<p>I think that outsourcing the grading of essays is better than not getting any detailed feedback. Throughout grade and high school, I was very disappointed with the lack of detailed commentary on D’s regular ed essays. Typical markups would be spelling errors and “Good Job” at the top. Senior year she took “college prep” English classes and finally got some detailed feedback. I’d be happier if the previous teachers had ‘outsourced’ more thorough grading of her essays. In the end, I felt that I had to do a lot of criticism so she’d learn. Not a great system, IMO, as there are many uneducated and non-native English speakers around here and they can’t be expected to provide guidance.</p>
<p>As for college, she’s gotten very detailed, thoughtful markups of her essays so far, by professors, at the Community College. Very pleased so far.</p>