Monastic annals:

For research for a paper I'm working on, I got a book of Monastic Annals from the library. It's an 1869 volume containing the annals from the Osney monastery and from the Worcester priory. The part I was looking for, in the Worcester priory annals, said the following:


Hans Bader (mail):
The stair-toss is a stupid method of grading exams.

However, one speedy method of grading long papers, utilized by a relative of mine while teaching at an Ivy League institution, is to weigh the paper, rather than actually reading the paper in its entirety.

The score for the paper is then based on two variables: (1) the weight of the paper, relative to the weight of the average paper in the class; and (2) the quality of a sampling of just a few pages of the paper.

This method reduces the time that needs to be spent grading papers by at least two-thirds. That in turn increases the effective hourly compensation of the professor or T.A. using this method by a lot.
12.14.2006 11:06am
Hans Bader (mail):
Oops. My above comment was intended as a response to the previous post, not the post above.
12.14.2006 11:08am
liberty (mail) (www):
[2006. Nothing memorable.]

Imagine if we were that modest!
12.14.2006 11:08am
David Chesler (mail) (www):
Nihil memoriale

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle only goes to 1154, but I recall hearing that it has a similar entry for some year.
(The search engine for the version here isn't working for me.)
12.14.2006 11:54am
Anon Y. Mous:
I didn't know they allowed animals to become monks.
12.14.2006 11:57am
Nick P.:

The entry for 1058 briefly describes some political skullduggery:

A.D. 1058. This year was Earl Elgar banished: but he soon came in again by force, through Griffin's assistance: and a naval armament came from Norway. It is tedious to tell how it all fell out.

Yep, there's nothing more boring than rebellious Earls and viking invasion fleets.
12.14.2006 12:08pm
jack (mail):
Very cool stuff. But if that research you're working on is for a law review article . . . oy, that would be an awful source and cite.
12.14.2006 12:13pm
Sasha Volokh (mail) (www):
jack: The cite would be (and in fact is): 4 ANNALES MONASTICI 422--23 (Henry Richards Luard ed., 1869) ("MCCXXXI. Tradidimus . . . dominicum de Pensex Edwino rotario tantum in vita sua pro tertia garba.").
12.14.2006 12:16pm
a reader:
that . . . is . . . AWESOME.

i miss history so much.
12.14.2006 2:16pm
John M. Perkins (mail):
Jeff Bagwell.

12.14.2006 2:53pm
Sasha Volokh (mail) (www):
John M. Perkins: I don't understand.
12.14.2006 3:25pm
Patrick Rothwell (mail):
I recall reading that King George III wrote in his diary something along the lines of "nothing of any significance happened today" for July 4, 1776. Too good to check?
12.15.2006 1:01pm