Table 3: Comparing ‘Ann Other’ Bales’s analysis by hand and by OpenMentor

• it is remarkable that OpenMentor can categorise the comments in this way.
• I’m unclear what the ‘ideal’ totals are based on. Who or what has determined what they should be? How are the ‘expected’ totals arrived at?
• some of the tutor’s comments seem to have been left out (but spookily I still seem to have the same total number!)
• the negative category is open to interpretation more than the others. If it means the tutor is making a negative and unhelpful comment which is unsupportive, then I don’t think any of the comments fall into that category, but if it means telling the student they did something wrong then one comment (about page numbers) does belong there.
• maybe D is not so much about what is said but how it is said
• why is Bales’s Category B called ‘attempted answers’? Would ‘suggested answers’ be any better?