FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GOOGLE INTRODUCES “GOOGLE GRADER”

Kirkland, WA:  Google today announced the release of a new free software package for community college instructors, Google Grader. 

“We’re very excited about this,” says Google spokesperson Genevieve Eek, “since so many of us spent some time as adjunct instructors and know the terrible burden of grading essays.”  Google Grader, she predicts, will dramatically reduce the turn-around time for returning essays to students, although it may also result in reduced teaching opportunities for recent grad school students.

Google Grader will scan electronic copies of submitted essays for common errors, such as fragments, comma splices, and run-on sentences.  An “Advanced” setting can identify dangling and misplaced modifiers, subject/verb and pronoun agreement problems, and five-paragraph-theme structures (which will automatically be assigned a failing grade.)  One touted feature, however, had to be removed after Beta testing; the “Logic Lapse” analyzer frequently overloaded the program, causing complete system collapse.  “We’re working on a new algorithm for that,” says Eek, but she concedes that, as with Voice Recognition, such a feature may be far from practical application.

Google Grader will be available for download as soon as Google can find interns capable of writing the instruction manual.