![Sample our Tourism, Hospitality and Events journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5950/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Tourism-Hospitality-Events.jpg"})
Abstract
Several researchers have noted the variability among teachers in the grading of essays. Previous research has not attempted, however, to compare separate institutional settings. Because the regular English composition course at public two‐year colleges is transferable to four‐year public colleges, a comparison of the grading predilections of English faculty from both settings was undertaken. Each instructor was asked to mark and grade a set of five themes (the instrument). Means and standard deviations were determined, and ANOVA indicated the grading differences between the two settings were significant at the .05 level on all five themes and the grand total means. Though relatively consistent among themselves, community college instructors (N=19) were more than a letter grade more lenient than university instructors (N = 17) when all grades from each setting, referred to as the grand total mean, were averaged. University graders were most consistent on what they considered the two worst themes, whereas community college graders were most consistent on what they considered the two best themes. An expanded dialogue on grading criteria is recommended.
