Reflection: Who Owns Writing?

This article was full of witticism and quite fun to read. However, I was perplexed to hear about "the essay generator" (Norton, 1249) and the fact that is could be successful when a teacher uses a digital grader. In fact, I was shocked to even consider that a teach would use a digital grader for essays. I don't want to suggest that grading hundreds of essays is easy, but isn't intimacy (at least on some level) with the progression of student work vital to improving their composition? Isn't that why we are teaching composition, to help students improve the transcription of their voice to paper in any given genre? I cannot fathom a scenario where a digital grader is appropriate; it either voids the purpose of the teacher (judging human perception of a piece) or it is not optimal (it may pass judgment on grammar but correct spelling is hardly the point of writing essays). I suppose my primary takeaway from this essay is two-fold; intimacy with a students work may be exhausting but it is necessary for improvement, and asking the question "who owns writing" is not as important as helping a student improve what it is they are writing in the first place.