> Turns out the instructions said the essay would be scored on verbal efficiency; getting the point across clearly with the fewest words. I started playing around and realized that the more words I added, the higher the score, whether they were relevant or grammatical or not.
Frankly, this does not change anything from my experience in school decades ago. The teachers always said that the length does not matter and we should not pad the papers. However students who wrote more pages got better scores every single time.
Is it possible that the students who wrote shorter papers were in fact presenting incomplete arguments and/or thoughts? Writing clearly and concisely is extremely difficult.
It is possible but all of them? Also by “short” I usually mean four pages which was the usual recommendation for a paper length. To have a good grade one would need to write ten. The subject was usually something vapid so most of that must have been drivel.
Frankly, this does not change anything from my experience in school decades ago. The teachers always said that the length does not matter and we should not pad the papers. However students who wrote more pages got better scores every single time.