Getting Started

How Fresh Ink works

Five quick steps from a stack of handwritten essays to graded, feedback-rich reports — with progress tracking built in.

Step 1

Create or pick a rubric

Start with a built-in rubric (Argumentative, Narrative, Expository, 6-Trait) or build your own with custom criteria and point values. You can also align grading to a curriculum standard like AP, IB, or Common Core.

•Built-in rubrics work out of the box
•Custom rubrics let you set each criterion's max score
•Add a Standard to align grading to your curriculum

Step 2

Scan or paste an essay

Tap Grade New Essay on the home screen, then upload a handwritten photo, a scanned PDF, or paste typed text. Add the student name, writing type, and pick the rubric to grade against.

•Photos from your phone camera work great
•PDFs are best for multi-page scans
•Typed text skips OCR for the cleanest read

Step 3

Get instant grading

Fresh Ink transcribes the essay, scores every rubric criterion, writes strengths and areas-for-improvement, and runs AI-generation and plagiarism checks — usually in under a minute.

•Each criterion gets a score, max score, and comment
•AI-likelihood and plagiarism scores appear on the essay
•Status flips from Grading to the letter grade when done

Step 4

Review and export

Open any graded essay to edit the AI's feedback, add comments from your saved bank, and export a PDF. Choose a clean Student Report or a full Teacher Report with integrity metrics.

•Edit any feedback before sharing with students
•Student Reports hide integrity metrics
•Save reusable comments to your Comment Bank

Step 5

Track student progress

Open a student profile to see every essay, their average score, and a grade-trend chart. Fresh Ink flags sudden drops or improvements as alerts so you can step in early.

•Student initials are shown to protect privacy
•Trend alerts appear in the Alerts bell
•Class Performance shows your whole class at once

Ready to grade your first essay?

It takes about a minute from scan to grade.