“Why Not Get Rid of Grades?” by Daniel Pink
The author claims that our current system of letter grades has several built-in problems. Write a response to Pink’s claim. How would you fix things? Do they even need fixing? If you do not think the current system needs fixing, why do you think that?
Because you are responding to the Daniel Pink article, you need to begin with a very clear understanding of what he said. After reading it three times, get out paper and pen and list, as clearly as you can, exactly what he finds wrong with the current grading scheme. You are still just trying to get what he is saying; it is not yet time for you to pitch in any ideas.
Time for a new list or two: Which of his ideas are good and which are not? Why? Like almost all authors, Pink probably has some brilliant flashes and some duds. What are they?
By now you have been through 12½ years of schooling, so you have seen a lot of grades. With these lists and your experiences, you might be ready to start writing a very rough draft. I have given you the option of suggesting we keep everything the same, change everything, or just make one or a few changes. Perhaps you want to zero in on only one or two items and leave some of the others for another time. That’s your choice.
This assignment a hybrid between a response paper and an argument paper. Many college papers will combine things this way, so your task begins with:
If you choose to go with Number 2 above, your task is to argue that the current grading scheme is pretty much OK. You would be refuting Pink.
If you choose to go with Number 3, you will be writing a proposal argument. We see this kind of writing frequently in both business and politics. At its heart, these proposals are very simple and direct:
Someone should do something because X.
These arguments must be very specific:
This isn’t about you. If your fourth grade teacher was a witch, that doesn’t mean that all elementary school teachers are witches or even that all fourth grade teachers are. The most it can mean is that your local school board should have provided better oversight.
This isn’t about your grades. My eleventh grade chemistry teacher said I would fail the course if I didn’t attend the junior prom. (He was the class advisor.) I have a hard time making that into a general proposal for all high schools in the country.
Do ask yourself, “What would happen if?” I would probably drive about as I do now if speed limits were abolished, but would everyone on the road be reasonable and prudent? Do speed limits actually serve some purpose? (One purpose they do serve is to help the clueless. Another is to settle things in the event of an accident. “Too fast” is a very loose concept, but “70 mph in a 35 zone” is very specific for both the law and the insurance people.)
And finally, don’t be childish. Yes, the author’s name is a bit silly. Is that a reason to reject his ideas? Wikipedia says he was the chief speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore. Is that, by itself, a reason to reject his thinking? It would make as much sense to reject his thoughts because he graduated from Bexley High School in Columbus. (Which he did.) Saying his ideas are “woke” (whatever that means), is simply name-calling; it’s not an argument.
One key characteristic of an argument paper such as this is that it plants its feet, puts its fist in the air, and says, “This is true.” Then it proceeds to give the reader reasons that that claim should be considered.
AI cannot make a claim like that. The closest it can come is “Let’s look at…” or perhaps “There are many pros and cons.” It is essentially gutless because all AI is really doing is scraping the Internet for all the comments on this topic, then dumping them together. (That’s why it is pretty good at summarizing all the emails in your inbox.) But it cannot say, “The current ABCDF grade scheme is great because…” or “Here is a better idea than the current one.”
If you write a gutless paper such as this, I will know one of two things: either you used ChatGPT (or some similar program) to write your paper, or you just do not have the courage of your own convictions. In any case, “Let’s look at…” is not an argument paper, and it will get a very poor grade.
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The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by Ashland University.
Revised 8/12/26 • Page author: Curtis Allen • e-mail:
callen@ashland.edu.