Gradatorium: Criteria for early papers

Reasons why a paper may not pass:

• The paper does not engage with the assigned readings. It may depend on uncritical personal response, avoid dealing with the text directly, or generalize about the texts.

• It shows a lack of basic reading comprehension. The writer may fail to grasp the meaning of key terms or the outline of a text’s argument.

• It may summarize texts without defining the writer’s own position, argument, or project. If the paper does have an argument, it may be largely unsubstantiated.

• The paper may not quote sufficiently, accurately, or appropriately from the text, or have citation problems as extreme as plagiarism or errors that border on plagiarism.

• The paper has little or no organizational structure.

• It has significant sentence-level error that makes the essay difficult to follow, including sentence fragments, run-on sentences, agreement errors, or spelling and punctuation errors.

C range:

• The C paper has the beginnings of a focus or argument. This project may be rather simple, but it is reasonable and supportable.

• It demonstrates some success in engaging with the assigned readings. It may consist largely of summary, but shows comprehension of key concepts.

• It shows an ability to use quotation and key terms, choose appropriate passages, and cite accurately.

• The C paper often creates coherent relationships between paragraphs even if they have not developed a larger organizational structure.

• Most sentence-level errors are under control; though errors may appear on each page, they do not significantly impede the meaning of the essay.

C+ papers sustain a level of engagement and attempt more complex connections and analysis than the C paper, but may not earn a B because connections or argument are undeveloped.

B range:

• The B paper extends connections beyond simple comparisons or contrasts, even if the analysis is not sustained through the entire essay.

• B papers demonstrate the student's ability to work with more than one reading and to create a few meaningful connections between assigned readings.

• The relationships between the paper's parts are mostly clear and coherent.

• B papers may include a few C moments of misreading, summary, or weak analysis.

• Sentence-level error is under control, although one or two patterns of error may remain.

B+ papers execute several of the elements of a B paper particularly well. The analytical points may be more complex, or the work with the texts may be particularly insightful, yet in one or two major areas, the student may still not be doing A-level work.

A range:

• An A paper is usually distinguished from B work by the sustained and coherent development of a thoughtful, analytic argument and substantial interpretive connections between texts.

• The student takes interpretive risks, responding to the assignment and to the readings in distinctive ways, or develops an awareness of her own position in relation to the texts.

• An A paper may have one or two B or even C moments, but they do not significantly detract from the overall force of the paper.

• Sentence-level error must be minimal.