mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Many Hands Make Light Work: Using Essay Traits to Automatically Score Essays

arXiv 2102.00781 ↗First posted 1 Feb 2021cs.CL cs.AIcited by 25

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Abstract (arXiv)

Most research in the area of automatic essay grading (AEG) is geared towards scoring the essay holistically while there has also been some work done on scoring individual essay traits. In this paper, we describe a way to score essays holistically using a multi-task learning (MTL) approach, where scoring the essay holistically is the primary task, and scoring the essay traits is the auxiliary task. We compare our results with a single-task learning (STL) approach, using both LSTMs and BiLSTMs. We also compare our results of the auxiliary task with such tasks done in other AEG systems. To find out which traits work best for different types of essays, we conduct ablation tests for each of the essay traits. We also report the runtime and number of training parameters for each system. We find that MTL-based BiLSTM system gives the best results for scoring the essay holistically, as well as performing well on scoring the essay traits.

Key facts. Cited by 25 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 9 of its 46 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 1 Feb 2021.

Builds on

9 of 46 references.

References · 9

  1. 2018BERT: Pre-training of Deep Bidirectional Transformers for Language Understandingcited by 40,204
  2. 2019ALBERT: A Lite BERT for Self-supervised Learning of Language Representationscited by 2,772
  3. 2015Equilibrated adaptive learning rates for non-convex optimizationcited by 42
  4. 2018Automated essay scoring with string kernels and word embeddingscited by 31
  5. 2017SkipFlow: Incorporating Neural Coherence Features for End-to-End Automatic Text Scoringcited by 22
  6. 2019Co-Attention Based Neural Network for Source-Dependent Essay Scoringcited by 11
  7. 2018Eyes are the Windows to the Soul: Predicting the Rating of Text Quality Using Gaze Behaviourcited by 9
  8. 2020Happy Are Those Who Grade without Seeing: A Multi-Task Learning Approach to Grade Essays Using Gaze Behaviourcited by 9
  9. 2020Automated Topical Component Extraction Using Neural Network Attention Scores from Source-based Essay Scoringcited by 3

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2023: 3; 2024: 8; 2025: 3; 2026: 11.

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  1. 2024Unleashing Large Language Models' Proficiency in Zero-shot Essay Scoringcited by 33
  2. 2023Prompt- and Trait Relation-aware Cross-prompt Essay Trait Scoringcited by 24
  3. 2024Rationale Behind Essay Scores: Enhancing S-LLM's Multi-Trait Essay Scoring with Rationale Generated by LLMscited by 22
  4. 2023Competent but Rigid: Identifying the Gap in Empowering AI to Participate Equally in Group Decision-Makingcited by 11
  5. 2024Autoregressive Multi-trait Essay Scoring via Reinforcement Learning with Scoring-aware Multiple Rewardscited by 11
  6. 2024Automated Long Answer Grading with RiceChem Datasetcited by 10
  7. 2024Autoregressive Score Generation for Multi-trait Essay Scoringcited by 8
  8. 2024DREsS: Dataset for Rubric-based Essay Scoring on EFL Writingcited by 7
  9. 2025Teach-to-Reason with Scoring: Self-Explainable Rationale-Driven Multi-Trait Essay Scoringcited by 6
  10. 2024Survey of Natural Language Processing for Education: Taxonomy, Systematic Review, and Future Trendscited by 3
  11. 2023WikiSQE: A Large-Scale Dataset for Sentence Quality Estimation in Wikipediacited by 2
  12. 2026LLMs Do Not Grade Essays Like Humanscited by 2
13 more
  1. 2026PsyScore: A Psychometrically-Aware Framework for Trait-Adaptive Essay Scoring and ZPD-Scaffolded Feedbackcited by 2
  2. 2026Enhancing Automated Essay Scoring With Three Techniques: Two-Stage Fine-Tuning, Score Alignment, and Self-Trainingcited by 1
  3. 2026Trait-Aware Policy Optimization for Autoregressive Multi-Trait Essay Scoringcited by 1
  4. 2024RDBE: Reasoning Distillation-Based Evaluation Enhances Automatic Essay Scoringcited by 0
  5. 2025Euskarazko lehen C1 ebaluatzaile automatikoacited by 0
  6. 2025CLEAR: A Comprehensive Linguistic Evaluation of Argument Rewriting by Large Language Modelscited by 0
  7. 2026Qayyem: A Real-time Platform for Scoring Proficiency of Arabic Essayscited by 0
  8. 2026Decision-Level Ordinal Modeling for Multimodal Essay Scoring with Large Language Modelscited by 0
  9. 2026MAPLE: A Meta-learning Framework for Cross-Prompt Essay Scoringcited by 0
  10. 2026Towards Self-Referential Analytic Assessment: A Profile-Based Approach to L2 Writing Evaluation with LLMscited by 0
  11. 2026MADRAG: Multi-Agent Debate with Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Training-Free Analytic Essay Scoringcited by 0
  12. 2026ICLE++: Modeling Fine-Grained Traits for Holistic Essay Scoringcited by 0
  13. 2026A Unified Framework to Elicit Structured Feedback for Interpretable Multi-Trait Essay Scoringcited by 0