Project Essay Grade (PEG) is a historic milestone in the field of educational technology, representing the first major attempt to automate the evaluation of student writing. Developed in the 1960s by Dr. Ellis Batten Page, PEG laid the groundwork for modern automated essay scoring (AES) by demonstrating that computers could analyze prose with a level of reliability comparable to human graders. The Evolution of PEG
: Due to the limited computing power of the era, the system remained largely theoretical until the mid-1980s.
: New essays are analyzed for these same features—known as "proxies"—and a score is calculated using the established statistical model. Key Analytical Features
The system distinguishes between "trins" (intrinsic quality like diction and grammar) and "proxies" (measurable correlations like average word length). It typically evaluates:
PEG operates on the principle that "good writing can be predicted" by analyzing specific linguistic features. The system uses a two-stage process:
