Personally, I do enjoy using rubrics because they help me focus my thinking. I've tried grading papers without rubrics and as many teachers know, that is a process and many times it would be over a few days time when students would turn them in. I found that I couldn't always remember what I had really emphasized from one paper to the next. I felt like I had a lot more bias and was not doing justice to their hardwork. With carefefully crafted rubrics I can be more concise and justify my thinking. I agree with Spandel, that writers have worked hard and put a lot of thought into their writing and as a reader I should put as much into reading their pieces and not just going through a checklist or a feeling that I couldn't quite put into words. Of course it is still subjective, but rubrics do help give direction, especially when accompanied by examples of good writing and potential problems. Since grading writing is so subjective, personally I like to know what a teacher is emphasizing, especially if I haven't written something for them or if I haven't written that type of piece before. I have had students help my create a rubric before, but I would like to use this more when possible. In second grade, I definitely need to show examples of rubrics first and do a few projects with my own rubrics before having them help create.