Many instructors adopt a process approach to writing, assigning multiple drafts and offering feedback for revision; they nonetheless maintain that ultimately a student must receive a grade based on the instructor-determined caliber of the final product in order to maintain high academic standards. This traditional grading system can be demotivating, increase anxiety, discourage creativity and risk-taking, and unleash linguistic bias. In contrast, labor-based grading focuses on effort and improvement and can result in greater student engagement, innovation, and growth. This article explains labor-based grading, illustrates its use in an L2 first-year writing class, and suggests ways to adopt it in other L2 teaching contexts. With testimonials from students, the authors show how labor-based grading, when used in conjunction with revision and a process approach to writing, can foster learning from error and a greater enjoyment of writing as an act of creation.
\n","language":"eng","license":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0","short_name":"CC BY 4.0","text":"Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.\r\n\r\nNo additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0"},"keywords":[{"word":"labor-based grading"},{"word":"L2 writing"},{"word":"assessment"},{"word":"first year"},{"word":"composition"}],"section":"Regular Article","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/59w8w3sd","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Ti","middle_name":"","last_name":"Macklin","name_suffix":"","institution":"Boise State University","department":""},{"first_name":"Nicole","middle_name":"","last_name":"Brun-Mercer","name_suffix":"","institution":"Boise State University","department":""}],"date_submitted":"2025-06-24T19:52:47.462000Z","date_accepted":"2026-01-17T04:52:58.711000Z","date_published":"2026-05-15T18:00:00Z","render_galley":{"label":"CJ 36-1_Brun-Mercer & Macklin","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/catesoljournal/article/48789/galley/50309/download/"},"galleys":[{"label":"CJ 36-1_Brun-Mercer & Macklin","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/catesoljournal/article/48789/galley/50309/download/"}]}