1. A method for automated analysis of an essay, the method comprising: accepting an essay; determining whether each of a predetermined set of features is present or absent in each sentence of the essay; for each sentence in the essay, calculating a probability that the sentence is a member of a certain discourse element category, wherein the probability is based on the determinations of whether each feature in the set of features is present or absent; and choosing a sentence as the choice for the discourse element category, based on the calculated probabilities.