Good Red Inks For Teachers Grading On Awful Paper?

[VladislavS]

but it's more pink and not vibrant enough to say, "Look at this awesome fountain pen ink I am using to grade with!"

Regarding student inks it brightness is enough to grade.

[truthpil]

Thanks for posting an example. I'm expecting a bottle to arrive in the mail early next month so I'll post some examples of how it works on students' papers. If the red is saturated enough on all types of paper, this may be the perfect (albeit expensive) red ink for grading.

[Dell_Boy]

Most of my family are teachers of one kind or another, and from the primary teachers to the university lecturers, we prefer to mark in green ink: less aggressive.

 

 

I agree with Duboing that red inks may sometimes be considered "aggressive", although dark reds, like the MB Burgundy red probably don't run this risk.

In case You decide to go for green inks, my suggestion would be:

 

1) Montblanc Irish Green

2) Pelikan Edelstein Jade

According to my experience, they both work great on all kinds of papers and their peculiar green color tones make them suitable to replace red inks.

 

Best

Piero

 

Ha! I had a physical chemistry teacher who graded in green ink.

 

We called him "the Vulcan" because he was very liberal in his use of the green ink!!

 

Thanks for the memory!

 

Derek

[EricTheRed]

When I was a student, my teachers always used red ink to analyze and grade my work. Most students used blue ink (which demonstrated "Go" to us) We always thought teachers used red, not to be aggressive but to alert us to "stop and read this", or "stop you are not doing this correctly", etc. Our goal was to turn in our work with blue ink which suggested "we think we are ready to go on this concept") and get back as little red ink ("you need to stop this myopic train of thought and look at both sides of the coin, or you did this math problem wrong") as possible. We knew we had mastered an english, math, or science section when we received our test back with no red ink on it except for the glorious A+ in red on the top of the paper. We realized the use of red ink was to get our attention, so we could focus immediately on where we had erred and improve our analytical and mathematical thinking. If there was a lot of red ink on our paper we felt bad, but knew deep down knew that if was our fault for doing sloppy work. We learned by studying hard, we had the ability to eliminate the prodigious use of red ink on our paper. We understood that our actions had direct consequences and the only way to improve ourselves was to develop our skills, not blame the teacher for telling us where we had erred. This epiphany reached us at a very young age and was liberating in that it made us acutely aware that each of us was in control of our own destinies in life. Green seems too much like blue to me...

 

My recommendation for all of the great teachers out there: Use Poppy Red, Red Dragon, or Lamy red...Teach on!

[truthpil]

I agree with Eric. I've always thought the purpose of red ink was that it stands out from whatever color the rest of the assignment is written in so that students can find the comments easily, as well as to emphasize the importance of the remarks. With the use of many colors of gel pens by some students today, red still stands out as the one unique color for this purpose. What makes corrections "aggressive" is not so much the color but what those corrections say. My students find lots of positive remarks and encouraging comments written on their papers in bright red. At the same time, since so many teachers use red, sometimes it's good to use a different color so as to break the monotony and draw fresh attention.

 

Poppy Red is the perfect grading color, but I have a lot of problems with it bleeding through cheap paper. I'm looking forward to trying Dragon's Napalm and Platinum Pigment red for this next batch of assignments.

 

Has anyone used turquoise inks for grading?

It seems like such a happy color and bright enough to stand out on the page. I'm going to try out some Pelikan Turquoise for this as well.

[HalloweenHJB]

I agree with Eric. I've always thought the purpose of red ink was that it stands out from whatever color the rest of the assignment is written in so that students can find the comments easily, as well as to emphasize the importance of the remarks. With the use of many colors of gel pens by some students today, red still stands out as the one unique color for this purpose. What makes corrections "aggressive" is not so much the color but what those corrections say. My students find lots of positive remarks and encouraging comments written on their papers in bright red. At the same time, since so many teachers use red, sometimes it's good to use a different color so as to break the monotony and draw fresh attention.

 

Poppy Red is the perfect grading color, but I have a lot of problems with it bleeding through cheap paper. I'm looking forward to trying Dragon's Napalm and Platinum Pigment red for this next batch of assignments.

 

Has anyone used turquoise inks for grading?

It seems like such a happy color and bright enough to stand out on the page. I'm going to try out some Pelikan Turquoise for this as well.

 

Agreed. The need for the comments to be easy to find is of primary importance. A nice peacock or turquoise blue would be great, as long as students are not using that color (I see it from time to time on assignments and exams). I havent used it myself, but for that purpose, I imagine a drier ink might be best —something like Rohrer and Klingner Blu Mare, or de Atramentis Adular Blue, or Waterman Inspired Blue.

[truthpil]

Pelikan 4001 Turquoise didn't turn out to be such a great grading ink after all. The color is beautiful and it performed well on every kind of paper the students could throw at it with no feathering, bleedthrough, or smearing. However, on cheap paper it is too dark to have the pop needed for correcting/grading.

 

Here is a sample done with a Pelikan M215 EF nib on paper so bad that I don't think it even exists Stateside:

 

[Agge]

Why? I'm a teacher, and I don't care if the students can change the score written on their work. It's already recorded before I hand it back, and they do not have access to the electronic gradebook. The scores and marks on their work is for their benefit, not mine or the school's.

 

And Fox Red is horrible on cheap paper. Diamine Poppy Red is what goes in my Red Pen of Justice.

I would mix in some noodlers blue ghost in the red ink for extra fun :-)

I would actualy let the students that did this resubmit and grade it honestly.

[HalloweenHJB]

I would mix in some noodlers blue ghost in the red ink for extra fun :-)

 

 

Great idea! Blue Ghost seems to work miracles on some inks...

[truthpil]

Back on the topic of red inks for grading, here is kind of what Noodler's Dragon's Napalm looks like on the page when grading. As reviewers of the ink have noted before, it's virtually impossible to get a scan of this ink that shows its actual orange-ish color. It's pluses for grading are that it really stands out on the page and doesn't feather or bleed too much on awful paper.

 

This was done with a Pilot 78g medium nib on some terrible paper:

 

 

The feathering was only a little bit more noticeable using a Lamy Safari broad nib on the same paper:

 

 

However, the minus is that Dragon's Napalm takes just a little too long to dry for grading, and I had some problems with smearing when flipping to the next assignment. I was definitely pushing it by using the broad nib:

 

[HalloweenHJB]

 

The feathering was only a little bit more noticeable using a Lamy Safari broad nib on the same paper:

 

 

 

However, the minus is that Dragon's Napalm takes just a little too long to dry for grading, and I had some problems with smearing when flipping to the next assignment. I was definitely pushing it by using the broad nib:

 

 

 

I've had the same experience. Broad nibs are to be used with caution when speed is a factor. I dislike fine nibs, but I have a couple that work very well for grading. And since they leave only a scant amount of ink on the paper, they tend not to bleed through as much on dreadful spongey paper.

 

As for the Dragon's Napalm, when it comes to almost ANY of the Noodler's inks, time is never your friend. Let most of their inks sit in a pen for a few days, and what you end up with is a goopy, oily mess that never really dries —you can wait for HOURS and it will still smear. This is particularly true, in my experience, of really nice colors (for grading) like Voltaire Vermilion, Widow Maker, Cayenne, to name a few.

[truthpil]

As for the Dragon's Napalm, when it comes to almost ANY of the Noodler's inks, time is never your friend. Let most of their inks sit in a pen for a few days, and what you end up with is a goopy, oily mess that never really dries —you can wait for HOURS and it will still smear. This is particularly true, in my experience, of really nice colors (for grading) like Voltaire Vermilion, Widow Maker, Cayenne, to name a few.

 

Yeah, I've noticed that. Many Noodler's inks either take too long to dry or they dry on the nib (like Bad Blue Heron). I've also had bleed-through problems with all the polar and eternal inks. They are wonderful for artistic projects , but grading is probably not the best use for them.

 

Incidentally, has anyone had any success using Noodler's Habanero to grade with? It looks like a fun color!

[Teacher Man]

Recently, I have taken to using Kaweko inks for grading papers. I try to grade in red and green anyway, and these two look very nice on most papers.

[truthpil]

Although many have recommended Diamine Red Dragon for grading, I just graded 2 stacks of tests with it and literally had to sit and watch the ink dry on some papers before I could move on. Admittedly I was using a 1.1 stub, but I've had similar problems with the bottom parts of the letters using fine nibs. It does look gorgeous on the page though, except when it means.

 

As for Platinum Pigment Rose Red, it is too pale pinkish on non-absorbant paper and also takes a while to dry on such paper. However, it's saturated enough on regular copy paper and aborbant notebook paper and has some nice shading then too.

[chromantic]

I just tested Skrip Red on a really nasty note pad and it performed quite well, low show through and no bleed to speak of; much better than the Diamine Ruby I also tried.

[BayesianPrior]

I just tested Skrip Red on a really nasty note pad and it performed quite well, low show through and no bleed to speak of; much better than the Diamine Ruby I also tried.

 

I'd love to love Diamine Matador as a mark-up editing ink, but it does feather and bleed on cheap copy paper (even with a Lamy EF nib - which isn't terribly fine). Sheaffer Skrip Red is the universally recommended true red with good behaviour. Does anyone have any experience with Waterman Red or Parker Quink Permanent Red (is it really permanent)?

[WaskiSquirrel]

I use an extra fine nib to grade and that helps a lot. But, lately, I'm using Noodler's Nikita, at least until it's all gone.

[Jimmy Joe]

Does anyone have any experience with Waterman Red or Parker Quink Permanent Red (is it really permanent)?

 

I can't speak to the Quink, but Waterman Red is quite decent. However, it is, in my opinion, clearly second to Skrip Red. Skrip is a brighter, richer color and better behaved on low-quality paper.

[truthpil]

 

Does anyone have any experience with Waterman Red or Parker Quink Permanent Red (is it really permanent)?

 

I would love to see another review of Parker Quink Permanent Red in the forums.

 

Judging by comments on Amazon, it doesn't appear to have any water resistance, so not permanent in that regard.

[BayesianPrior]

 

I can't speak to the Quink, but Waterman Red is quite decent. However, it is, in my opinion, clearly second to Skrip Red. Skrip is a brighter, richer color and better behaved on low-quality paper.

 

Thanks! It would appear that while Waterman Red could do the job, for the same price I'd be better off going with Skrip Red. Beautiful bottle be damned!

 

 

 

I would love to see another review of Parker Quink Permanent Red in the forums.

 

Judging by comments on Amazon, it doesn't appear to have any water resistance, so not permanent in that regard.

 

Amazon is indeed the only place I can find it for sale...and at double the price of blue, black, and blue-black. The permanent in the name might indicate 'not washable' rather than 'waterproof/bulletproof/eternal'. I don't think it's worth the gamble without getting a sample to test first. I'm sure if it really was waterproof it would get a lot more press on FPN.