does anyone elses tutor take three weeks to mark essay?

[prettypurpledaisy]

I am still waiting for my tma back and am loathe to start my next one before I have his feedback.
Should I contact him or just wait?
He gave quite a few extensions for this essay because of Christmas, surely he can mark the ones that got there on time first!
Am I being silly or is this too long?

I agree its a long time but IME its pretty standard. I wouldn't expect to have to wait much longer unless you've been told otherwise, you could just ask something like , 'when might i expect it back as am thinking of starting my next one and would like to use feedback from this one if possible.' That way it sounds like you aren't hassling him, and its a fair enough question after more than 3 weeks, never a good idea to hassle someone marking your work, they tend t be less inclined to mark you well good luck.

Is this something that is only marked by the tutor, or is it a more complicated than that? I am a lecturer and it takes us a good three weeks to get things back to our students because everything has to be first-marked, second-marked and quality-checked by the Course Director.

mine actually takes 6 weeks

Nothing wrong with asking politely, ppd, but I wonder if he's been caught up in exam marking, etc? Our house is only just free of exam scripts because DH was double-marking (all bloody weekend)

Thank you for the responses. I guess I have been spoilt by previous tutors. I emailed him to ask if my essay had arrived ok as I am distrustful of the etma system. It has and he replied that he was just behind with the marking. Hopefully I haven't upset him as my marks are so low on this course I can't afford to lose marks!

Is this the OU? I was a tutor until recently and tutors are allowed up to 3 weeks but in situations where you take on marking for a tutor who is ill this can stretch longer. Believe me tutors want them marked and returned as much as students who want them back!! I would make a start on the next one and amend if necessary any points that come from the feedback. On the whole the tmas are more stand alone components as they cover different things. If you make a start, then you will probably feel better about it and only very rarely would you need to make substantial changes.

I think that time taken to mark in the future will probably be longer if papers have to be electronically checked for plagiarism.....

Good luck

Think asking if essay had arrived ok is a good way to have done it. I'm sure you won't have upset him. Some times of year there's shedloads of admin, and it depends on the tutor's dept responsibilities as to how snowed under they get. In my experience of my own and DH's colleagues they do prioritise marking but sometimes things do slip. Hope you get a good mark!

We do electronic plagiarism checking for our essays Sunnylabsmum - it doesn't add to the time at all as we get the students to submit electronically and it gets automatically run through some software that does the checking

Totally agree with you about starting on the next assignment, though.

Kathy do you think it helps prevent plagiarism to any extent? Am focusing on plag policy for my doctoral thesis so any comments are very welcome

It would definitely deter a certain sort of plagiarism Sunnylabsmum (the basic copying-and-pasting from the internet); however, it wouldn't prevent the sort where you pay someone to write an essay for you AFAIK. I think you need a range of measures in place - a system which relied on software alone would be too easy to get past.

Am happy to discuss this further if you want to CAT me.

(sorry for hijack Prettypurpledaisy! Hope you get your essay back soon.)

speed of essay return is also related to times spent by lecturers on mumsnet

Ours vary as they can get shipped to anybody from the Tutor (10 day turn around) to the local Vicar (sorry? what's an essay? Whats my anme? who am I/ what am I doing here?...). I gave up- we cant appeal the results so I just do my best and the collect a bunch periodically when they've been returned to Turor, saves chasing.

Our plagiarist system (Jisk) is used to yes, scan the internet for obvious ripping off (and someone did get sacked for that), but also every essay the Uni and any collaborating Unis receives is laoded in, thereby building quite a database- there was a rash of students selling stuff to yrears below and you'd get several epople buying the same essay off the net, seems that is starting to bepicked up now.

Also means- as yesterday- if I submit an essay minus a page that got stuck in the printer, Tutor just confirms it was uploaded to jisk complete by deadline, and if so I can send in extra page.

Finally get essay back and got 44!!!! Seriously considering giving up degree and just sitting back not spending time over books and writing essays that are obviously rubbish.Really fed up and demoralised.

sorry to hear that you got 44. Try not to get demoralised about it, I failed an assignment in my taught doctorate and it really knocked me for 6. It took ages to believe in myself again. i hope you start to believe in your ability soon. .... do you have an online forum? You might find everyone else got low marks too
Take care thinking of you

ps thanks to everyone for their comments on plagiarism- yes I know mumsnet is not writing up the thing but you know....I think detection services help deter the opportunistic plagiarisers but not the committted ones...

I'm always terrified that I'll be accused of plagiarism because let's face it.. there are only so many ways of saying things differently when it's something that's been written about for hundreds of years, aren't there?

oops forgot to say.. our guideline is that essays must be marked and given back within three weeks

ppd, aww, that must be gutting for you!
Just wondering, if your Uni/College offers Workshops on Essay writing, or has something like a CfAP (Centre for Academic Practice)...the people there will be able to help you. They will go through your Essays and help you work out what is not quite as it should be, and address any problems, and they can also offer you tutorials just on how to write an essay in general, and can also help you with improving your study skills.
I just finished a Study skills for academic success course, and I found it very informative and helpful.

Thanks for the replies. What makes it even more gutting is that on all my previous courses I have consistently scored 75+ which makes 44 even more upsetting. I think it must be the current tutor does not like my style. Still the only way is up!

what were the tutors comments...and at what level are you staudying? Also, is only the tutor marking or are there one or more people cross marking?