Standardized Writing

By Crispin Sartwell

Our household includes two high school juniors (step-siblings), so the addition of an essay to the SAT exam is the topic of many conversations.

It's a good idea. The idea that educational potential can be measured by sheer multiple choice is false and also offensive, so that the addition of human expression graded by human beings has got to be an improvement.

But the idea could also end up simply making even more pervasive the brain damage by bludgeon that is the teaching of writing in American middle and high schools.

Many school systems, believe it or not, are already experimenting with computer grading of essays. And even among those that aren't, the teaching of writing in high school is unbelievably rigid and formulaic, guided by arbitrary mechanical rules which seem dedicated only to making interesting or cogent writing impossible.

When I assign the first piece of writing to my introductory college classes, I usually say something like this: "There is no correct form or structure for an essay. There is no particular number of points you have to make or examples you have to use. For heaven's sake don't say what you're about to say, then say it, then say what you've said. The shape of your essay has to be determined by the subject matter and the argument, and by your personality and voice."

Though a look of liberation dawns on the faces a few students, most look at me like I'm from outer space. They have been taught to present exactly three arguments for anything, no more, no less. They have been taught to construct every essay by rote - introduction, body, conclusion - and to construct each paragraph in the essay in the same way.

Obviously, great essays have nothing to do with these ideas. A young Montaigne or Emerson would actually fail high school writing.

More to the point, this approach makes average writers insufferable: there is no voice or point of view, no flair or idiosyncrasy, no real independent thought, no boldness or courage or humor. There is only everyone, laboring in the factory of emptiness, creating millions of tons of recyclable pulp.

The SAT essays will be graded largely by committees of high school English teachers, which sounds disastrous. But on the other hand, a recent article in the Washington Post gives cause for hope.

The reporter Michael Dobbs got to sit in on some dry runs for grading the essay section of the SATs. Dobbs describes one example as follows: "To illustrate her theme, the drama student provides only one example -- her own acting experiences -- rather than the traditional three. She makes some grammatical errors but has an engaging voice and an argument that is sustained from beginning to end. After a lengthy discussion, the panel reaches agreement.

"We're going to give it a 6 [the highest possible score]," announces Daisy Vickers, director of design and development for Pearson Educational Measurement, which is devising the writing test on behalf of the College Board, which owns the SAT. "Is everybody okay with that?"

Well, thank God someone involved seems to have some sense.

The graders Dobbs observed were encouraged to evaluate quickly on a holistic impression of the essay, rather than a mechanical set of rubrics, partly because there will be hundreds of thousands of essays to grade and a fairly short time to do it.

But a quick impression is a far, far better way to grade an essay than a checklist for "thesis statement," "introduction, body, conclusion," "three examples" etc. Whether an argument is convincing, whether the student has really thought about the topic, whether there is any flair or originality: these are things for which there is no rubric, though they are usually immediately apparent.

If the evaluation can take place at a human level, in other words, the essay section could be the most valuable part of the SAT. But if it reverts to a rigid set of standards - and certainly there will be pressure in that direction from a variety of sources - it will simply compound the failure that is American writing instruction.

Crispin Sartwell teaches political science at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA.