Can an automated grading system score human articulation and reason? The tool Paris uses compares student work to “training” essays, or models of the class assignment, at each scoring level. SAGrader, software developed by Ed Brent, a sociology professor at the University of Missouri at Columbia, works similarly. His students type a sociology essay about community, for example, into an input field on the assignment’s Web site. Moments after students click on the Submit button, SAGrader assesses whether they have identified concepts such as urban renewal or gentrification and have used appropriate examples.