I still haven't matched these up with names (except to find those who didn't want me to post online), so can't post all grades.

After a first reading of all essays, the following general heuristics were developed:

A range:

• Clear re. what are supporting and dis-supporting arguments.
• Appears to come from the presentation that was made.
• Well-written and organized; quick and easy to read.
• Lower A range: Some problems in issues of clarity.  E.g., I had to work a bit in reading to figure out what was the argument, counterargument.

B range:

• Merely gave an example of a marketer acting in a manipulative way or an example of a marketer acting in a non-manipulative way without an argument showing universal support or dis-support for the statement of manipulation.
• Problems with clarity that made it difficult and time-consuming for me to figure what was supposed to a supporting argument or a counterargument for the statement.  One essay wins an award for a twenty-two sentence paragraph following an eighteen sentence paragraph.  Lack of headers to identify each presentation - clearly stated as a requirement - made some essays very difficult to follow.
• Faulty logic:
  • A caveat emptor (buyer beware) argument: "since buyers have the freedom to inspect the goods and nobody is forcing them to buy, marketers cannot possibly be manipulating anyone."  It is this very attitude that led to the formation of the FDA and FTC early in the 1900s.  This is not evidence that marketers don't manipulate buyers, but instead is evidence that such manipulation apparently still exists.
  • A price or cost argument: "if marketers use this tactic, then consumers have an opportunity to save money."  That the marketer did something that lowers the buyer price or its cost of conducting business does not alone imply that the marketer was not behaving in a manipulative manner.

C range:

• Answered some question that wasn't the one that was asked.
• Answer didn't match the content of the presentations that I saw.
• Answer was a vague description of the presentations, but contained no meaningful discussion re. arguments and counterarguments.
• Answer was associated with only one side of the question (and therefore incomplete).

On a second pass, answers that fit in the first category were marked. Quick and easy.

On a third pass, answers that were at the top of the second category were marked.

On a fourth pass, answers that remained in the second category were marked and taken off the pile.  Answers that remained in the second category kept bubbling through the pile, painfully being seen over and over as I tried to make sense of them.  Through the B- range, the lower the mark, the more time I spent reading the essay.

This latter group consumed most of my time in reading these.  A few gems from this group of essays include:

• "Their have been robbers and thieves long before marketing was though of."
• "Marketers use the marketing mix to create a personality for their product that will sucker people into buying it."
• "A customer must always keep in mind that a marketer's goal is to make the customer think that their product is the best that the world has to offer."

1230	100
1783	92
1794	82
22179	92
25465	80
2092014	95
24276919	84
148182441	100
1/04-15-81	83
1-04031970	84
1-04101977	84
1-0724	100
1-102676	85
1-10m8ns	83
1-1211	84
1-1325	97
1-438_Spice_9933	83
1-594	75
1-800-pnkbunny	78
1-926LT	80
1-amr	84
1-asdf77jklp	84
1-BraBre1174	83
1-DallasCowboys	87
1-inamelon	83
1-M7254	83
1MAHP1650	87
1-MOB	85
1-NEIT5539	87
1SR85Y7	100
1-WG7895Z	92
2-0821978	75
2211BP	95
2-3782	75
2-454733654	95
2639141204ABM	83
2-707-555-1212	85
2BLT	80
2Cheer	85
2-Cowboy	95
2empty3401	95
2-fish	100
2-kbb96	100
2-MARTIAL	78
2-Pbarnes	75
2Quazar	83
2redjeep	85
2SAI_1	85
2-Saralfy	88
2Trooper	77