It may sound like a great idea to incorporate these e-Rater machines, developed by the Educational Testing Service, into our daily lives, but in reality, it is pitiful. They can grade 16,000 essays in 20 seconds, take a heavy load off of a teachers back, and remain consistent, but when it all is said and done, these machines contain a lot of flaws (source B).
Not only do these machines face many problems, this
automated reader can be easily gamed. In Michael Winerip’s article, he states
that the e-rater “sets a very limited and rigid standard for what is good
writing.” He also mentions the fact that they are unable to detect the truth.
“E-Rater doesn’t care if you say the War of 1812 started in 1945,” if this
happens to be true, what is the point of taking the time to actually learn and
construct knowledge to write a good essay. Students like you and me will only
learn to work the system and write a well written essay that the e-Rater wants.
Students will begin to care less about the facts and more about the sentences,
the sentence structure, and the length of these essays (source B).
Critics argue that teachers are remarkably inconsistent
graders and having machines that can grade not only more efficiently, but
accurately as well is something we should take advantage of. This way they will
also be able to crank out more assignments and essays and “improve” the
students writing and their writing skills (source D). With this said, I can say
I agree to a certain extent. Students writing will improve, but in reality,
they will lose a lot of their writing style. The e-rater does not like
fragments, but it does like long paragraphs, long sentences, and the use of big
words. If this is the case, students will only strive to meet the expectations
of the machine. This will trick the machine into offering a better grade
(source B and E).
Why would anyone want students to lose their sense of
writing style? The e-Rater, from the Educational Testing service, not only
takes away from a student’s writing, but it also contains numerous amounts of
flaws that are not worthwhile. Sure it has its benefits and it may give
teachers a nice break, but with students easily breaking the system and no
necessarily even knowing what they are talking about, what is the point? I say,
teachers can suck it up and continue to grade these essays. They may take a
while, and sure they will make some mistakes, but it is their job! I don’t
advise using the e-Rater machines, and I hope I will not have to deal with them
in the coming years.
