When the words lose their meaning.

I have just finished grading the last paper. Ahhhh! Such a relief! All that is left is to tally their scores and calculate their final grades.

I hate papers. I hate reading the same thing over and over and over and over...

I hate the fact that we've gone through so many drafts, and so many lectures about How to write... and What to include... and yet, so many of them still didn't get it. It makes me wonder... are they listening? And I find my comments getting less and less polite, and my grading getting more and more strict. And then I wonder some more... how consistent am I? Am I being fair? And how much am I factoring in my expectations to the grade? I do have a rubric, but I am finding that this is more of a pain in the ass then a help. It's easier to grade by instinct. Usually, just by reading the abstract, I know what grade I am giving, although that isn't always the truth. I just worry that when I was in a good mood yesterday I graded higher then when I was in a bad mood today.

But you know what? I don't worry enough to go back and check.

I'm just glad that I only had one plagiarizer to deal with. That one is getting an F and meeting the Dean for violating the Academic Integrity Code. Merry Christmas, and thank goodness I'm not teaching the make-up class next semester!