Essay

Criteria

Levels of Achievement

Content

Advanced

Proficient

Developing

Not Present

Points Earned

Thesis Statement

35 points

First paragraph includes a thesis statement and final paragraph(s) reflect accomplishment of the thesis.

25 to 24 points

Contains something that is close to a proper thesis statement and the conclusion basically reflects its accomplishment.

1 to 24 points

Thesis statement is unclear and conclusion does not clearly reflect its accomplishment.

0 points

No thesis statement and conclusion is unconnected to any thesis

Style

35 points

Appropriately academic style of writing, free of slang, informalities, sermonizing, anecdotes, etc.

25 to 34 points

Occasional lapses from academic style, such as slang, informalities, sermonizing, anecdotes, etc.

1 to 24 points

Frequent lapses from academic style, such as slang, informalities, sermonizing, anecdotes, etc.

0 points

Style is completely non-academic

Tone

35 points

Appropriately philosophical tone: obvious care for objectivity and respectful consideration of multiple perspectives; nuanced and insightful discussion of positions and arguments.

25 to 34 points

Occasional lapses into subjectivity; some one-sidedness; positions and arguments are painted with a broad brush, etc.

1 to 24 points

Many lapses into subjectivity; consistent one-sidedness; positions and arguments lack detail and nuance, etc.

0 points

No attempt at writing with a philosophical tone.

Understanding

35 points

Discussion reflects detailed knowledge of the issues in metaethics taught in the course and very appropriate application of this knowledge to the applied ethics issue selected.

25 to 34 points

Discussion reflects some knowledge of the issues in metaethics taught in the course and a reasonable attempt to apply this knowledge to a selected issue in applied ethics.

1 to 24 points

Discussion reflects some but not much knowledge of metaethical issues, perhaps with some minor confusion, and some attempt to apply this to the chosen issue.

0 points

Discussion reflects no knowledge of the metaethical issues taught in the course.

Argument

35 points

Argumentation is logical (free of fallacies, including appeal to emotion).

25 to 34 points

Argument is basically logical, though with some appeal to emotion, unsupported assertions, or other similar issues.

1 to 24 points

Argument falls short of being logical by committing multiple fallacies, appealing to emotion, making unsupported assertions, or other problems of this sort.

0 points

No argument is present

Structure

Advanced

Proficient

Developing

Not Present

Points Earned

Length

15 points

Meets length requirement: 2100-2400 words (including footnotes, title page, table of contents, and bibliography).

10 to 14 points

Word count exceeds 2400.

1 to 9 points

Word count is less than 2100 words.

0 points

Document is blank

Components

20 points

Contains a title page, table of contents, footnotes, and bibliography.

15 to 19 points

Some required components missing.

1 to 14 points

Many required components missing.

0 points

All required components are missing.

Format

20 points

Body of paper is double-spaced with 1-inch margins and 12 pt. Times New Roman font; footnotes are single-spaced 10pt. Times New Roman; footnotes and bibliography are formatted according to Turabian.

15 to 19 points

Some degree of deviation from the prescribed format.

1 to 14 points

Considerable deviation from the prescribed format.

0 points

Complete deviation from the prescribed format.

Proofreading

20 points

Free of grammatical, syntactical, punctuation, spelling, and other such errors.

15 or 19 points

Some grammatical, syntactical, punctuation, spelling, and other such errors.

1 to 14 points

Many grammatical, syntactical, punctuation, spelling, and other such errors.

0 points

Pervasive grammatical, syntactical, punctuation, spelling, and other such errors.

Total

/250

Instructor's Comments: