Redder is not better

On a recent episode of Crocodile Hunter, the guy who wrestles crocodiles and anacondas gave some practical advice: "Crikey! Beware of young snakes -- they don't have very good control of their venom, so if they bite you they're likely to give you too much of it and kill you, unlike the older snakes that know what they're doing."

That's sound advice -- especially since it applies to college as well as to the jungle. I'm talking, of course, about the unacceptable inconsistency between how TAs and professors approach grading, which demands caution on our part.

Think of it this way. Your paper is the innocent trekker making his or her way through the jungles of academic prose. The little red marks and comments are the venom that kill it. Following the Crocodile Hunter's advice, where is it likely to have a better chance of survival: in the hands of a TA or a professor?

Naturally, we've all had that experience where we hand in a paper to our TA, only to get it back drowned in a sea of red ink, screaming with pain and begging for a tourniquet. You know what this looks like.

Every time you use the word "therefore," it is circled along with the comment, "you need to give reasons for this," as if every premise leading up to the "therefore" did not, in fact, exist.

Every time you use a word or phrase that can be found in the dictionary, it is circled, along with the comment, "you need to explain what this means," despite the fact that there's a three-page paper limit.

Every time you use a pronoun that is plainly understood in context, it is circled along with the usual, "who?" or "what?" or "be specific" comment.

In short, the slings and arrows never stop, and at the end they're merely aggregated into some brief statement, such as "You need to develop your ideas more: C+/B-," as if that justifies the grade. And you don't even know what "C+/B" means: is it a C+ or a B-?

Contrast that with the way a professor is likely to approach your paper. There are exceptions, but professors tend to take a more holistic approach to evaluating papers than TAs do. Rather than actively seeking out and criticizing every possible weakness in your paper, they look at the big picture, weighing the good and the bad.

Instead of seeing your paper littered with insignificant comments about the word "therefore" or the pronoun "it," you get feedback on stuff that actually matters. A professor may analyze the overall vigor of your argument, along with any major omissions that you might have made, or give suggestions on how to improve a specific argument. The difference is clear; the paper is not drowned in venom, only the just right amount of venom is used.

Hence, professors are more likely to think, "your paper did this well and that well, but it was lacking in this and that respect, so your overall grade is this," whereas TAs will often take a different approach, "your paper did this wrong and that wrong and that wrong, so your grade is this." Consequently, your paper is more likely to survive ? that is, to get a fair reading ? in the hands of a professor rather than a TA.

The inconsistency becomes even worse when you consider the differences of opinion that may exist between professors and TAs on the subject matter being taught. For example, last semester, when writing a paper on Kant, I went to my professor's office hours to discuss my ideas for critiquing Kant's arguments. I got some constructive feedback, which I incorporated into my paper. But my TA disagreed with the entire critique, so even though the professor thought I had a point, it didn't matter. Clearly, then, for grading purposes, it matters just as much who you give your paper to as it does how well you write the paper.

So shop around. If you have to take a large lecture course with a TA, don't just settle for the one whose recitation time best fits your schedule. Get a feel for every TA you can and pick the one who you think will be the most reasonable. And don't be afraid to drop the course if you don't think your paper was graded fairly: more often than not, you'll get the same comments and the same grade from a TA on other papers as the semester progresses. Similarly, if you find a good TA, try to stick with him or her now and for future classes.

Whether you're wrestling anacondas or sitting in your dorm writing a paper, heed the wisdom of the Crocodile Hunter's words.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.