Demystifying Marking: reflections on developing and using grade descriptors: Case Study

Marking is a necessarily contentious activity. It is not always possible to arrive at bull’s-eye conclusions about the merit of an individual piece of work, particularly in the arts, social sciences and humanities where studies of culture, society and history do not yield principles or general rules that can be tested for accuracy. If it were possible, double marking would be unnecessary and regulations allowing students to appeal their marks would become more or less redundant. But I use the words ‘necessarily contentious’ because marking should compel tutors to engage with one another about this difficulty, to keep on asking what it is that they are looking for in student work