Thanks for the 'perspective.' You're right in that I don't grade theses, but I am asked to read through any number of theses where the Chinese supervisor has not got the 'background' to assess the content. Theses normally have to be written first in Chinese, and then in English. One example is from a 4th year student whose thesis topic is based on humour in a cross-cultural setting. She's looking at British v. Chinese humour. Now this in itself is problematic as British humour does not always 'translate' well in an American context let alone Chinese! And then there's the big issue of translation, so important, even when looking at the poor subtitling. But this student is highly-motivated and has done an excellent literature search that has produced some really good papers for her to read and pick-up key points.

I can understand that any correction software is not perfect, but some of my 2nd year students still have problems with irregular verbs and certain plural forms. This is in spite of doing classroom exercises on these and other topics. Content, even in a short essay is important as I look for a logical progression of ideas, using a thesis statement,topic sentences and a decent conclusion. This is just as relevant for a 3.5 paragraph essay as it is for a longer piece of work. I've had some outstanding work from several students, and I have to remind myself constantly that these students are using English as a second language.

I certainly will not leave the job to the software alone.

Thanks

CL