Pacific Standard May-June 2013 Cover

When Grading Papers, Red Ink May Mean Lower Scores

New research suggests the use of red ink by teachers to correct students’ work may result in harsher evaluations.


The use of red ink by teachers to correct students’ work may result in harsher evaluations, according to new research. (Matthew C. Wright / flickr.com)
May 11, 2010 • By • 22 Comments
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Remember those gut-wrenching high-school moments when a teacher handed you back a test or assignment, having corrected your mistakes and rendered a harsh verdict in bold red ink? It may be small consolation now, but newly published research suggests your grades may have been higher if that ink had been blue.

A study in the European Journal of Social Psychology suggests the use of red pens may make teachers more likely to spot errors on tests and to be more critical when grading essays. “Despite teachers’ efforts to free themselves from extraneous influences while grading,” write California State University Northridge psychologist Abraham Rutchick, Tufts University psychologist Michael Slepian and Bennett Ferris of Phillips Exeter Academy, “the very act of picking up a red pen can bias their evaluations.”

The paper describes three experiments testing the proposition that red pens trigger teachers’ brains to focus on failure. The researchers note that red pens “have long been associated with errors,” adding that many previous studies have found physical objects in one’s immediate environment can influence behavior. (An earlier Rutchick study found voters whose polling places are in churches are more likely to support candidates and causes supported by the religious right.)

In one of the experiments, 103 volunteers read a two-paragraph excerpt from an essay. They were told it was written by a student who was learning English and instructed to mark any errors in punctuation, spelling, grammar or word choice.

Half used a red pen for the assignment, while the others used a blue pen. Those using red ink spotted significantly more errors than those using blue ink.

In another experiment, 129 students were instructed to evaluate a one-page essay ostensibly written by an eighth-grade student. The paper contained no grammatical or spelling errors, but the language was at a somewhat rudimentary level. Participants were instructed to point out words or phrases that could be improved and then grade the essay on a scale of 0 to 100.

Once again, half used a red pen and half used a blue one. Those marking the paper in red ink gave the essay lower grades than their counterparts using blue ink.

Rutchick and his colleagues argue this demonstrates “using red pens increases the cognitive accessibility of failure-relevant concepts.” However, they concede that other factors could be at work. Being associated with aggression, the color red could conceivably increase graders’ testosterone level, making them more assertive and critical.

They also note that the test participants were not trained teachers. Nevertheless, they conclude that “it seems sensible to avoid presenting students’ work covered in a color automatically associated with failure and negativity.” (The Boston Globe reported some school districts are switching to purple ink for that very reason.)

“Red pens, ubiquitous in academic settings, are not inert objects,” they add. “They are laden with meaning.” Perhaps the phrase “the power of the pen” needs to be taken more literally.

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About Tom Jacobs

Staff writer Tom Jacobs is a veteran journalist with more than 20 years experience at daily newspapers. He has served as a staff writer for The Los Angeles Daily News and the Santa Barbara News-Press. His work has also appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Ventura County Star.

  • Sirona

    Ah, the power trip of a red pen. Quite frankly, as a student, I would want my teacher to correct my mistakes so I could get better, wouldn't you?

    Having said that, I never use a red pen (and I'm a real teacher and a real student!) However, I also grade my student's papers twice to make sure I have truly _read_ their papers, rather than merely scanning for mistakes.

    • Brock

      For me rewards and encouragement work far better than focusing on errors.

      To answer your question, no, I'm not sure that pointing out all of the mistakes is the way to go. For some students this can be very discouraging, and lead to worse results the next time around. In general, students need to know what areas to prioritize. Thus, when marking I note and correct only the more serious errors, in areas that should be worked on first. Once these areas are improved, then less critical issues can be worked on.

      Motivation is important, and people become motivated with positive comments. They don't become motivated by continually having their mistakes pointed out. Even the weakest students need positive comments. With a positive attitude, I find that errors disappear far faster during the school year.

  • Ross Heim

    I wonder if the results would have been different if the subjects had used a red pen to grade half the papers, taken a break and then given a blue pen to mark the remainder.

  • Lucidity

    If teachers used invisible ink, no one would ever be offended.

  • Demosthenes Locke

    I'm sorry if I seem confused, but isn't the purpose to point out the actual, factual errors in the work? The problem here isn't that using a red pen makes the teachers bad because they're biased to make people fail, but that blue pens make them careless in finding actual problems and sloppy in doing their job. Finding and correcting mistakes while teaching the proper method is their JOB. If they aren't finding and marking them appropriately because of the color of their pen, they SHOULD use the one that causes them to find the most errors! I don't want my children to go through their classes thinking they are doing better than they actually are, I want them to know truthfully if they've made an error so they can correct it!

    This isn't about sparing the student from shame. This is about teaching them the correct way to do the lesson. If you don't mark the mistakes they made properly, they'll never learn that they made the mistakes!

    No, I don't think they should get a pass because of "good effort". No, I don't think they'll be "scarred for life" if they are told they got it wrong.

    2+2=5 "Good Effort!" (written in blue pen) Sorry…that doesn't cut it with me. Mark it wrong with a big red "X" and teach them that the correct answer is "4".

  • Luddite

    If I had a red pen, I'd correct the dangling participle in your headline.

    • !!!

      A+

  • scott a

    So the evidence is clear, if junior is a bit dim but you'd rather he got good grades than learn something then move to one of the 'purple ink' districts as mentioned in the alluded to Boston Globe story.

  • Alan Lothian

    Don't you just love the modern use of the word "research"? Meaningless claptrap. BIg problem today is teachers *not* correcting things, whether in red, green, pink or purple ink.

  • nick

    So let's see:
    (1) using red can _bias_ one's evaluations
    (2) those grading in red "spotted significantly more errors". That's a bias? All those using red spotted more errors than all those using blue?
    (3) using red "increases the cognitive accessibility of failure-relevant concepts". Is that why red lights are red?
    (4) red " "could" "conceivability" increase graders' testosterone". I wonder if that explains my attraction to redheads?
    (5) None of the subjects were teachers.
    (6) But it's still sensible to avoid grading in a color associated with failure.

    Ah, so that's the point! They want to stop grading in red, because grades are lower and red signifies failure. Hard on self esteem, don't ya know. Grade inflation by other means. And anyway, red is so male!

    (7) So the study is just an excuse for those recommendations.
    (8) I wonder what purple signifies? Patchouli oil? Hippies?
    (9) And finally: red pens are not inert objects! Laden with meaning. Quick, someone inform the philosophers! Empiricism lives again!

    Are blue pens inert? Is anything inert? Are psychologists?

    No wonder so many people hate academics. They earn the hatred. Farking idiots.

    • Guest.

      1) yup.
      2) no, on average.
      3) unlikely.
      4) nope. red hair is really orange.
      5) correct.
      6) correct.
      unnumbered) no evidence of any self-esteem effect on students to this point.
      7) um. not really.
      8) no idea.
      9) nothing's inert. THAT is the point.

  • Bibs9

    I want to be on the news whining about my poor child who has entered therapy because of post-trumatic red pen syndrome. I will also be on Twitter in case anyone cares to hear more.

  • Bart Downey

    I am a teacher and here in Ontario so many teachers were using purple inked pens that there was a shortage of them. I suspect this is true in other places as well. It is amazing the influences and effects that this "research" has. It has passed into accepted wisdom. By the way I DO correct my students work!

  • BDL

    I always try to use red ink in proofreading my own typescripts. That way it's much easier to find my corrections later. The same goes for grading tests.

  • Pingback: It’s that time of year again: exam-grading (and here’s a study suggesting that using red ink means lower scores!) « Irishscience

  • http://www.tomkeplerswritingblog.com/ Tom Kepler

    Yes, red ink is simply easier to see. I also make a point of always including positive comments when I correct a paper. I wonder if students believe I'm being sarcastic when I write them in red. As pointed out by other comments, this article is unclear as to whether graders using red added needless criticism or whether graders using blue missed actual writing errors.

  • Tuolome

    I use a green pen to mark exams, and a pencil on essays and papers. Where does that put me?

  • Bee

    When I was a teacher, I marked all the grammatical errors on my students' papers (in red, so they could be seen) in the hopes that they would remember them for the next time, but the number of grammatical or spelling errors in an assignment had nothing to do with the grade. The papers were graded on content.

    As other commenters have remarked, this article is slightly absurd. Finding all the errors (which supposedly happens more easily when using a red pen — I'm assuming that's simply because one can see red better against the black writing) is somehow a bad thing because it makes students feel badly about themselves? Why not just give all of them a nice pat on the head and forget about trying to improve their English skills?

    • Greg

      This study is quite interesting, particularly if you (at least on first reading) ignore the layer of interpretation on top of the results.

      The experiment found that volunteers found more errors when marking with a red pen than a blue one. This would have nothing to do with them being easier to see, as that only affects looking at the errors after they have been found, such as for counting them. I'll give the scientists the benefit of the doubt and assume they were thorough in their counting.

      The second study is perhaps more interesting. The students were given a paper without any errors, and asked to grade it. Those students grading with a red pen gave lower grades than those grading with a blue pen.

      Neither of the studies says anything about students "feeling badly about themselves," so that is irrelevant.

      Now that we have the facts, let's add a layer of interpretation. These results imply that if you grade papers with a red pen you will likely find more errors AND GIVE LOWER GRADES on average than if you graded with a blue pen. That's certainly not "fair" but as to whether it's good or bad is your call.

      Now, does this mean (if you think fewer found errors and higher grades is better) we should require all teachers to grade in purple pen? I don't think so. Why not? Because over time purple pens will likely come to have the same negative influence as red pen. Probably the only way to avoid that association is to always grade in black pen, as black pen will not be exclusively connected with grading. However, grading with black pen has its own problems.

      This is just one example of the larger class of external factors that can influence grading. I'm sure most teachers try to be as fair and objective as possible, but the reality is things as varied as their mood at the time or the color pen they grade with can affect the grades given to students. There is no way to eliminate these externalities, we can only identify them, as this study has done. The best thing to do is to try and normalize for them, particularly within a given class. What I would take away from this study is, for any given assignment, grade the entire class in the same color pen.

  • Richard Dagalea

    My teacher in Linguistics has shared with us this link through Facebook. He was enlightening us on the bad effects the red ink has on students learnability of subject matter. He pointed out that checking students' papers or rectifying their writings using the red ink is not a good idea after all. This article, which he asked us to read, has been very informative and it backs up his assertions. I would surely share this with my co-teachers in our university, to begin with the High School Department. All educators must certainly read this enlightening article.

  • what2

    So using red ink causes writing teachers to do a better job at finding and marking errors? Remarkable. Give a box of red pens to every teacher.