That title is a bit confusing, but you still clicked through to see what the heck I’m talking about, right? Good for you. Wait until you see this. If you’re still using MS Word to grade papers, you’ll love this tip. I say “still” because you all know that you can now grade papers in Canvas using Crocodoc, right? But I understand habits are hard to break, so MS Word still lives.

So here’s the deal. When you’re grading, you end up making the same comments over and over, as it would be a miracle if you had to write only once “Run on sentence” on a paper. So why not automate that using Autocorrect in Word? You can then just type a few letters, i.e. RO, and the same phrase will automagically appear. Watch below to see what I mean. And below the video are the steps written out for setting up your own Autocorrect comments. Happy grading.

Instructions for loading comments into MS Word’s Autocorrect feature:

1)      Open MS Office

2)      Highlight the comment

3)      Click File

4)      Click Options

5)      Click Proofing

6)      Click Autocorrect Options

7)      On the AutoCorrect tab, ensure that your comment is in the box to the right of “replace.”

8)  Type your preferred code for the comment in the “replace” box.

9)   Click add (and then click ok).

10)   Rinse, lather, and repeat.

Thanks to some awesome English instructors at Grand Canyon University for sharing this tip at the TYCA West conference last week.