For faculty

Grade the essay. Know how it was written.

You already read every paper. Sennel adds the one thing the paper stopped carrying on its own: how it came to exist. Most submissions clear in a glance. The few that need a look come with the passage, the moment, and the reason.

§ 01What changes

Your time goes where it matters.

ENGL 102 · Essay 224 submitted2 need a look
StudentSubmittedStateReasonAction
A. OkaforTue 11:42 PMReviewExternal arrival, ¶ 2, 412 words unchanged
J. LindqvistTue 9:03 PMOrdinaryComposed in session · 3 h 10 min
M. ReyesTue 10:51 PMOrdinaryComposed in session · 2 h 24 min
S. PatelWed 12:07 AMNo observation38 min unobserved · ¶ 4 affected
R. NakamuraTue 8:15 PMOrdinaryComposed in session · 4 h 02 min
T. BrennanTue 11:58 PMOrdinaryComposed over two sessions

Illustrative docket. Names and times are examples.

§ 02The brief

One page per submission.

The review brief shows the passage, the moment it arrived, and what happened to it afterward. What Sennel saw is shown separately from what it makes of it, so a student or a committee can see the same thing you do.

Essay 2 · Photography and the painter's eye1,180 wordsSealed 11:42 PM

When photography arrived, critics predicted the end of painting. Instead, painters stopped competing with the camera on likeness and turned to what the lens could not do: the impression of light, the feeling of a moment, the visible hand.

Daguerre's announcement of 1839 was received in Paris as both a marvel and a threat. Paul Delaroche is often quoted as declaring that from that day painting was dead, though the attribution is doubtful; what is certain is that within a decade the portrait miniaturists had largely lost their trade to the studio photographer, and that the Salon juries of the 1850s were still arguing over whether a photograph could be admitted as art at all.

¶ 2 · 412 words arrived at 10:05 PM · unchanged in final

What survived was not the craft of likeness but the reasons for looking. A portrait could now be had in minutes; a painting had to justify its hours, and the justification became the subject.

Replay7:10 PM – 11:42 PM · 4 h 32 min61 revisions
break · 22 min412 words · 0.8 s7:10 PM9:26 PM11:42 PM
composedrevisedarrived from outsideno observation
  • ReviewExternal arrival in paragraph 2412 words · unchanged in final · outside accepted quotationOpen passage →
  • OrdinaryEverything else was composed in session768 words · 61 revisions · 4 h 10 min activeReplay →
Your decision is recorded with the evidence behind it.

Illustrative record. Sennel shows what it observed and where it could not, and leaves the decision to you.

§ 03Policy

Your policy, your call.

Findings come to you. Policy stays yours. You decide what a finding means under your course rules, and the decision stays on the record.

Quotation and notes

Text that arrived from outside is shown with its time, size, and what became of it. Whether it is accepted quotation, notes, or something else is judged by you, under your rules.

Gaps

A gap is shown as a gap, with its length and the text it affects. You see it, and you decide what it means.

§ 04Questions

Common questions.

How much time does review take?

Most rows in the docket need one click. A review brief is one page, and the replay opens at the moment a finding points at.

Do I need to change my assignments?

Take-home essays work as they are. Students write in Word or Google Docs and submit the file they wrote.

What do students see?

One button to start, a submit action, and a receipt with their own copy of the exact file. The brief and the replay are yours.

Can I try it in one course?

Yes. A pilot is one course and one assignment cycle, on your rules for consent and retention. We set it up with you and your academic-technology staff.

See it on one of your essays.

Twenty minutes, on a call, with your questions.