C. Ashton, 2010
Grading Guidelines
Style
What gets you marks:
- clear writing
- elegance
- wit
- sparkling (but formal) prose
What loses you marks:
- poor spelling
- poor grammar
- awkward phrasing
- elaborate circumlocutions to avoid saying I
Content
What gets you marks:
- reading the assignment sheet and making sure that what you re doing fulfills the assignment
- demonstrating awareness of the implications of the language you re using
- a clear, specific thesis statement that you ll have to sweat a little to prove
- analysis
- use of the Who Benefits? Questions
- self-reflexivity
- considering context
- a synthesis of the readings, lecture and tutorial discussion, and your own thoughts that goes
beyond what we ve talked about in the course
- considering possible objections to your argument, and arguing against them
- arguing coherently for interpretations of course material that challenge my or Sherry s
interpretations
What loses you marks:
- padding
- lengthy summaries of the text
proving something that s already been plainly stated in lecture or tutorial
- a vague thesis statement
- an introduction that mentions the dawn of time, the entirety of history, or all humankind
- formatting that attempts to disguise insufficient word count: wide margins, large fonts
- failure to engage with course themes
- failure to read the text you re writing about
-
parroting the lectures
interpretations of course materials that are significantly at variance from the interpretations
offered in the course without any rationale or argument for that variance
comparison that relies on superficial similarities or differences, without asking why they re
important
Structure
What gets you marks:
- good transitions between the parts of your essay
- logical organization of your argument
- a well balanced introduction, body, or conclusion (which is NOT to say that they should all
be the same length!)
- paragraphs that begin with a topic sentence and end by explaining how the contents of that
paragraph proves your thesis statement
What loses you marks:
- lack of a thesis statement
- a thesis statement that is vague or too broad
- cramming what you have to say into only five paragraphs
- confused or wandering argument
- no introduction or conclusion
- an overly long introduction or conclusion
References
What gets you marks:
- correct formatting
- citations AND bibliography
- good use of quotes
- good incorporation of quotations into the body of the paper
What loses you marks:
- lack of a bibliography
- lack of citations
- failure to cite ideas
- referring to an author by his or her first name only
- poor formatting
- overuse of quotations
- inappropriate quotations
- awkward incorporation of quotes into the body of the paper
- mistakes in transcribing quotations