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Personal Reflection/Anecdote

Reflecting on the “Rub”—An

Essay Content Scorer’s Dilemma

By Linda Mauser

A retired English teacher, I have served for several years as a volunteer scorer for
a statewide timed-writing competition for high school students. It is one of those
events where students first participate at a district level and then, if chosen, move
on to regional and state levels. The writing task is always an argumentative essay,
and the topic is usually one that is both controversial and relevant to high school
students, often something garnering current media attention—dress codes, social
media, video games, graduation requirements, and so forth. The prompts provide
basic background information on the issue as well as an overview of oft-cited pros
and cons for the writers to draw upon. They do not know what the prompt will
be prior to entering the competition room. As a scorer, I know nothing about the
identities of the writers other than they are students at high schools located within
a district or region. The papers are identified by assigned numbers and disqualified
if the writer reveals any identifying information, such as the name of his or her
school. Participating schools may be large or small, public or private, urban or
suburban. Scorers don’t know the writer’s exact age, year in school, or gender
(although these details can sometimes be surmised).
We scorers are provided a rubric
defining points to be awarded. We’re
also cautioned against letting our
personal biases and opinions regarding
either writing conventions or the
student’s viewpoint influence our
scoring, an instruction with which I
wholeheartedly concur and make a
concerted effort to comply. But that
doesn’t mean that we don’t have
personal reactions to the papers, and in
the most recent batch of essays, there
was one that I haven’t been able to get
out of my mind.
The topic was the banning of books
from school libraries and curricula. Several titles evoking recent controversy were
cited in the prompt as examples: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Diary of Anne Frank,
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
Most of the papers opposed banning books, citing a variety of reasons: trust
us—if you’ve taught us well, we’re capable of making responsible decisions;
banning a book just makes it more appealing; book banning is ineffective … you
can take it [the books] out of our classrooms but not off the shelves of the public
library or the bookstore; we need historical perspective; we’re exposed to far

Collegial Exchange · 27