ii. Assessing a report

Criteria

Teachers and reviewers often have to grade reports, which is commonly done rather subjectively. Also, if the assessment is non-numerical (eg in terms of Greek letters), more arbitrariness is involved in adding it to other marks, to achieve an overall grade. Better is a numerical assessment based on explicit criteria, such as the following ABCDE aspects -

• ACCURACY - the truth of the content and facts of the presentation,
• BREADTH - the adequacy of covering the topic,
• CLARITY - fluency within a lucid structure,
• DEPTH - the extent to which matters are explained rather than simply mentioned, and
• ENTERPRISE - the element of creative thought.

Equal weight might be given to each aspect. Thus, a total mark out of 20, say, would include a mark out of 4 for accuracy, and so on. A mark of 2 out of 4 would be satisfactory, 3 would be good, 4 perfect. Such marks show the writer where in particular some improvement is needed.

Completeness

Examination questions that ask students to 'Discuss X' should contain the following at least -

• a definition of X;
• an outline of the main features of X, e.g. place, time, magnitude;
• consequences of X;
• aspects of X that are unclear or unknown, and how these problems might be tackled;
• an assessment of the importance of X.

Questions which ask for a 'comparison of A and B' should be answered with the following at least -

• brief definitions of each;
• typical and extreme values of each, and their location and times;
• differences between these places and times for A and for B respectively;
• perhaps a little graph of values of A against those of B at the same times and places;
• a statement of how B varies when A changes.

References

• Brindley, W.A. (1978) Objective grading of essay examinations. Educational Technology, Oct. '78, 27-29.
• Gardner, F.P. and G. Abraham (1978) A grading procedure for student writing. Teaching Sociology, 6, 31-35.