Essay 4 Grading Criteria

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Requirements/Criteria/Rubric for Essay 4:

Research Paper Requirements:

1) The essay, while presenting your perspective on the issue, should be presented objectively. This means you will present the information in as fair and unbiased way as possible, without use of first person point of view.

2) The essay must include a minimum of eight scholarly/academic sources (encyclopedias and dictionaries do not count.) These sources must be accurately cited in the paper. You should have a variety of sources: articles from journals, newspapers, magazines, books, websites. However, online sources (not obtained from the library databases) should comprise no more than 20% of all sources used.

3) The essay should be a minimum of eight to ten pages of text. This does not include the Works Cited page or any space devoted to titles/graphs/images, etc.

4) The essay must have a complete and accurate Works Cited page—formatted according to MLA guidelines.

5) The essay should adhere to these formatting/composition guidelines: Your research paper should be typed in a 10-12 point font, double-spaced, with one-inch margins on all sides. Your essay should follow MLA documentation format.

Grading Criteria:

Your essays will be evaluated for the following: strength of argument, development of claim, thoroughness of research, writing ability, completeness of the writing process, meeting the requirements of the assignment, improvement in writing and argument skills relative to previous papers.

Qualities of an “A” paper (180-200 points):

--Meets all of the requirements for the assignment

--Presents an excellent organization of ideas and clear structure

--Takes a clear position on the issue with in-depth analysis

--Exhibits critical thinking

--Excellent adherence to MLA documentation style (in-text citations and works cited page)

--Writing above the English 100 level (sentence variety and length; free of grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors)

Qualities of an “B” paper (160-179 points):

--Meets all of the requirements for the assignment

--Presents good organization of ideas and clear structure

--Presents a position and provides some analysis

--Exhibits some critical thinking

--Good adherence to MLA documentation style

--Writing above the English 100 level, yet does not express ideas on the same level as an “A” paper

Qualities of an “C” paper (140-159 points):

--Meets all of the requirements for the assignment; may fall short in length

--Presents satisfactory organization of ideas

--Provides minimal expression of position

--Exhibits minimal critical thinking

--Some adherence to MLA documentation style

--Writing has some grammatical flaws (poor proofreading: spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors)

Qualities of an “D” paper (120-139 points):

--Does not meet the criteria for the assignment

--Presents a poor organization of ideas

--Position is not clear

--Exhibits little or no critical thinking

--Poor adherence to MLA documentation style

--Writing has serious flaws that disrupt the reading