<p>When I grade papers (as a graduate TA) I edit them for both content and style/grammar/spelling. The reason I do is because 1) teaching writing is not only the purview of English teachers; English professors cannot possibly teach the writing conventions of all fields and areas, so it’s our responsibility in other fields to foster writing across the curriculum if we don’t want our scholarly articles to look like crap in 10-15 years.</p>
<p>and</p>
<p>2) because spelling, grammar, and style are crucial elements to the understanding of a paper. You can be a brilliant scientist, but if you write like an idiot, no one will care, because they won’t understand your science. Writing is the primary way that we scientists communicate with each other.</p>
<p>One of my goals as an aspiring professor is to end up at a school that has a “writing across the curriculum” program and to (co-)teach a seminar on writing in the social sciences. But when I grade papers, I always take a really long time because I comment on both content and style as well as grammar and spelling. I mean, you can at least spell the authors of the papers you’re citing correctly, yes?</p>
<p>I stumbled upon a book entitled “I’m the Teacher, You’re the Student.” In it, Emory University history professor, Patrick Allitt, bemoans the lackluster writing ability of many of his students. He also admits to giving extensive feedback on papers, and he enjoys reading drafts: </p>
<p>To an extent. If there are any glaring errors (as there occasionally are for many of us), the professor will circle it/point it out and maybe deduct a point or two. For the most part, grammar isn’t a big part of the paper (maybe 1-2%), but it still counts.</p>
<p>I kind of wish my professors did edit for grammar, etc. My English professors definitely did, and oddly enough, my science professors have for term papers, etc., but my PoliSci and Philosophy professors don’t, which annoys me a bit. I feel like a very well-written paper should get a better score, and I like to know how my writing can improve. At the same time, I will admit that it irritates me a little bit when a poorly-written paper scores the same as a well-written paper with the same argument. Papers should be fluid and the argument should be clear, and I think that quality of writing plays a role in that.</p>
<p>That said - my school also places a fair amount of emphasis on writing ability, so perhaps I’m biased.</p>
<p>Professors should provide comments. If you’re in a sociology course with 50 students with one professor and no TAs, then you really can’t expect that much. If you’re in a course with ten or fifteen students, then I’d expect more thorough analysis of papers.</p>