American National Government Paper

Essay Grading Standards

Michael Roloff

To my POLI 201 students: This document contains standards that I developed several

years ago to guide myself and my teaching assistants in the grading of essays for

introductory-level political science courses. I will be utilizing these standards for the essay

you will be writing in this class. I hope the level of detail provided below helps as you

prepare to write your paper. Please feel free to come see me if you have any questions

about these standards.

A paper in the A range (Excellent) displays the following characteristics:

• Thesis: The paper contains a clearly stated thesis which cues the reader to the purpose and direction of the essay. The thesis is clearly appropriate to the assigned topic. The

thesis (in most cases) should be interesting, arguable, and somewhat limited in scope. For

example, “Democracy is awesome!” is not a very promising thesis, whereas,

“Democracies are more stable than authoritarian regimes because they are more

accountable to popular preferences” offers a better opening for a paper on democracy.

• Structure: The paper has a coherent structure, including a clear beginning, middle, and end. The essay is broken into paragraphs, with each paragraph developing a single,

distinct idea. One paragraph smoothly transitions into the next paragraph, creating unity

and direction in the paper. The paper follows a logical order.

• Evidence: The essay contains strong, appropriate, and persuasive evidence in support of the author’s thesis. The evidence is gathered from diverse sources and is presented in a

readable fashion. In addition to facts and figures, the essay employs other tools to support

the thesis, including appropriate anecdotes, analogies, and examples that illustrate a

larger point. Counterarguments, which may undermine the author’s thesis, are given due

consideration and (usually) are refuted persuasively.

• Analysis: The essay is insightful and fresh. The author makes thoughtful connections

between his/her thesis and the evidence presented in the paper. The thesis is developed

in-depth, beyond superficial generalities. The analysis demonstrates clear understanding

of major concepts related to the topic.

• Mechanics: The paper is grammatically precise, containing no more than a handful of

grammatical errors. There are very few, if any, spelling errors in the paper. The essay

uses appropriate word choice and level of formality (i.e., no slang or obscenities).

Sentence structure varies between complex and simple, not for its own sake, but in

service to the clarification of ideas and enhancing readability. The essay defines unusual

terms and provides necessary background. The essay is easy and enjoyable to read. The

essay is printed clearly on clean white paper, and includes the title, author, course,

instructor, and date submitted (preferably on a cover page). The essay is stapled together.

Pages are numbered.

• Sources: The essay utilizes well-chosen sources as appropriate (the number and type of

sources will vary by assignment). Sources are utilized in a range of ways (to motivate the

argument, provide key terms and facts, support the author’s argument, etc.)

• Citation method: All sources are properly cited, correctly using the APA citation

method (or other standard citation format with which the student is already familiar).

A paper in the B range contains a relatively equal mix of the characteristics of an A paper

detailed above and the characteristics of a C paper detailed below.

A paper in the C range (Adequate) displays the following characteristics:

• Thesis: The thesis makes a point, but it may be too general to prove, be based upon assumptions that are never made explicit in the essay, or is commonly accepted fact. The

connection between the thesis and the assignment given by the instructor may be

somewhat murky.

• Structure: The structure of the paper lacks tight coherence. Rather than having a logical flow, the essay seems to drift back and forth without a clear direction. Transitions from

one paragraph to the next are often quite rough. “Tightness” within paragraphs is

inconsistent; some paragraphs nicely flesh out a single point, whereas others are cluttered

or vague.

• Evidence: Some attempt is made to support the thesis with evidence, but the evidence is lacking in one or more of the following ways: the evidence is inadequate, unpersuasive,

or overly general; the link between the evidence and the argument it is meant to support

is tenuous; the author does not adequately connect the evidence presented in the paper to

the points he/she is trying to make. Counterarguments, to the extent that they are

addressed, are often set up as “straw men,” establishing opposing perspectives that are

easy to refute rather than considering the most compelling opposing arguments.

• Analysis: The essay lacks much insight. The analysis is predictable and seems to repeat the “conventional wisdom” or simply act as a “cheerleader” for the sources. Paragraphs

are too general and vague to demonstrate the author has a clear command of key

concepts.

• Mechanics: The paper is flawed, containing enough spelling and grammatical errors to be noticeable and distracting, but not so many that the readability of the essay is

significantly impaired. The essay mostly uses appropriate word choice and level of

formality; however, the word choice is sometimes confusing or too general. Sentences

lack the easy flow of excellent papers. The reader is often left to infer what the author

meant to convey in certain sentences. The paper is somewhat of a struggle to read.

• Sources: Sources are used, but often in inadequate or inappropriate ways. Sources are sometimes used as a “crutch,” providing the source’s analysis of the topic in place of the

student’s analysis. Sources may also be used sometimes as “filler” by citing long

quotations that take up space in the paper but do very little to clarify or advance the

author’s thesis. Overall, the sources used in adequate papers fail to provide strong support

to the author’s thesis.

• Citation method: Sources may occasionally be cited inconsistently or insufficiently, but not deceptively so. The citation method generally follows APA or another standard

method (e.g., MLA, APSA), but errors in format may sometimes occur.

A paper in the D range contains a relatively equal mix of the characteristics of a C paper detailed

above and the characteristics of an F paper detailed below.

A paper in the F range (Failing) displays the following characteristics:

• Thesis: The paper lacks a thesis. There is no central argument to guide the development of the essay. The ideas discussed in the essay may have only a slight connection to the

assignment given by the instructor.

• Structure: The paper is largely incoherent. There is no clear beginning, middle, and end to the paper. Transitions, if they occur, are confusing or generic. Paragraphs, such as they

are, do not develop single ideas.

• Evidence: Evidence and explanation scarcely appear, or they are random and unrelated to the topic. Counterarguments are not considered or are presented in extreme forms of

the “straw man” argument. The paper is a series of generalities without much support.

• Analysis: The paper demonstrates very little, if any, analytical thought. The paper demonstrates that the student does not comprehend key concepts related to the topic. The

paper may sometimes read as a laundry list of clichés or as a “rant” with little concern for

developing any ideas in depth.

• Mechanics: The essay is very difficult to read and it is hard to discern the author’s intent. The paper is filled with so many spelling and grammatical errors that it severely impedes

readability. Word choice is poor, leading to ambiguities and/or contradictions. The paper

resembles stream-of-consciousness talk, with no indication of thoughtful structuring. The

paper is considerably shorter than required by the assignment.

• Sources: Sources, to the extent they are used at all, are used inappropriately. Sources may be taken out of context, they may bear little relation to the topic at hand in the essay,

or they may be used for very long quotations that achieve nothing other than filling up

space on the page.

• Citation method: The essay is woefully inadequate in terms of citing sources. In an F paper, this failure to cite sources is generally due to gross negligence and a

misunderstanding of proper citation method, rather than a conscious attempt to deceive

the reader by passing off someone else’s work as their own.

A paper that results in an automatic F in the course and one that may result in academic

misconduct charges being brought against the student contain the following characteristic:

• Plagiarism: Plagiarism is defined in CSU’s General Catalog as, “…the copying of language, structure, ideas, or thoughts of another, and representing them as one’s own

without proper acknowledgement. Examples include a submission of purchased research

papers as one’s own work; paraphrasing and/or quoting material without properly

documenting the source.” The general rule to follow when writing your essays: when in

doubt, cite the source. Whenever you place facts, figures, and ideas inside your essay that

did not originate with you, you need to credit the source(s) where you found those facts,

figures, ideas, etc. When you use the exact words of a source, you need to place those

words inside quotation marks and alert the reader to exactly where those words can be

found (including the page number if you are quoting a book, magazine, journal article,

etc.).

• Clarification on Plagiarism: I recognize that oversights sometimes occur. Perhaps you reference a statistic in a given sentence and fail to cite at the end of that sentence the

source where you found the statistic; however, you’ve already cited this source in

previous sentences or paragraphs in your essay and the source appears in the reference

list at the end of your essay. Technically, this could still be considered plagiarism. Am I

going to “throw the book at you” for failing to cite the source within the essay each and

every time you use a fact or figure from the source? No, because in this case it would be

clear to me that you were not trying to be deceptive, but rather simply made an error of

omission. However, if it occurs more than once or twice in your essay it will have a

negative impact on your grade. If your failure to cite sources becomes rampant and/or if

you start to use others’ words without attributing them as such, then you risk having the

charge of plagiarism leveled against you. I do take intent into consideration, and it is

usually relatively easy to distinguish errors of omission from intents to deceive, but why

take chances and have your academic career come down to a judgment call? Why not be

safe and take extra caution to make sure that your essays contain full and complete

citations of your sources?

Essay Grading Standards Adapted from:

Department of Literature and Languages, Dominican University of California. “Essay Grading

Standards.” http://www.dominican.edu/academics/artssciences/artshum/litlang/grading.html

(August 9, 2007).

Duszenko, Andrzej, Northern State University. 2007. “Essay-Grading Standards.”

http://www.northern.edu/duszenko/201/grading.html (August 9, 2007).