StraighterLine English Composition II - Inconsistent Grading?

[Thorne]

I would talk to SL about it, though. I would cool off a bit, and present it as a consumer, and not an upset student, if the difference makes any sense. Enough people suggest that it's an issue, they may have to look at it, and hopefully say that a final cannot be less than the draft, assuming no changes were made that affect the draft version.

To be fair, I wrote this last night when I was overtired and had just received the seemingly-unfair grade. I'm not precisely happy about this, but am not nearly as frustrated as last night.

OP, I often wonder about the turnitin appeal process. What happens next? Did you just reword, or what?

I'll find out shortly. I'm trying to explain this to the grader so that he or she will give me a pass. After all, it is (1) only one portion of one sentence and (2) supposedly plagiarized from a paper that isn't available to the public. I'm (hopefully) going to succeed in making the case that it would have taken an enormous amount of effort for me to plagiarize one easily-rewritten statement. I'd just resubmit it with an altered statement, but that isn't an option yet.
If I do need to resubmit, I would presumably need to simply reword and resubmit the document.

[keynext]

So, I'm running through English Comp. II with SL right now and have noticed substantial inconsistent grading in assignments thus far.

First Essay - Cartoon Analysis:
In the draft, Language was given 5/5. In the final, Language was given 4/5. No changes were made regarding language choice (save one adjective) because I already had the 5/5 with no critiques, so how is it that my language became worse?

Second Essay - Classification Essay:
In the draft, Thesis, Support, Organization, Language, and Grammar all received 5/5. In the final, Thesis, Support, Organization, and Grammar were given 4/5.
Again, how did my 5/5 "superior" thesis become worse when I DIDN'T CHANGE IT. I was given an incredible score on my Draft (72/75) but my Final received a much, much worse score (63/75). Of course, upon the final being graded, I received new critiques that did not fit in whatsoever with the statements of the draft grader.

Does SL just want to screw students, or is this just a fluke resulting from different graders? I'm thinking about contacting a student advisor on the grounds that a thesis cannot possibly become worse if it was already 5/5 with the statement, "Great, relevant thesis statement!" attached. A regrade on that measure alone would bump my assignment grade from 84% to around 89%.

Has anyone else had an experience with this? What are your opinions?

I completed that course a couple of weeks ago. However, I never did the drafts since time is of the essence for me. I did notice some inconsistencies and also noticed that different people would grade the essays so I wasn't surprised that there were differences. On a positive note, the last three essays were graded by the same person which by the way, gave the best feedback/tips.
I know it's frustrating. Especially, because of the extensive quizzes and essays required by the Straighterline course. I tend to echo Collegelady2, "Does it really matter as long as you pass the course"?

Also, as I was writing this reply to your post, I just received an email that my transcript has "FINALLY" been sent to Excelsior. It took a couple of weeks!! I'm not feeling to much warmth for Straighterline at the moment either.

[cookderosa]

So, I'm running through English Comp. II with SL right now and have noticed substantial inconsistent grading in assignments thus far.

First Essay - Cartoon Analysis:
In the draft, Language was given 5/5. In the final, Language was given 4/5. No changes were made regarding language choice (save one adjective) because I already had the 5/5 with no critiques, so how is it that my language became worse?

Second Essay - Classification Essay:
In the draft, Thesis, Support, Organization, Language, and Grammar all received 5/5. In the final, Thesis, Support, Organization, and Grammar were given 4/5.
Again, how did my 5/5 "superior" thesis become worse when I DIDN'T CHANGE IT. I was given an incredible score on my Draft (72/75) but my Final received a much, much worse score (63/75). Of course, upon the final being graded, I received new critiques that did not fit in whatsoever with the statements of the draft grader.

Does SL just want to screw students, or is this just a fluke resulting from different graders? I'm thinking about contacting a student advisor on the grounds that a thesis cannot possibly become worse if it was already 5/5 with the statement, "Great, relevant thesis statement!" attached. A regrade on that measure alone would bump my assignment grade from 84% to around 89%.

Has anyone else had an experience with this? What are your opinions?

yes, same experience with both my sons. They finished SL English II last week. When you go in to your comments page and ruberic chart, you can see who your grader is - I believe their initials are listed and sometimes they signed their names. Its likely that you just have a different grader.

EDIT to add: I don't think the graders know when it's a draft vs final. I say that because in my son's feedback, they would frequently use phrases like "if this is a draft, be sure to...."

[cookderosa]

Also, just venting, not really complaining, but I had 2 sons do Eng 1 and 2 back to back. That's 8 papers (x2) and then 9 papers (x2). Only one of our computers as Word (mine) so they rotated out working on my computer to do those portions of their courses. OMG. Doing it over again, I'd have let my 12th grader test out of II using DSST and just had my 10th grader take I & II through dual enrollment. He took his dual enrollment placement test yesterday and did fantastic on English, we get those classes for free, and I think having 1 teacher for the sequence would have been helpful to him instead of the "churn it out" approach we had to use with SL.

[Ideas]

I feel like one of my Study.com papers was graded harshly. I understand that I did some things wrong, but I still feel the grade shouldn't have been that low. I still passed the course because of doing well on the other paper and quizzes, and pretty well on the final. So I got my ACE credit, but I am very curious if the paper would get a much different grade if I resubmitted it. I wonder if I could.

[l8989v]

When I was doing SL English Composition I, I had a much lower score on my final than my draft version. I complained and I got the score of my draft version as my final score.

[bjcheung77]

Most of the time I skip the drafts and go for the final copy. I really don't mind the grade as long as I get a pass in the course, most assignments for me or writing were graded at 90 or over. Even the ones where I didn't have enough words as per their requirements...

[lprstn]

We had this issue and requested for a re-grade. They granted it once.

[cookderosa]

Bringing this thread back to life reminded me to share my son's Eng II score. When he took/passed the class last summer, his final score was 80-something. I don't recall actually, but I know I gave him a B on his high school transcript. Anyway, he iis enrolled now finishing up business stats and his English class is showing 100%. Literally 100%. It doesn't matter- his ACE credit is pass/fail and he isn't going to COSC, so the grade doesn't matter, but some how some way they changed his grade and as far as I know, they never sent us an email or message about it. It happened while his account was off. <shrug>

[a2jc4life]

So basically, submitting the draft option is a pointless waste of time?