33. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for causing a computer system to execute processing for automatically annotating essays, the computer readable storage medium comprising computer executable instructions which, when executed, cause the computer system to execute steps comprising: identifying a sentence of the essay; determining a plurality of features associated with said sentence; determining a probability of said sentence being a discourse element by a statistical evaluation that includes mapping the plurality of features to a model, said model having been generated by a machine learning application trained based on at least one annotated essay, wherein said mapping comprises extracting a pattern from the sentence based on the plurality of features and based on the training of the machine learning application, and wherein said discourse element is at least one of: a background, a thesis statement, a main point, and support; and annotating said essay based on said probability.
34. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 33 , the computer executable instructions which, when executed, cause the computer system to: identify another sentence of the essay; determine another plurality of features associated with the another sentence; and determine a probability of the another sentence being another discourse element by mapping said another plurality of features to the model, wherein said another discourse element is at least one of: a title, and a conclusion.