One problem: Essay quality, and that of writing in general, is subjective. It's possible to assess objective properties of writing, but it cuts off the top end of the spectrum. Three quarks for Muster Mark! Sure he has not got much of a bark And sure any he has it's all beside the mark. Grade? F. Author: Joyce. Importance: Inspired Gell-Mann's naming of the quark [1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark
But Hackers and Painters right? We do it too, don't we? 5 years of Java experience, 7 years of PHP, and 94 years of Haskell. So 5 years of Java, or 5x1year of Java, or Java as something you do for 2 hours every 2 months? 5 years of Java tells you very little doesn't it? As does A+ for Stylistic Expression.
Were grading that Arts like the Sciences. Judge a fish by it's ability to climb a tree and...