I was about to ramble on a bit about slogging through the grading when I figured I might as well check the OED:
1. a. trans. To hit or strike hard; to drive with blows. Also fig., to assail violently.
1824 Session Papers Central Criminal Court 21 Sept. 535/1 One of them said, ‘Go back and slog him.’ 1853 ‘C. BEDE’ Verdant Green xi. 106 His whole person [had been] put in chancery, stung, bruised, fibbed,..slogged, and otherwise ill-treated. 1884 ‘R. BOLDREWOOD’ Melb. Memories iv. 32 We slogged the tired cattle round the fence. 1891 Spectator 10 Oct. 487/1 They love snubbing their friends and ‘slogging’ their enemies.
b. Cricket. To obtain (runs) by hard hitting.
1897 H. W. BLEAKLEY Short Innings iii. 49 Mr. Dolly slogged sixes and fours until he had made about eighty.
2. intr. To walk heavily or doggedly.
Halliwell's ‘Slog, to lag behind’ probably belongs to SLUG v.
1872 CALVERLEY Fly Leaves (1903) 119 Then abiit..off slogs boy. 1876 Mid-Yorksh. Gloss., Slog, to walk with burdened feet, as through snow, or puddle. 1907 Westm. Gaz. 2 Oct. 2/1 Overtaking the guns, we ‘slogged’ on with them for a mile or more.
3. a. To deal heavy blows, to work hard (at something), to labour away, etc.
1846 Swell's Night Guide 37 Most of them can slog, that is to say,..fight. 1888 Daily News 22 May 5/2, I slogged at it, day in and day out. 1894 HESLOP Northumberland Gloss. s.v., They slogged away at the anchor shank. 1903 19th Cent. Mar. 392 They have no incentives to slog and slave.
b. Cricket. To hit, or attempt to hit, the ball hard and with abandon.
1869 Baily's Mag. July 21 Not only did he ‘slog’, in the true sense of the word, which we take to be hitting blindly and high in the air, but [etc.]. 1904 F. C. HOLLAND Cricket 36 You should go to the nets, not to slog, but to play. 1935 J. C. MASTERMAN Fate cannot harm Me viii. 167 At the fifth ball the Admiral slogged with even crookeder bat and even more mighty effort; he missed it, and all three stumps were spreadeagled. 1980 Cricketer International Feb. 11/1 The incredible thing is that he never had to slog once to make his runs.
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Somehow all that cricket terminology makes slogging seem much more vigorous than what I had in mind. The 1876 quote under usage #2 was more what it feels like, trudging laboriously through puddles. A combination of sludge, effort, and sloth = slog. Or at least I thought so. But perhaps I can now reconfigure my mental attitude and go "assail" some papers "violently." Or something.
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