English is really subjective, and even if they do have a uniform rubric, they can argue whatever grade they give you. There’s just not many regulations on what grade they can give you on essays, etc…I doubt they even read the whole thing.
Since I’m a secondary education major with a concentration in English, I can agree that most English classes are subjective. A lot of the time, I ask myself if I’m truly writing what I want to write or if I’m just writing what my professor wants. What I might think is a good essay my professor might think is a terrible essay.
Luckily, I haven’t had any experiences where professors have just “given” me a grade. Most grades I have gotten on essays in college have been fair/easily explainable. High school was a different story. I would ask my high school teachers why I got the grade I got, and they would often have a poor explanation or no explanation at all.
There are some parts of English that are subjective, but a lot of it does have standards. There’s definitely a difference between good writing and poor writing, and between understanding the themes in a piece of literature and not. Subjectivity doesn’t mean that professors just “give” you whatever grade they want, though. And yes, they do read the whole thing! They may read it faster than they would like because they have many other essays to read.
I think sometimes the subjective parts are inconsistently implemented from one class to another. One of the best ways to understand what a prof is looking for is to read some papers that the professor actually gave an “A” to.
If you are getting poor grades on all your papers in all your classes, though, that should be telling you there is some skillset you are missing. Most campuses have a writing center which can help you revise and improve your papers.
Writing requires skill, and not just rules, although knowing rules helps. Especially the rules of rhetoric and moving hearts and minds.
The more you practice writing and the more you read, the more you will notice what’s skilled and what isn’t.
It’s not just subjective.
Subject matter is subjective, but a skilled writer can take a subject like tires or oranges and make that topic, which is boring on the surface, interesting to most. That writer would be John McPhee.
Or something like the death of a pig. Less skilled writers would turn that into a yawner, but in the hands of EB White, most people find it moving. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1948/01/death-pig/309203/
This is skill at work. Rhetorical tools.
Craft.
Or how about the college entrance essay?
Here’s one that’s famous for masterful craft.
Grading is subjective most of the time. Ideally, the “subject” is an expert in the field and you benefit from hearing their criticism of your work.
For example, in math you will be graded on whether the professor thinks you showed enough work and possibly on the simplicity/elegance of your solution. Here ([link](http://matheducators.stackexchange.com/questions/1860/how-to-justify-teaching-students-to-rationalize-denominators)) is a question on the Math Educators Stack Exchange site where they’re discussing whether it’s important for students to “rationalize the denominator” in final answers. These types of questions come up often whenever you’re doing something more complicated than basic arithmetic.