Candid Beauty

I’ve never actually graded a paper before. I’ve proof read many papers, but this was completely different. Some questions arose while doing it, but not all straightforward. I have another teacher who told our class that all grading is subjective. He claims even math is. Who said 90-100 should be an A? Why should it be a four point scale? I think the idea of grading being subjective couldn’t ring any truer than in grading writing.
OK, first with the straight forward questions. I know there is a standard format, as far as markings, for proof reading papers, but I’m not sure what it is. Is this standard just for uniformity’s sake? Was it proclaimed the standard just because everybody started doing it, or was it decided to be the most efficient or best way to do by some official group of scholars?
Second, should everything wrong with the paper be marked, or as a proof reader and grader should I pick and choose my battles. On one hand I can see marking every mistake or suggestion as being intimidating or demoralizing to the student. But I could also imagine a student making the same mistakes repeatedly if they are not marked, and also complaining if the same mistake is marked on one paper, but not a previous one.
The next is about giving the final grade. Should grades be relative to each other? In other words, should there be an unspoken curve. The professor who shared his views on grading being subjective also told us writing was graded relative to other writing being graded at the same time. He said it may not be done intentionally or even consciously, but it is done none the less. If this is already happening should you accept it, maybe let it be known? Or is this unfair? Should a conscious effort be put forth to not do it, or will that compensation become over compensation, and muddy the whole process? To keep from doing it should a strict rubric from grading be followed for every paper? Or will this stunt creativity?
Lastly I question how to grammar and structure with content, effort and passion. All seem important, but can they compensate for each other. Should a bland and generally inspirited paper with excellent structure and grammar receive a high mark. And oppositely should a highly passionate paper, ridled with grammatical errors, that’s poorly organized (sort of like this blog entry), receive a low mark?
I know most of these questions I’ll have to answer myself; and many are essentially rhetorical. But if anyone reading this has any answers or suggestions, please put them in a response. I know someone has a great website they’d like to share with me. As far a websites, here’s a decent one I found.

Establishing Standards and Criteria