Stop Saying "Socially Constructed": "The Social Construction Of Grades" Edition

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Here's the simple rule:

Never, ever use the term 'socially constructed' or its cognates.

It's a phrase that's worse than meaningless. It typically decreases the clarity of what you are saying--and thinking. If you have a thought at all, then it can be expressed much more clearly in different, clearer language. And sometimes the attempt to say what you actually mean will reveal to you that weren't sure what you meant, or that you had no real thought at all...

The article on the other end of the link is a frivolous thing. There's no reason to get cranky about it...  Behold, a summary:

Grades. Amirite?

Or, less snarkily:

Students want high grades even when their work isn't good.

And that's true. I'm not sure why we need another post on this...but, hell, I guess you can see this sort of thing as part of a discussion, and the same thing can be discussed many times. So it's all good.

Thing is, "social construction" has absolutely nothing to do with anything in the paper.

This is, actually, one of the common uses of 'socially constructed'--it's a kind of verbal tic. It doesn't mean anything, people just throw it into their writing. It's almost a stylistic element or somesuch.

Though the title of this piece is "The Social Construction of Grades," the only reference to "social construction" comes here:

I can't be that off the mark. But apparently, average work on my watch is another educator's version of excellent work. And the subjectivity is confusing to the students (and sometimes to their parents). 

The real issue for me around grades is that students have no other intrinsic motivation that some socially constructed meaningless label assigned at the end of the semester.

And 'socially constructed' can be dropped out with basically no loss of meaning:

I can't be that off the mark. But apparently, average work on my watch is another educator's version of excellent work. And the subjectivity is confusing to the students (and sometimes to their parents). 

The real issue for me around grades is that students have no other intrinsic motivation that some meaningless label assigned at the end of the semester.

OTOH, the author seems to mean that standards for grades are somewhat (note: somewhat) vague and variable. That's true, but has nothing to do with anything that can accurately be described by the words 'socially constructed.' If you mean that standards for grades are vague and variable, then say that they are vague and variable. If you mean that they are largely arbitrary, then say that they are largely arbitrary. In short, whatever you mean, say it. But none of the actual ideas you might want to express will be expressed by phrases like 'grades are socially constructed.'

Look, it's not a federal case, but it's really frustrating to see this kind of mind virus floating around. This silly phrase is always either (a) eliminable without loss of content or (b) a positive source of confusion.  So there's never any good reason to use the ridiculous phrase.