As I brought it up in class, my advertising boss told me to give up my baby (any piece I wrote) the second I gave it to him for review. Even though I was supposed to churn out misogynistic adverts on motorcycles, each rejection hurt me on some level because for me, it was a rejection of my creativity.
And we discussed in class that perhaps the students are not that invested in the essays they turn in but they do have some form of attachment as it does bring them a grade. I have had so many students come to office hours and complain at how they were AP students and this grade ‘offends’ them. A lot of my students who received bad grades have had similar reactions. This gives me the impression that writing, in any form does come attached with a little bit of the self that wrote it.
“How can we grade writing in which the writers have laid their lives on the line?”
Then, thinking about this and the process of grading, I feel that the minute you show your writing to anyone, you are opening yourself up to judgement and criticism. You are willingly turning over your baby over for review. Even a Facebook post is open to judgement, comment, and criticism. Our students have no choice in this matter, BUT they are writing something specific that they know is going to be judged and criticized.
Maybe I’m talking in circles but mulling over all this has made me realize that the process of grading somehow does not feel as intrusive as it did earlier.