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    This seems to wander, a lot. How does all students getting high or low grades relate to joke answers? In the 2nd para, are you saying you give points if the written answer is bad, but you "know" the student knows it? The hair color example seems odd -- are you saying that since anyone can write something funny for more credit, it's fair?
    – Owen Reynolds
    Commented Nov 2, 2020 at 21:37
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    @OwenReynolds I'm trying here to make the point that this question about awarding "a few points" to a student is unethical is if it would affect the grades of other students. This could happen with competitive grading and with many things called "grading on the curve". I don't say that I do this. I say that it isn't, on its face, unethical unless it affects others or is for personal reasons unrelated to learning (e.g. hair color). This case may not be "best practice" but it isn't unethical unless others suffer.
    – Buffy
    Commented Nov 2, 2020 at 21:50
  • @Buffy if a student pays a bribe to a professor in return for a good grade, would you say that that is ethical if “it doesn’t disadvantage other students in any way”? That is obviously the wrong criterion. What about the employers who are disadvantaged by thinking the person they will be hiring knows more than he or she really does? The customers of that employer? Or the student him/herself who gets the message that paying bribes (or telling jokes) is a much easier way to get ahead in life than honest, hard work? Grading decisions have many consequences which this answer completely ignores.
    – Dan Romik
    Commented Nov 4, 2020 at 15:35
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    @DanRomik. " if a student pays a bribe..." is hardly in the same league. Why make this about something more than it is? A few points on one question on one exam isn't going to have any overall effect on employers, etc. It isn't the medical board exam, for example. Why do you assume that the student is somehow lazy? You are making a "federal case" out of a joke. You aren't usually so unreasonable.
    – Buffy
    Commented Nov 4, 2020 at 15:50
  • @Buffy I’m saying that the reason you cited for why it’s “fine”, namely that it “doesn’t disadvantage other students”, isn’t by itself sufficient to explain why it’s ethical. The bribe example illustrates that. I’m not saying that giving points for a joke answer is as bad as doing it in exchange for a bribe, but rather that a helpful answer would provide reasoning sufficient to differentiate between those two actions.
    – Dan Romik
    Commented Nov 4, 2020 at 15:58