Grading Writing: A Poetic (Auto) Ethnography

Abstract

Grading has long been the source of negative emotions in Writing Studies for teachers and students alike; these negative emotions and experiences especially affect women-identifying professors and professors of color. This poetic research study presents the found poems of writing instructors in one predominantly White Midwest US university English department; poems came from restories from participants’ interviews about how they developed as assessors of writing. The aim is to foreground lived experiences of college professors who teach undergraduate writing for a living as the field continues to explore ethical and humane ways of assessment for all involved.