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Red is for grading papers


After years of experiencing the gasping pain of a newly colored paper, I decided to investigate as to what the symbolic meaning of the color red is. Throughout the four years that I have been here at UTM, I have received papers that were once white, crisp, and clean, come back as though my paper was the scene of a mass murder. Some teachers do indeed use green, blue, or black ink to grade papers and then there are those who have decided to go back to second grade to art class and play connect the dots or even hang-man on your once precious paper. I may be quite opinionated but if the teacher is going to mark all over the paper that I have suffered insomnia from, please write legibly so I will know where I went wrong. I believe we have all been there at some point in time and it seems as though once you get your massacred paper, you are almost scared to death to read what the comments on the back may say. Once you get up that courage to turn to the last page it looks as though Charlie Brown’s teacher has written the comment…Blur, Blah, Blur! What in the world is this mess? We have all heard the ever popular speech, you are a college student, therefore act like one! Many times I have wanted to come back and say - you are a professional who has many more years of education than I and I cannot understand a word you have written! My point in this paper is to maybe make some student more at ease with the fact that your teacher loves to scribble leaking, red ink all over your paper. Upon my research I found that the color red is not all that bad! Here are some statements I got from http://webexhibits.org/ pigments/indiv/color/reds2.html: Red is supposedly the first color perceived by man, the Neolithic culture would put red ochre into the tombs of the deceased because they believed red endowed life-giving powers, the red rose the symbol of love and fidelity, and the color red was believed to have protective powers against evil influence, and lastly, don’t we all associate red with Valentine’s Day? Luckily, I have only had a couple of teachers that perform their grading in this type of manner and for the most part, I can read all the comments they have written, but there is always that one that you will never forget. This is the one that will always be in the back of your mind when you tell your grandchildren stories. As an English major, I encourage you as a writer to take into thought when you receive this type of paper, “Oh, how sweet, my teacher loves me!” I know that the red ink is scary and degrading but get used to it because I do not see a change happening any time soon - especially with finals coming up! Good luck! Holly Winstead is a junior English major from Dresden.