Step 3 - Set up your first assignment

Set up your first assignment

You've created a workspace using the setup wizard and are ready to start grading essays. So what's next? You want the grading to meet your expectations and actually save you time. So let's invest just a little more time to make sure that both you and EssayGrader are set up for success.

Please note: At the end of this setup process you will be uploading essays to be graded. If you aren't ready to start grading, don't start this process quite yet.

Selecting an assignment

Using the side panel, make your way to the chosen assignment (one will already be selected if you have just finished creating a manual workspace).

In your folder structure in the sidebar, the items that have no other folders nested inside them are your assignments. You'll know you're in the right spot if you see the assignment you want selected in the sidebar and the Start Grading screen in the main window to the right.

Assignment selected in the sidebar

Selecting the assignment will bring up the start grading screen where you select a rubric as well as set other criteria related to the assignment, grading, and style of the feedback report.

Selecting a rubric

The first and, in some ways, most important step is choosing a grading rubric, which you accomplish with the Select Rubric button in the top right of this screen.

My rubrics tab

Platform rubrics tab

If you have rubrics in your personal library you will see them first. Otherwise, select the Platform rubrics tab to choose one of the many built in rubric options. Selecting a rubric by clicking Select to the right of the rubric will take you back to the previous screen and you will see that the title of your chosen rubric is now displayed in the first section. Some of the grading settings below will also have adjusted to match the rubric settings.

You can now move on to uploading essays and skip ahead if you don't need to create a new rubric. However, if you haven't created any rubrics yet, and don't wish to use one as-is from the platform rubric library, you may create your own, which is described in the next two walkthrough steps.

Continue the walkthrough: Create a rubric (upload/import or build from a template) >>>

Updated on: 09/22/2025

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