avoid if you are familiar with a grader's preferences, but you can't if you don't know who they are.

So my advice: If you get a C or above, don't sweat it. Look over the comments to see if there might be something useful. Some of the graders know what they're doing, and when that's the case, it's an opportunity for learning. But some of the graders don't know what they're doing, or they understand the subject matter but not composition rules, or vice versa. That's to be expected. I'm guessing Sophia doesn't pay much for the services, so highly qualified people aren't going to be grading your paper in most cases.

Your grades on Sophia papers are not a verdict on your abilities as a student. Sure, it sucks if you want to get straight As or Bs. If the grade itself is super-important to you, you may want to consider taking a course at a CC instead, where you can get to know the whims of your prof before submitting papers.

(I know this doesn't address the issue of graders who put you at risk of failing the course. Look to Ashkir's tips above to help you with that.)

[ss20ts]

I dropped it today. My rough draft was graded by the dreadful CW over the weekend and I would need a perfect score on the final paper to pass the course which I know isn't possible. Nothing was graded according to the rubric. I specifically asked questions about the APA formatting in the reflection questions because it asks you to write about any concerns you have. My questions were completely ignored and I lost a bunch of points over formatting without any explanation. I'll just take the course at UMPI and know I'll get a decent grade and pass the course. It's very frustrating because I know how to write an APA paper and have received excellent grades on dozens of papers this year from 2 universities yet I can't pass a basic English course on Sophia. None of this makes any sense.

[ctcarl]

I dropped it today. My rough draft was graded by the dreadful CW over the weekend and I would need a perfect score on the final paper to pass the course which I know isn't possible. Nothing was graded according to the rubric. I specifically asked questions about the APA formatting in the reflection questions because it asks you to write about any concerns you have. My questions were completely ignored and I lost a bunch of points over formatting without any explanation. I'll just take the course at UMPI and know I'll get a decent grade and pass the course. It's very frustrating because I know how to write an APA paper and have received excellent grades on dozens of papers this year from 2 universities yet I can't pass a basic English course on Sophia. None of this makes any sense.

You might want to considering forging ahead.  If you come up short, keep in mind that Sophia has been known to "reset" a score on request, to give a student another bite of the apple.

[ss20ts]

I dropped it today. My rough draft was graded by the dreadful CW over the weekend and I would need a perfect score on the final paper to pass the course which I know isn't possible. Nothing was graded according to the rubric. I specifically asked questions about the APA formatting in the reflection questions because it asks you to write about any concerns you have. My questions were completely ignored and I lost a bunch of points over formatting without any explanation. I'll just take the course at UMPI and know I'll get a decent grade and pass the course. It's very frustrating because I know how to write an APA paper and have received excellent grades on dozens of papers this year from 2 universities yet I can't pass a basic English course on Sophia. None of this makes any sense.

You might want to considering forging ahead.  If you come up short, keep in mind that Sophia has been known to "reset" a score on request, to give a student another bite of the apple.

Already dropped it. I had contacted Sophia a few times about the course and it's issues. Zero response.

[SweetsugarNL]

Im scared to take this course.

[openair]

Im scared to take this course.

There's no need to be scared. Of course, it all comes down to the person that is going to mark your work. One of my Eng. Comp II essays had to be redone due to one unnecessarily harsh critic. It wasn't a big deal, although it felt like a setback at the time. I was able to pass this particular course with very high marks. Give it a try.

[ctcarl]

I'll just add that Sophia has also been known to restart a dropped course on request.

I'm not sure why, but their poor responsiveness to email seems to be an issue.  While I haven't experienced it, there is also ample evidence that they have problems with grading for this course.

However,  I would like to share that I have found them to be very helpful over live chat and voice phone.

Should you reconsider finishing the course, you can likely have it reopened and a Challenge, Milestone or Touchstone reset as needed to give you an opportunity for a passing grade.