A search for style 2

Roger Lindsay participated in the essay-marking study purporting to demonstrate that academic assessment is a "lottery" (News, THES , June 28). He says the essays contained no coherent theory and little he would regard as evidence. This left little more than students' style to comment on.

In other words, Lindsay was marking almost wholly on style, not substance. It is therefore difficult to see why he contributed to the conclusions of such a flawed study and, if his experience is at all typical, what validity it can claim.

Nigel Probert
Porthmadog