This was first posted on 12/16/07
As I have been thinking a lot on reviews and grading (again) I figured you guys should be too ;). If you commented before (click the date it was first posted) do you still think the same? If you missed the post the first time what are your thoughts? And yes sorry about the lack of posts yesterday work is a mad house and we are planing BIG things for the month of June 😉
Question I would love for anyone and everyone to answer….
I know it has been talked about over and over but I have been giving letter grades a bit of thought over the past few days. I never ‘graded’ reviews before I was apart of AAR. So that pretty much shaped my view of what the letter grades meant. I still pretty much think along the same lines but wondered what you thought.
If you personally grade your books, as I know more than a few of you keep reader logs, what is a “C” grade to you?
If you review what is a “C” grade?
If you are reading a review, how do you view a “C” grade?
If you are an author, how do you ‘view’ a C grade and is it different than how you feel about it when reading a review of another book?
I admit I do not see a C grade as a bad grade. C = average. It could be a book I have seen a 100 times before, enjoyed while reading and forgot it as soon as I closed the book. “I” don’t see that as a bad book but it isn’t a B either. A C grade could be a book that hit a few buttons but nothing that made me want to throw it over. A book I would grade a C is a book I could see a lot of people reading and liking or loving.
I have to say though, as a reader I don’t pay much attention to the letter as much as the commentary. Am I the only one that doesn’t think C = bad?
Personally I think it depends on the site/how it’s explained. Here, no, C is not a bad grade. C is an average book, meaning it’s good (I expect most books to be good). I liked it, but I wasn’t amazed – e.g. I don’t mind taking the book back to the library or trading it for something else. B means I like it, and I want it. A means, I needwantmusthave the book, and may consider fighting you for it. 🙂 All that is in regards to TGTBTU’s grading system.
Otherwise, irl – C’s are bad, bad terrible grades and I do not want! [Haha, so without the guidelines, my grading scale would be vastly different]
I also don’t think C = bad. Although if the review had a C grade verv prominently displayed, I may just skim the review as opposed to reading it carefully (unless it was an author/title I was really interested in or had read/heard very different things about). Whew, long sentence! did it make sense? I’m sure this has been said before but I guess one can’t help but take eg. a “C” grade personally, and I guess that’s okay as long as there is no lashing out etc about it. Ideally it could be taken as constructive criticism if the reasons for the grade are fair. If I were a writer, I would love as high a grade as possble. As a reader I would more likely check out the book if it were a higher grade. To me a C grade is like 3 out of 5 stars. And I’d still check out the commentary.
In academic grading, a C is terrible. But for book reviews I see FDCBA as one to five stars. A C means the book was average. I don’t regret reading it, but I’m unlikely to pick it up again. After I finish the book I don’t rave about it, I’ll probably forget all the details, but nothing about the book made me hate it. My view of C is that it has negative connotations, but the grade says the book didn’t work for the reviewer but probably works for legions of other people.
I didn’t think a C grade was terrible when I was teaching, and I don’t think it’s terrible in terms of books. I think it’s ordinary. The C books are the forgettable ones, useful for train trips or insomnia. I come across them a few months later, glance through them and think, “This seems familiar. Have I read it already?”
With the bad ones I think, “Oh dear, I remember this horror,” and drop it instantly. With the good ones I smile fondly and think, “Oh yes, this was good. Maybe I’ll reread it.”
Grade C means average to me. Neither good nor bad. I think what authors sometimes find hard to come to terms with is that reviews are not academic assessments where you aim to score at least a B. They are as subjective as the reviewers and no one can please everyone, not even J K Rowling.
🙂 I like these comments. I also wonder how closely one feels about grades ties to their academic experiences – on either side. Either receiving grades, or giving grades. [Luckily all my teaching type stuff has never involved grading.]