RPA63

Grading Rubric for Research Paper.html

Research Paper Grading Rubric

Your grade for the research paper will be based on a number of criteria:  demonstrated understanding of concepts; skill in synthesizing, analyzing, and evaluating information; proper use of references; and writing skills. It will comprise 25% of your final overall course grade.

Excellent:  95-100%

Content

• Demonstrate superb level of comprehension of the subject matter.
• Provide superb synthesis, analysis, and evaluation of information; demonstrate superior independent thinking.
• Offer highly relevant and convincing evidence and/or examples to support observations and inferences.
• Be highly accurate and comprehensive, fully responsive to both major and minor aspects of the assignment.
• Adhere to all guidelines for content.
• Includes an excellent proportion or balance of original work with quotes and paraphrasing.

References and Citations

• Fully credit all sources of information, whether quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.
• Fully support the content and fully appropriate to the topic.
• Are of exceptional quality, such as peer-reviewed scholarly articles.
• Exceed the number of required references (when stated as an instruction).
• Consistently use the correct and required format (APA).

Writing: Organization of Information

• Present a highly logical sequence of ideas; flow smoothly and exhibit smooth transitions.
• Provide very clear and concise statement of the significant elements, key ideas, and issues; clearly and consistently document ideas and assertions.
• Always stay "on track" and remain focused.
• Exhibit a highly effective organization and design of paragraphs and sentences; ideas and words are well chosen, paragraphs have topic sentences, etc.

Writing: Grammatical

• Contain few if any errors in sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, or spelling; be consistently well written.
• Express ideas in an extremely clear manner to the reader; never be vague or incomplete.
• Achieve an excellent balance of how much to say: concise when needed, explanatory when needed.
• Use a highly appropriate tone; separate very clearly the objective from the subjective (opinions).
• Be of the required length (other criteria, especially quality rate much higher than this).

Good: 90-94%

Content

• Demonstrate good to very good level of comprehension of the subject matter.
• Provide good to very good synthesis, analysis, and evaluation of information; demonstrate good independent thinking.
• Offer relevant and convincing evidence and/or examples to support observations and inferences.
• Be highly accurate and comprehensive, fully responsive to both major and minor aspects of the assignment.
• Adhere to all guidelines for content.
• Includes an appropriate proportion or balance of original work with quotes and paraphrasing.

References and Citations

• Fully credit all sources of information, whether quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.
• Support the content and appropriate to the topic.
• Are of good to very good quality, such as peer-reviewed scholarly articles.
• Meet or exceed the number of required references (when stated as an instruction).
• Consistently use the correct and required format (APA).

Writing: Organization of Information

• Present a highly logical sequence of ideas; flow smoothly and exhibit smooth transitions.
• Provide very clear and concise statement of the significant elements, key ideas, and issues; clearly and consistently document ideas and assertions,
• Always stay "on track" and remain focused.
• Exhibit a highly effective organization and design of paragraphs and sentences; ideas and words are well chosen, paragraphs have topic sentences, etc.

Writing: Grammatical

• Contain few if any errors in sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, or spelling; be consistently well written.
• Express ideas in an extremely clear manner to the reader; never be vague or incomplete.
• Achieve an excellent balance of how much to say: concise when needed, explanatory when needed.
• Use a highly appropriate tone; separate very clearly the objective from the subjective (opinions).
• Be of the required length (other criteria, especially quality rate much higher than this).

Proficient: 85-89%

Content

• Demonstrate proficient level of comprehension of the subject matter.
• Provide proficient synthesis, analysis, and evaluation of information; demonstrate independent thinking.
• Offer relevant evidence and/or examples to support observations and inferences.
• Be accurate and comprehensive, responsive to both major and minor aspects of the assignment.
• Adhere to all guidelines for content.
• Includes an acceptable proportion or balance of original work with quotes and paraphrasing.

References and Citations

• Credit most sources of information, whether quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.
• Support the content and appropriate to the topic.
• Are mostly of good quality, such as peer-reviewed scholarly articles.
• Meet the number of required references (when stated as an instruction).
• Mostly consistent in use a citation format, though not necessarily APA’s format.

Writing: Organization of Information

• Present a logical sequence of ideas; flow smoothly and exhibit smooth transitions.
• Provide a mostly clear and concise statement of the significant elements, key ideas, and issues; clearly document ideas and assertions.
• Generally stay "on track" and remain focused.
• Exhibit a proficient organization and design of paragraphs and sentences; ideas and words are mostly well chosen, paragraphs have topic sentences, etc.

Writing: Grammatical

• Any errors in sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, or spelling are minor; writing is consistently proficient.
• Express ideas in a clear manner to the reader; meaning is rarely vague or incomplete.
• Achieve a solid balance of how much to say: concise when needed, explanatory when needed.
• Use an appropriate tone; separate clearly the objective from the subjective (opinions).
• Be of the required length (other criteria, especially quality rate much higher than this).

Somewhat Proficient: 80-84%

Content

• Demonstrate a proficient level of comprehension of the subject matter for the majority of the assignment.
• Provide synthesis, analysis, and evaluation of information for the majority of the assignment; demonstrate independent thinking.
• Offer some evidence and/or examples to support observations and inferences; the evidence and/or examples are mostly relevant.
• Be accurate and mostly complete / responsive to both major and minor aspects of the assignment.
• Adhere to most guidelines for content.
• Includes a slightly higher proportion of quotes and paraphrasing relative to original work than is appropriate.

References and Citations

• Credit most sources of information, whether quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.
• Support the content and appropriate to the topic.
• Are mostly of acceptable quality, such as peer-reviewed scholarly articles.
• Meet the number of required references (when stated as an instruction).
• Citation format both in the text and the reference list not necessarily in APA or any other recognized format.

Writing: Organization of Information

• Ideas presented in a somewhat logical sequence; may or may not have proficient transitions between ideas.
• Usually but not always provide a clear statement of the significant elements, key ideas, and issues; usually but not always document ideas and assertions.
• Generally stay "on track" and remain focused.
• Exhibit a somewhat proficient organization and design of paragraphs and sentences; ideas and words are somewhat well chosen, paragraphs have topic sentences, etc.

Writing: Grammatical

• Needs more editing to fix moderate errors in sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, or spelling; writing is somewhat proficient.
• Express ideas in a somewhat clear manner to the reader; meaning is at times vague or incomplete.
• May achieve a balance of how much to say: concise when needed, explanatory when needed.
• Use an appropriate tone; the objective from the subjective (opinions) not always clearly separated.
• Be close to or meet the required length (other criteria, especially quality rate much higher than this).

Passing: 75-79%

Content

• Demonstrate a less than proficient level of comprehension of the subject matter.
• Synthesis, analysis, and evaluation of information are not consistently at the graduate level; weak in demonstrating independent thinking.
• May or may not offer some evidence and/or examples to support observations and inferences; the evidence and/or examples may or may not be relevant.
• Shortcomings in accuracy; falls short in completeness and/or responsiveness to major and minor aspects of the assignment.
• Falls short in adhering to some essential guidelines for content.
• Includes a somewhat higher proportion of quotes and paraphrasing relative to original work than appropriate.

References and Citations

• Credit most sources of information, whether quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.
• Support the content and appropriate to the topic.
• Are mostly of acceptable quality, such as peer-reviewed scholarly articles.
• Meet the number of required references (when stated as an instruction).
• Citation format both in the text and the reference list not necessarily in APA or any other recognized format.

Writing: Organization of Information

• Ideas presented in a somewhat logical sequence; may or may not have proficient transitions between ideas.
• Statement of the significant elements, key ideas, and issues sometimes unclear; ideas and assertions not always documented.
• Sometimes stray off track or lose focus.
• Need improvements in organization and design of paragraphs and sentences; too many ideas and words may be poorly chosen, paragraphs may be missing topic sentences, etc.

Writing: Grammatical

• Needs more editing to fix too frequent errors in sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, or spelling; writing needs improvement.
• Some ideas need to be expressed much more clearly; meaning is at times too vague or incomplete.
• May need a better balance of how much to say: does not provide enough explanation at times or sometimes dwells on less important information. 
• Tone is not always appropriate (e.g., too informal); subjective (opinions) may predominate over the objective.
• May fall short of the required length (other criteria, especially quality rate much higher than this).

Barely Passing: 70-74%

Content

• Comprehension of the subject matter is weak or narrow (that is, does not see connections to related information).
• Synthesis, analysis, and evaluation of information are barely at the graduate level; weak in demonstrating independent thinking.
• May or may not offer some evidence and/or examples to support observations and inferences; the evidence and/or examples may or may not be relevant.
• Shortcomings in accuracy; falls short in completeness and/or responsiveness to major and minor aspects of the assignment.
• Falls short in adhering to some essential guidelines for content.
• Includes a higher than appropriate proportion of quotes and paraphrasing relative to original work.

References and Citations

• Credit for sources of information, whether quoted, paraphrased, or summarized is often missing.
• Weakly support the content and not always appropriate to the topic.
• Quality, such as peer-reviewed scholarly articles, is substandard; relies on shallow web pages or texts used in this course or other courses.
• Falls a bit short of the number of required references (when stated as an instruction).
• Citation format both in the text and the reference list falls short of APA or any other recognized standard.

Writing: Organization of Information

• Ideas presented in a somewhat logical sequence; may or may not have proficient transitions between ideas.
• Statement of the significant elements, key ideas, and issues sometimes unclear; ideas and assertions not always documented.
• Sometimes stray off track or lose focus.
• Need improvements in organization and design of paragraphs and sentences; too many ideas and words may be poorly chosen, paragraphs may be missing topic sentences, etc.

Writing: Grammatical

• Needs more editing to fix too frequent errors in sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, or spelling; writing needs improvement.
• Some ideas need to be expressed much more clearly; meaning is at times too vague or incomplete.
• Need a better balance of how much to say: does not provide enough explanation at times or sometimes dwells on less important information. 
• Tone is not always appropriate (e.g., too informal); subjective (opinions) predominate over the objective.
• May fall significantly short of the required length (other criteria, especially quality rate much higher than this).

Not Passing: 0-69%

Content

• Comprehension of the subject matter is very weak or narrow (that is, does not see connections to related information).
• Synthesis, analysis, and evaluation of information are very poor or irrelevant; weak in demonstrating independent thinking.
• Typically, evidence and/or examples not provided to support observations and inferences; the evidence and/or examples often not relevant.
• Shortcomings in accuracy; falls short in completeness and/or responsiveness to major and minor aspects of the assignment.
• Falls short in adhering to many essential guidelines for content.
• Excessive use of quotes and paraphrasing relative to original work.

References and Citations

• Credit for sources of information, whether quoted, paraphrased, or summarized is often missing.
• Weakly support the content and not always appropriate to the topic.
• Quality, such as peer-reviewed scholarly articles, is substandard; relies significantly on shallow web pages or texts used in this course or other courses.
• Falls short of the number of required references (when stated as an instruction).
• Citation format both in the text and the reference list falls short of APA or any other recognized standard.

Writing: Organization of Information

• Ideas often not presented in a logical sequence; may or may not have proficient transitions between ideas.
• Statement of the significant elements, key ideas, and issues often unclear; ideas and assertions poorly documented.
• Often stray off track or lose focus.
• Need major improvements in organization and design of paragraphs and sentences; too many ideas and words may be poorly chosen, paragraphs may be missing topic sentences, etc.

Writing: Grammatical

• Needs more editing to fix too frequent errors in sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, or spelling; writing needs improvement.
• Many ideas need to be expressed much more clearly; meaning is often too vague or incomplete.
• Need a much better balance of how much to say: does not provide enough explanation at times or dwells on less important information. 
• Tone is not always appropriate (e.g., too informal); subjective (opinions) predominate over the objective.
• Fall significantly short of the required length (other criteria, especially quality rate much higher than this).