Teacher Resources: Grading Criteria

C range:

• PROJECT
  • In a passing paper there is evidence of an emerging project-something the student wants the paper to accomplish-or the beginnings of a focus or argument. Often, C papers fail to articulate their project in the paper's introduction.
  • Papers often achieve a passing grade by taking a clear position once-perhaps at the end of the essay-even when the project is not sustained in the rest of the paper.
  • The project may be vague or general.
    
• WORKING WITH TEXT
  • C papers demonstrate the student's ability to work with more than one source text and engage with the ideas in the readings.
  • However, the C-level paper generally lacks a clear sense that the student's voice contributes to the conversation, with connective thinking typically restricted to relationships between ideas in the readings.
  • Although a passing paper may include summary, the quality of the summary demonstrates significant reading comprehension and often helps the student begin to define a focus.
    
• ORGANIZATION
  • Passing papers, in places, create coherent relationships within or between paragraphs even if they have not developed a larger organizational structure. Students have a sense of how to write paragraphs, even if the relationship between the paragraphs is not clearly presented.
    
• PRESENTATION
  • A passing paper has fatal sentence-level errors under control. Although errors may appear on each page, they do not significantly impede the meaning of the essay or undermine the writer's credibility.

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