Several great writers have had their work scored today but a teachers program. The computer program, designed to score students submissions, was fed excerpts from classics such as ‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding and even Churchill’s ‘Finest Hour’ speech. The results are in, and they don’t look good.

Marking is a laborious chore teachers often complain about so the process of automating it probably sounds quite appealing. Usually automated programs are used to check for plagiarism and marking multiple choice exams.

When it comes to emotion in writing, the computer just can’t deal with it. The program flagged Churchill’s speech as repetitive and incorrect wording. Even Ernest Hemingway’s work was flagged as a lack of vocabulary and writing style. Great writers being failed by a computer program.

The software was designed in the US but similar attempts have been made in the UK. Trials there have been localized to exam samples, not great writers.

Automated marking is very limited to multiple choice or short answer questions. Computers do not get bored; they have no problem comparing one answer to the real answer hundreds of times over. They won’t tire and they won’t make mistakes.

Computers marking exam papers would also mean students can get their results faster and universities have more time to select their applicants before term starts. The opportunity is also there for online exams although the question of cheating would be overcome first.

They cannot however, understand the subtleties and complexities of the English language. Just like your spell checker isn’t always right, the program has limitations. Computers don’t really ‘read’ they just compare what’s in front of them, to the rules they’ve been given. I can see them reaching this point in the future but we’re not quite yet.

It’s weird to think of a computer marking great works of literature but it makes sense. If you want to test the understanding of emotion in the English language, Churchill is the way to go.

For now the work of Hemingway and Churchill can be critiqued by high school students in English class and exam results marked by grumbling teachers.