StraighterLine English Composition II - Inconsistent Grading?

[Thorne]

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?

[Collegelady2]

Does it really matter as long as you pass the course?

[Gymfan15]

I think it has more to do with different graders and that writing is going to be objective no matter what the rubric is. You should view the practice and final grade as merely assists, not a cumulative thing. I always used the draft as a way to get a rough idea of how it would score and then would adjust for the final. If there are differences, it did not make a huge impact on my grade (and as long as you get that 70% you're fine).

[Ideas]

Perhaps they expect less for a draft? I believe that happened to me with B&M classes.

Also inconsistency because of different graders, as you said.

[Thorne]

Perhaps they expect less for a draft? I believe that happened to me with B&M classes.

Also inconsistency because of different graders, as you said.

I took Comp I through my local community college. Draft grading was a little different from final grading, but the instructor was consistent. If your thesis received 5/5 in the draft, it would receive 5/5 in the final, and she would put a maximum of 4/5 on items which she felt needed any improvement whatsoever.

In other news, my essay was just flagged as being plagiarized because I said something in a similar way to some random guy in the University of Queensland whose paper I don't have any access to banghead

[Ideas]

In other news, my essay was just flagged as being plagiarized because I said something in a similar way to some random guy in the University of Queensland whose paper I don't have any access to

Did you run your paper through TurnItIn? Did he just make this change since you submitted your paper? I guess they will let you make a change and resubmit.

That's too bad on the grading then. I guess drafts and final papers are not graded by the same person, and they should be.

I felt that whoever graded one of my Study.com papers was pretty strict.

[22gunsonfire]

StraighterLine COMP graders are always different. I have suffered the same inconsistencies when submitting my assignments for COMP I that Im losing the motivation to continue the course. Not that it isn't structured well, but when you make the improvements suggested and then wind up with a lesser evaluation the feeling is, "Why am I wasting my time trying when its obvious that someone else's opinion is as random as winning the lottery."

[SuZQ2]

Yup, your problem is consistent with SL's Comp I & II's big failing - the draft grader is never the final grader, and neither is in communication with the other...

I took both these courses in 2012-13 and at the time was forewarned by others here on IC to be aware of SL's "circle of doom" whereby, you submit your essay, draft grader suggests revisions, you implement said revisions, then (different) final grader essentially says all your revisions were incorrect - YIKES!!

I ran into this scenario one time - Comp II's Research Proposal Letter. I was told by the draft grader that while the quality of my writing was excellent, the assignment did not correctly follow the instruction prompts. I had already passed the course, but being an obsessive perfectionist, spent the next 3 days reworking the assignment to the drafter grader's specifications.

I essentially turned a cogent piece of writing into a great big mess. After more agonizing, I decided to submit my original assignment as is. Different grader/different results - the final grader gave me 100% with a note indicating that I had submitted a great essay as I perfectly followed the assignment prompts - Go figure!

I learned a lot from the SL Comp courses, but can't believe they don't see this one big flaw in their set up...

Good Luck! eeya:

[Old Guy]

Seriously people - in my life I've probably taken 100 courses and have yet to detect a whit of consistency in anything. If your dreams are getting into Harvard Law, you're in the wrong program. For ACE purposes Straighterline has 2 grades, Pass and Fail.

[High_Order1]

Old guy kinda has it.

For me, I wanted to knock the roofs off of every grade; you know - treat it like school. You kinda have to be a little mercenary about this path to a degree.

Far as the grading issues, I took I at SL, and II at E4C. I will probably take 103 at Davar. I didn't run into it at E4C - one person graded everything. I didn't really run into it at SL, either, to the best of my recollection.

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.

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