Writing teachers despise grading. They delay it. They avoid it. They strive to minimize its impact and importance, speaking to their students as if it didn’t matter (when, of course it does). But in the end they are faced with it and do it, usually alone, with trepi-dation and a lot of second guessing. Last semester, we decided not to grade our stu-dents ’ portfolios. We opted out of the whole dilemma and in the process, found a way to provide students with a more valid assessment of their work. What grew out of a simple frustration with our roles as evaluators, eventually revealed hidden complexities and subjectivities inherent in grading. We had long been aware of evaluation of writing as a process riddled with doubt. “Is this really an A, or am I too aware of the fact that this is her sixteenth draft, am I too sympathetic to her struggle? ” or conversely, “Is this really a D paper, or am I only reacting to his snide posturing, his bragging to class-mates about how quickly he can ‘slap something together ’ before class? ” No matter how objective we try to be, these uncertainties remain. Some writing teachers embrace this subjectivity.