short takes

[cellio]

Funny: Only in... $location.

Overheard in the office: "Should that be on fire?"

From the whiners-with-too-much-time-on-their-hands department, a new education fad: some parents (and students) object to grading in red ink. Red is "stressful", some say, and teachers should be using more "positive" colors like blue. Sheesh. Some people will read negativity into anything. It's just a color, people! And for the record, I much prefer mark-up in red as opposed to blue or the fluffy alternatives like turquoise (which is too light to be able to see easily). Red has the best contrast with the black ink on the white page; if you want me to see your little squiggle, don't use lime green!

Comments

[anniemal.livejournal.com]

My teachers graded in whatever colour they felt like. I didn't care as long as I could spot their comments as different from my paper. I was more interested in/worried about what they had to say.

My 10th grade English teacher made me stop using a pencil for a pen because my writing isn't terribly legible, and it bothered his eyes. We compromised on a cartridge fountain pen. I still don't like ball points, though I'm not as fussy now as then. There's a certain feel to writing with something that transmits a sense of the paper... I dunno. Bic stic and its ilk have never had it far as I know. Hand me a bottle of Higgins and a Speedball.

[cellio]

Yes. When did the content become secondary to the mechanics?

I want to be able to see the markup. If it's a scrawled comment just about anything works; if it's, say, a circle around an incorrect piece of punctuation, and it's black or maybe even blue, I can easily miss it. That doesn't happen with red.

My 10th grade English teacher made me stop using a pencil for a pen because my writing isn't terribly legible, and it bothered his eyes.

Pencils also smear, especially in blue books (facing pages, cheap paper). I had some trouble with that when I was a grader in college. (This is, obviously, for in-class exams -- otherwise the stuff came off a printer.)