Redlined

The researchers — Abraham Rutchick of California State University, Northridge, Michael Slepian of Tufts University, and Bennett Ferris of Phillips Exeter Academy — don’t address whether marking more errors is good or bad (though earlier studies have linked the color red with failure). Their main point, Rutchick noted in an e-mail, is that “we’re constantly bombarded with stimuli that influence how we think and act, even (especially?) when we’re trying our hardest to be objective.”

But the urge to correct is a powerful thing, and when their results were published, even that mild conclusion drew hoots and catcalls from some online commenters. Tom Jacobs, who reported the study’s results at the website of the Canadian magazine Miller-McCune, got a virtual earful about squishy liberals and their feel-good pedagogy. Teachers “SHOULD use the [pen] that causes them to find the most errors!” said one. “If you don’t mark the mistakes they made properly, they’ll never learn.” Another reader called the research “meaningless claptrap,” adding, “Big problem today is teachers not correcting things, whether in red, green, pink or purple ink.” (It goes without saying, I suppose, that there were mistakes in these comments, including two failed attempts at the plural possessive students’.)