Via a link from Brooke, Chris Heard’s flow chart for grading (US)/marking (UK) papers. On this topic, I add that such a flow chart provides the criteria that a teacher can then make explicit when framing the assignment itself — so that students can know in advance that the teacher will be basing the grade on this or that characteristic.
From IHE, an article that proposes a system for using online interaction effectively to enhance the value of comments on student papers. I’m not convinced by the specifics of what they suggest, but the underlying principle of closing the feedback loop provides a flashing neon clue for all teachers. Right now, I’m in the midst of relocation chaos; there’s no guarantee that any resolution I make this morning will endure to the fall semester. But I hope I’ll remember to make sure to elicit specific feedback from students with regard to the comments I make on their papers. I’ll commend the University of Glasgow (my new employer), though, for producing student handbooks that spell out across-the-board criteria for assigned papers; grading criteria gain usefulness in proportion to the generality with which they’re applied (so that in an academic ecology in which every teacher deploys different criteria, or makes no criteria explicit, students will have a difficult time making sense even of explicit guidelines).