The Holistic Comment Generator supplies boilerplate comments that reflect various levels of student performance in five areas of competency: thesis statements, organization, development of ideas, style, and mechanics.  To use the Generator click the Holistic Grader button on T.A. Toolbar. The following interface will appear:

Set the slider controls along the left side of the form to the appropriate level for each of the five areas of competency on a given student's essay. You will notice that when a slider control is set, that a generic (boilerplate) comment will appear in the large text box to the right.

Now you may go on to the next area of competence, ("Organization") and do the same thing. Continue to move through all five areas, generating comments by moving the slider controls from left to right.

You may edit the boilerplate (generic) comments however you like by simply typing (or selecting and deleting text) right in the window.

Once the comments are edited to your satisfaction, click on the "Add Comment" button (at bottom center) and all the comment will be added to the very end of the student's paper.

To prevent the rise of a T.A Toolbar-spoon-fed populace from taking over the world, you will want to revise and personalize boilerplate comments so that they make sense for the particular student and the particular essay at hand.  Think of the comment generator as just a way to quickly put down some text in the usual bold, blue face that must then be tailored to fit the situation--otherwise, we'll end up with a nation that thinks like the Borg.

You will notice that moving the slider controls automatically adjust the GPA and letter grade windows at the bottom of the form.  When all five areas of competency have been assessed, both a GPA (grade point average) for the paper and a suggested letter grade will appear in the lower left-hand corner. (See the image below.) The GPA and the letter grade are based on a simple average of five areas of competency.

Even if you decide to include only some (or none) of the generic comments on a student's paper, you may still use the grade calculator by adjusting all five the slider controls to the appropriate level of competency. NOTE: You must use all five slider controls to get an accurate grade.  (The average is calculated based on five inputs from each category.)  The letter grade will be appended to the very end of your comments upon hitting the Exit button.

If, after exiting the holistic grader, you wish to change the grade, you may do so just like you do when making any change to text in a Word document.

If you wish to append only comments and no grade, click the Add Comment button, and then click the red "X" control box in the upper right-hand corner (instead of the of the "Exit" button).  Similarly, if you want to supply only a final grade and not comments, do not click the Add Comment button; instead, click only the Exit button.

If you want to create your own holistic grading scheme you may do so.  Start by typing a name for your scheme in the top window.  Then add as many competency areas as you need, adjusting their weighting so that the total weight adds up to 100.  )See the scheme below.

After this, select the competency area for which you want to enter your customized text and then click the Edit Comment button. Type the text after the colon in the large text area on the right, like so:

Now click Save and then move the slider control to the next level, click Edit Comment, compose an appropriate text, and click Save.  Continue along the continuum for that competency area, moving the slider control gradually to the right and composing text remarks for each level.

Follow the same procedure for the other (in this example) two competency areas.  Click Save to save the entire scheme.