Peer Grading of Essays in a Principles of Microeconomics Course

Business students often aspire to leadership and management positions that entail evaluating their own work and that of others. Peer grading in a "writing across the curriculum" program can give students valuable experience in an area in which they now receive little. In this study, we evaluated a 2-year program involving peer grading of essays in a principles of microeconomics course. Results show that though student graders tended to overreward their peers, they were able to identify the better efforts, and their grading improved with experience. Students with less developed writing ability apparently benefited the most from the peer grading experience.